When Brignac Rises to Top of the Order, Cleveland Wins, 8-4

El Camino Real High baseball Coach Mike Maio stood slack-shouldered on his home field after an 8-4 loss to Cleveland on Wednesday and offered a pearl.

“Tough times will last until people do,” said Maio, the Northwest Valley Conference’s cryptic philosopher.

Maio was revealing the key to survival in a conference brimming with talent and unpredictability.

Translated: until one team gets hot, or at least wins two games in a row, no one will go anywhere.

“We’re struggling,” Maio said of the Conquistadores (7-6, 3-5 in conference play), ranked fifth in The Times’ regional preseason poll. “We win one, we lose one. Some days we’re a good team, some days we’re not.”

On Tuesday, El Camino Real blasted Cleveland, 11-1. But on Wednesday, Cavalier shortstop Junior Brignac opened the game with a double off the center-field fence and Vince Kolbe capped a four-run first inning by hitting a three-run home run over the center-field fence.

The Conquistadors answered with two runs in the bottom of the first, but they couldn’t catch Cleveland, in part because they committed five errors that led to three unearned runs.

Brignac was three for three with a walk in his new role as leadoff batter, and he scored three times.

With Brignac getting on base to open the inning each time, Cleveland (8-4, 4-4) added one run in the fifth and three more in the seventh off Junior Avina (2-1), who went the distance and took the loss.

“On Tuesday, we had a lot of walks and [El Camino Real] hit the ball well,” Cleveland Coach Steve Landress said. “Today was a turnaround.”

Those turnarounds have most Northwest Valley teams spinning in circles.

The Conquistadores find themselves tied with San Fernando with the second-worst record in conference play.

The picture is not much brighter for Cleveland, which is tied with three teams at 4-4.

“This is the toughest league in the city by far,” Landress said. “Every team in our conference should be in the playoffs.”

Cleveland right-hander Mike Shultz (5-1), making his first start in nearly two weeks since having minor surgery, scattered seven hits in six innings.

El Camino Real tagged Shultz with four doubles, but it was a pair of singles by Ben Cliffords that drove in three of the Conquistadores’ four runs.

Schultz and Casey Roth each had two hits and drove in a run for the Cavaliers.