Cypress Stays Loose, Avoids Elimination
Cypress hardly looked like a team needing a victory to keep its season alive Saturday afternoon at Cerritos in the second round of the Southern California baseball playoffs.
The Chargers were coming off a 4-1 loss to Cerritos earlier Saturday preparing to face Imperial Valley in an elimination game.
Minutes before the second game, many of Cypress’ starters lined up along the left-field line--in a football formation. Left fielder-turned-quarterback Mark Selway took the snap, faked a handoff, and dashed around left end for an imaginary touchdown.
Cypress started scoring for real once the game started and beat Imperial Valley, 11-0, behind the five-hitter by freshman right-hander Rick Clagett.
“You’ve got to be loose,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said. “There’s no reason to be tight now. Now, we’re got to find a way to get it done.”
Cypress plays Cerritos at 11 a.m. today and needs to win twice to advance to the State tournament.
Clagett, making only his third start of the season, faced only four hitters over the minimum, and more importantly gave Cypress’ bullpen some needed rest going into a possible doubleheader today.
David Trentine had two doubles among his three hits and drove in two runs. Selway had three hits, including a double, and scored three times.
Jeremy Booth started the scoring with a two-run double in the first inning for the Chargers (34-14-1). Mario Opipari also drove in two runs for Cypress.
Cypress had no such offensive exploits in the loss to Cerritos. Joe Abell, a sophomore left-hander, held the Chargers to one run on four hits, but hit Israel Gonzalez to start the ninth.
He was replaced by Jason Marr, who struck out Selway and Brooks Morris, but hit Keith Ginter. Opipari chopped a single to right to load the bases.
Marr then threw a called strike to Augie Ojeda, who was charged for another strike for stepping out of the batter’s box after the first pitch. Marr then earned his 11th save by getting Ojeda to ground out.
“That’s the rule and he was out of the box,” Pickler said. “So it doesn’t bother me [that the umpire called it then].”