Western Ousts Second-Seeded Santa Margarita

Western defeated second-seeded Santa Margarita, 2-1, in a Southern Section Division III baseball playoff game Tuesday at Glover Stadium.

Shortstop Miguel Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly with one out in the bottom of the sixth scored pinch-runner Matt Ripley with the winning run to decide a battle between pitchers Brandon Herbert of Western and Randy Vanderplow of Santa Margarita.

Western (19-7-1) will play Orange League rival Brea Olinda on Friday. Santa Margarita finished its season 21-7.

Herbert (8-1), who pitched five innings on Friday, gave up four hits and an unearned run to one of the county’s better hitting lineups. He walked one, struck out eight and twice stranded runners at third with less than two out.

“Usually he doesn’t have the kind of arm that lets him bounce back that quickly,” Western Coach Robert Harrison said. “Today was the gutsiest performance I’ve seen. He was all heart today.”

Herbert wasn’t interested in individual glory. “This was a team win today,” he said. “No one person won the game. We played team ball, made the plays we had to, and got the momentum late in the game like we usually do.”

Vanderplow (8-1), who gave up eight singles, walked one and struck out three, was also tough. But neither he nor Santa Margarita--which began the season ranked No. 1 in the county--could avoid the early playoff exit.

“Tip your hat to Western,” Eagle Coach Tip Lefebvre said. “It’s no disgrace to lose to them, and I don’t think we’ll be the last team to do so.”

Santa Margarita took a 1-0 lead with two outs in the third when Jeff Kuno singled, went to third on a two-base error by Pioneer outfielder Will Ruffin’s and scored when Western second baseman Matt Stanley fumbled Nick Mosich’s grounder.

But Ruffin helped make up for his mistake in the fifth when he reached first on Kuno’s error at short, was sacrificed to second and tied the score on a single by Alex Taylor.