Trabuco Hills Back to Winning Ways

It wasn’t as convincing a victory as Trabuco Hills baseball Coach Tim Ellis might have liked, but he’ll take it.

After dropping four straight games and letting the South Coast League title slip out of their grasp, the Mustangs simply needed a victory.

They got it the hard way Tuesday by beating scrappy Aliso Niguel, 4-3, in a Southern Section Division II wild-card playoff game at Trabuco Hills.

Mike Thompson drove in two runs and Brad Boster doubled twice and scored the winning run on an error in the sixth inning. Thompson drove in his two runs on an RBI groundout in the second and a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the fourth.

“It feels good to win again after all that other stuff,” Ellis said. “I thought we would never get off 17 [victories].”

Ryan Brizendine drove in Trabuco Hills’ other run with an RBI single in the fourth.

The Mustangs (18-9) travel to face top-seeded University (22-4) Friday in the first round.

Aliso Niguel (11-15) played much better than could be expected from a sub.-500 team. The Wolverines took a 1-0 lead on an RBI sacrifice fly in the second by Jeremy Burchett. After falling behind, 3-1, Aliso Niguel tied the game in the fifth on Brian Serocke’s two-run home run over the 28-foot-high net in left field. It was his first homer of the season.

“[Serocke] just stepped up and had a clutch hit after the momentum had swung into their dugout,” Wolverine Coach Mike Chapman said. “That was a great at-bat.”