Simi Valley Tosses Away Chances in Title Game

One lousy inning.

Other team won.

No. 1 no longer.

For Simi Valley High right-hander Bill Scheffels, this all meant one big pain.

Scheffels pitched a three-hitter, but it wasn’t nearly enough as Esperanza upset Simi Valley, 3-0, Wednesday night in the Southern Section Division I baseball final before 8,011 at Anaheim Stadium.

Right-hander Marcus Jones of Esperanza threw first-pitch strikes to the first seven batters he faced and escaped his only jam in the seventh with a game-ending double play grounder to short. Jones finished with a two-hitter.

For Simi Valley, ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today, the loss meant no mythical national championship.

And once again, no section title.

Scheffels watched it all from his view on the pitcher’s mound, and all his efforts were made academic by a series of miscues in the first inning.

“I was just trying to shake it off after that,” Scheffels said. “I’ve got a great defense behind me, and I knew they’d back me up.

“I just thought about doing my job, I just thought about the next batter.”

Scheffels (11-2) tossed a gem thereafter. The transfer from Alemany allowed two singles and a double, walked two and struck out two.

After the funky first, Scheffels faced a mere one batter above the minimum and allowed no runner to reach second base.

Yet Simi Valley (27-4) would mount no comeback, despite Scheffels’ crossed fingers.

“I wasn’t worried at all,” Scheffels said. “I was 100% sure we were going to make a comeback.”

Scheffels did. The bats didn’t.

Esperanza (25-5) managed to piece together just enough in the first to make it stand up, however. On the lone run-scoring hit of the game, Esperanza shortstop Poncho Ruiz looped a single into left field in the first to drive home Sal Hernandez and Billy O’Connor.

For Simi Valley and Scheffels, the inning was a tragedy of errors. Scheffels walked Hernandez on four pitches to lead off the inning and O’Connor was safe on a throwing error by third baseman Ryan Hankins, moving the runners to second and third.

Poncho’s punch shot essentially ended it. After the single to left and the throw to the plate by left fielder Denver Smith, Ruiz bolted for second on the throw. Catcher Kevin Nykoluk’s throw ended up in center field, allowing Ruiz to score for a 3-0 lead.

To recap: Three batters, two errors, three runs . . . game, set, ballgame.

Simi Valley Coach Mike Scyphers pulled a Scheffels shuffle this week, choosing him over senior Trevor Leppard because of the former’s better off-speed arsenal.

“I have no regrets at all about throwing Scheff,” Scyphers said. “We just didn’t play catch behind him in the first inning. He’s done a great job for us all season and he’ll do a great job next season.”