Hitting Stops, So Does Rio Mesa : Division II baseball: J.W. North left-hander Bowen stifles normally powerful Spartans, 4-1, in semifinals.

It’s the way the high school baseball playoffs work: Keep going until you run into a pitcher you can’t hit.

Tuesday was the day the Rio Mesa High baseball team found left-hander Larrie Bowen, who left the Spartans flailing their bats through the air in a 4-1 loss to J.W. North of Riverside in a Southern Section Division II semifinal at Ventura College.

“I thought (Bowen) threw a good game,” Rio Mesa Coach Richard Duran said. “He located well and he threw some good pitches, but generally we have hit the ball a lot better.”

The Spartans (21-7) finished the regular season hitting .347 and averaging more than eight runs per game, but the runs began to run out in the quarterfinals Friday, when Rio Mesa defeated Hart, 1-0, in nine innings.

Bowen, who has 10 of the Huskies’ 17 victories, gave up four hits and three walks in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out seven, including three in a row after the Spartans had put runners at first and second with none out in the second inning.

“He was pretty good but we couldn’t hit him,” Rio Mesa right fielder Chad Snyder said. “We couldn’t wait back (on his curve ball). We just weren’t there 100% at the beginning. If we would have been, we would have had him.”

The Spartans didn’t figure out Bowen until the seventh inning, and even then they weren’t hitting him hard. Vince Roman led off the inning by reaching on a dropped popup by first baseman Kris Hiraoka. After a flyout, Marcus Yasutake walked and Johnny Espinoza drove in a run with a looping single to right field.

North Coach Tom Kennedy then pulled Bowen in favor of Justin Solis, who retired Steve Arneson and Snyder to record his fifth save.

The Huskies (17-11), took advantage of the usually brisk Ventura winds and some Rio Mesa misplays to collect all the runs they would need against starter Don DiDomizio (6-2).

Pat Hanchee walked to lead off the first, then took second when third baseman Eric Flores made a wild throw trying to double him off after a lineout. The error was costly, because Hanchee scored on Adam Kennedy’s ground-rule double.

In the third, North cleanup hitter Jimm Bowen lifted a two-out bloop into left field. The wind made it a difficult play for left fielder Charlie Boch, and the ball dropped, allowing two runs to score.

DiDomizio, who had struck out 13 in a complete-game shutout in his last start, was lifted after 3 2/3 innings. He was charged with all four runs.

“Don struggled and he’d be the first to tell you,” Duran said. “He just didn’t have it, for whatever reason. Stuff, I mean. He had it in the heart. He just didn’t have the stuff.”

Junior left-hander Richard Soliz, who threw a nine-inning shutout Friday against Hart, finished the game for DiDomizio. Soliz pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings, giving up only two hits.