Southern Section Baseball Playoffs : DIVISION II : Garcia Roughed Up; Buena Park Falls to Upland

Sooner or later, Buena Park’s Alfredo Garcia was going to need help. The time finally arrived, but no one was there to lend a hand.

Upland turned a tight game into an easy 6-2 victory in the second round of the Southern Section Division II playoffs Tuesday at Buena Park. The Highlanders did so off Garcia, one of Orange County’s top pitchers.

Garcia was handed a 1-0 lead to protect in the fourth inning. Instead, he was knocked around for six runs and nine hits. He had given up only six earned runs this season.

“Alfredo is our ace,” Coach Dave Meggison said. “He just didn’t have it today.”

And the Coyotes, who had to manufacture runs this season, were unable to go into mass production.

Allen Martinez baffled Buena Park batters through six innings. They managed only two hits off him and only one after the second inning.

Greg Cabral gave the Coyotes (18-7) a 1-0 lead with a ground-ball single in the second. They might have gotten more, but Alfonso Flores hit into an inning-ending double play with two runners on.

The Coyotes spent the rest of the day flailing away at Martinez’s curveball. The only runners he allowed between the third and sixth innings came on three errors and a walk.

Martinez (7-2) struck out eight, including four in a row at one point. He struck out Jay Hardin to start the seventh, then gave up a single to John Darrow before Dave Coggin came on in relief.

“Allen just keeps hitters off balance,” Coach Michael Alfonso said. “If he’s around the plate, he’s tough to hit.”

The same couldn’t be said for Garcia (10-4) Tuesday.

Flores started and had a shutout through three innings. He left with two outs in the sixth, after nearing his 75-pitch limit. Garcia relieved, as he has done many times this season. This time the tag-team pitching combination got tagged.

Garcia had thrown three consecutive shutouts, including a five-hit, 2-0 victory over Brea-Olinda in the first round. But he was in trouble the moment he entered the game.

Upland has seven players back from a team that reached the quarterfinals, all of whom are hitting better than .300. The Highlanders didn’t really hit Garcia hard, but they hit him.

“Really all we got was a bloop here and a ground ball there,” Alfonso said. “We hit some things that had eyes.”

The Highlanders (20-4) scored two in the fifth on singles by Tim Ford and Craig Delyser. They scored four in the sixth, two on a triple by Delyser.

“We’ve lived all season on Alfredo,” Meggison said.

In other Division II games:

Canyon 2, Paramount 1--First baseman Josh Guiterrez drove in Casey Wilson with the winning run on a base hit in the fourth inning and pitcher Richard Lansner (6-3) pitched a three-hitter for Canyon (16-11). Canyon will meet Temecula Valley, a 7-3 winner over Chino Don Lugo, in Friday’s quarterfinals. Paramount ends its season 16-12.

Orange 4, Riverside Arlington 0--Eric VonBehren pitched a three-hitter and the Panthers scored three runs in the first on one hit and five walks. Orange (15-12) advanced to the quarterfinals to play West Covina South Hills, a 3-2 winner over Newhall Hart. Arlington ends 18-10.

Redondo Beach Redondo Union 7, Valencia 6 (8 innings)--The Tigers blew a 4-0 lead and lost at Redondo. Valencia led, 4-0, after three innings and, 6-5, going into the bottom of the seventh. The Tigers end 15-11.