Westchester Squeezes Out 6-5 Win in Ninth : Baseball: Bunt drives in winning run against Woodland Hills East. Westchester plays Claremont today for trip to American Legion state tournament.

Dana Harrison drove in a run with a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the ninth inning to lead Westchester to a 6-5 victory against Woodland Hills East in an elimination game of the American Legion Area 6 playoffs Saturday night at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Westchester (22-4) will meet Claremont at noon today for the championship. If Westchester wins, the teams will meet again 30 minutes later to decide which team will advance to the state tournament, which begins Saturday in Yountville.

In its first game of the day, Westchester nearly blew a 10-run lead, but held on for an 11-10 victory against Ventura.

Westchester trailed, 5-4, going into the bottom of the ninth of the second game. With one out, pinch-hitter Rod Washington walked. Robert Cox, the winning pitcher, drove in pinch-runner Terrance Woodard with a triple to right. Harrison followed with a perfect bunt.

The comeback overshadowed what could have been a controversial loss.

In the top of the fifth, Woodland Hills East’s Warren Stewart popped up a bunt. Westchester catcher Jose Rosales dropped the ball, but then started a apparent around-the-horn triple play.

The umpires ruled that Rosales had dropped the ball intentionally, sending the base runners back. Woodland Hills East subsequently scored three runs in the inning and took a 5-0 lead.

Westchester rallied with four in the bottom of the inning, but could not score again until the ninth.

Cox (4-0) pitched a complete game, giving up three earned runs and 10 hits.

The first-game victory was the second in a row Westchester had nearly blown.

A day earlier, the team had taken a 5-0 lead against Beverly Hills, only to win 6-5.

“Our team never does it the easy way,” Westchester Coach Todd Frelinger said.

Westchester took leads of 10-0 in the third inning and 11-2 in the fifth, but Ventura came back with three in the bottom of the fifth, four in the sixth and one in the eighth. Ventura had two runners in scoring position in the eighth and a runner at second as the game ended.

“(Ventura) is a good team,” Frelinger said. “They showed a lot of heart coming back. It’s very easy to quit in that situation.”

Robby Green (6-2) pitched the first five innings to earn the victory for Westchester. Ventura rallied against Jelani Ferguson and Andrew Spencer.

Ventura reliever James Melcher was able to clamp down on the Westchester batters. He gave up three earned runs in seven innings. In the last four innings, he gave up only one hit and one walk.