Griffins Miss on Big Plays, Cougars Advance to Final

Los Alamitos won nine consecutive games, captured the Sunset League title and advanced deep into the Southern Section Division I playoffs by making the big plays at the crucial moments.

The Griffins couldn’t continue the trend Tuesday in the semifinal round, making a pair of costly mistakes in the fifth inning of a 3-1 loss to Capistrano Valley at Blair Field in Long Beach.

“I think when you get into these kinds of tight playoff games, they’re going to turn on a play or two,” Los Alamitos Coach Rob Wigod said. “That’s what happened.”

With the bases loaded and no outs in the fifth, Capistrano Valley’s Justin Demere hit a slow roller off Los Alamitos reliever Adam Sargeant that first baseman Nick Fitzgerald bobbled for an error. What should have been an easy forceout at home turned into a run as the Cougars’ Mike Davis scored from third to make it 1-0.

The next batter, Scott Cheo, hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Ron Prettyman, who could have turned a double play if he had fielded the ball cleanly. Instead, the ball popped out of Prettyman’s glove and he had to settle for a forceout at second. P.J. Mitchell scored on the play, giving Capistrano Valley a 2-0 lead and all the offense it needed.

“They made those couple of errors that hurt them,” said Cougar Coach Bob Zamora, whose team has won 11 consecutive games. “That was the ballgame.”

Travis Becktel followed with an RBI single to score Jeff Scuderi and make it 3-0.

Capistrano Valley (22-8) advanced to its first Division I championship, where it will face Long Beach Poly (23-9), the winner of Tuesday’s other semifinal, , at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

The Cougars’ last title, in 1991, was in Division II.

“It’s like a dream come true for everybody,” said Capistrano Valley starting pitcher Brennan Jackson, who struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings to improve to 3-2.

A pulled back muscle kept Jackson out of the lineup for almost the entire first half of the season.

“Brennan Jackson--I can’t say enough about him,” Zamora said. “He did a great job. He’s done that the last couple of times he’s been out there.”

Jackson was pulled in the sixth only after reaching a pitch count of 102. He had given up a leadoff double to Tad Shimada in the inning and watched him advance to third on Fitzgerald’s fly ball to center. After striking out Prettyman, Jackson gave way to reliever Kellan McConnell, who gave up a run-scoring single to John Hartford but escaped further damage.

McConnell, who’s headed to Santa Clara, retired the Griffins in order in the seventh to pick up his single-season school-record sixth save.

Los Alamitos (19-11) managed to get a leadoff hitter on base in only one other inning. Brandon Tripp doubled to center in the fifth but failed to advance. He tried to take third on Chico Velasquez’s ground ball to short but was thrown out.

Griffin starting pitcher Bryan Desena (6-3) matched Jackson before giving up back-to-back walks and a single to open the decisive fifth.

Still, Wigod said he “couldn’t be prouder of a team than this group. To lose this game is a heart-breaker, but in no way can it overshadow what we did to get here.”