SOUTHERN SECTION BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : DIVISION III : La Quinta’s Seven-Run Fifth Turns Back Woodbridge

On a day when the La Quinta baseball field looked its best, the Aztecs staged an equally impressive rally to beat Woodbridge, 7-5, in a Southern Section Division III game Tuesday in Westminster.

The parents of La Quinta’s players helped the field’s appearance by putting green dye on the infield grass early Tuesday to give it a uniform look.

But after Woodbridge scored a run in the first, two in the second and two more in the third, the field’s appearance was of little interest to La Quinta’s players or fans.

But after scoring seven runs in the fifth, the field and the game again looked good to the Aztecs.

La Quinta (23-5), which was ranked eighth in the final Orange County poll, will play Ontario in the quarterfinals Friday. Woodbridge (24-5) was ranked fifth in the poll.

“I think you saw the two programs that have been the most surprising in Orange County this year,” La Quinta Coach Dave Demarest said. “(We) could have given up after being down but (we) didn’t. This is a big day for La Quinta.”

Sean Carlson singled between walks to C.J. Livernois and Corey Fox to load the bases with no outs for La Quinta in the fifth. Anibal Delacruz singled up the middle for the first run.

Woodbridge Coach Vince Brown removed starter Chris Talbott and reliever Mike Guymon got Jim Livernois to ground out, bringing in the second run to score.

Bobby Ruiz singled up the middle and the lead was cut to 5-3.

Joe Linch, the designated hitter, put La Quinta ahead with a three-run home run well over the right-field fence that set off a wild celebration at the plate. It was his first homer of the season.

Zane Parkin followed with his fifth home run, giving the Aztecs a 7-5 lead and prompting another party at the plate.

After that, it was up to La Quinta starter Jim Livernois to finish strong after a shaky start.

In the first inning, he had hung a breaking pitch to Ryan Lemmon, who homered over the fence in left. Matt Lovenduski had a sacrifice fly and Shea Stone followed with an RBI single, and Woodbridge led, 3-0, after two innings.

Lemmon walked to start the third and Gabe Gifford homered to right-center one out later, giving Woodbridge a 5-0 lead.

But Demarest elected to stay with Livernois and he came back to strike out the next two batters.

He gave up nine hits, but only three in the final four innings. He had six strikeouts, including Scott Coker to end the game. Livernois is 12-2.

“He just gutted it out,” Demarest said. “That was an all-county performance right there.”

In other Division III games:

Tustin 6, Walnut 5--Pinch-runner Mario Netto scored the winning run in the fourth on Tim Wilson’s groundout for the host Tillers (19-9-1). Ronnie Hall pitched six innings of relief to earn the victory for Tustin, which plays Bishop Amat in the quarterfinals.

Irvine 10, Corona 7--Irvine’s Eric Sobek, who earned his sixth save this season, hit a bases-loaded triple in the sixth. Second baseman Chris Greinke had two RBIs on a double in the third for Irvine (22-7), which plays Pico Rivera El Rancho in the quarterfinal round.