9-Inning Win Gives Simi Valley Upper Deck Title

Simi Valley High finally met--and answered--a challenge in the championship final of the Upper Deck tournament.

The Pioneers staged two late rallies, then held on to defeat Irvine, 7-6, in nine innings Thursday night before more than 2,000 at Cal State Fullerton.

Jeff Michael’s two-out bloop double to right field in the top of the ninth inning drove in pinch-runner Paul Prendeville from first base for the deciding run.

In the bottom half, senior right-hander Bill Treadway (4-0), who started and re-entered in the eighth inning, worked out of a jam with a game-ending double play. With runners at first and second and none out, Treadway retired Chris Greinke on a line drive to right field, then induced David Hongslo to hit a double-play grounder to short.

Simi Valley (14-1) scored four times in the top of the seventh inning--all with two out--to take a 6-4 lead. But Irvine (11-6) rallied for two runs off reliever Trevor Leppard in the bottom of the inning.

With two out and runners at second and third, Simi Valley’s Britten Pond delivered a ground-ball single to left field to pull the Pioneers even, 4-4. Kevin Nykoluk and Ryan Hankins followed with back-to-back doubles to give Simi Valley a 6-4 lead.

However, Leppard, who relieved Treadway in the third inning with Simi Valley trailing, 3-2, could not nail down the win. Leppard yielded a leadoff single to Ryan Jones, then walked Tommie Louie.

Scott Seal followed by hitting a line drive at first baseman Bill Scheffels, but the ball caromed off Scheffels’ glove to load the bases. Ryan O’Toole followed with a sacrifice fly and Chris Greinke followed with a run-scoring single.

Simi Valley scored twice in the top of the first inning. Pond delivered a run-scoring single to drive in Aaron Whitley and later scored on a throwing error by O’Toole.

However, Simi Valley soon trailed for the first time in 10 games after Irvine scored single runs in each of the first four innings on only five hits.

With one out in the third, Louie looped a home run to left field that barely cleared the fence inches inside the foul pole. With two out in the fourth, Eric Sobek tripled home a run to give Irvine a 4-2 lead.

Simi Valley threatened but came up empty in the fourth and the sixth innings. Jason Alcala struck out on a check swing to end the fourth with runners at second and third.

In the sixth, Simi Valley had runners at first and second with one out but Michael hit into a double play. Simi Valley’s first-inning rally ended the same way when Scheffels hit into a double play.