Katella Steals Spotlight With Playoff Upset

You could have filled out 100 bracket sheets or rubbed a crystal ball and you still would not have foreseen this: Katella and Whittier Christian were the stories of the first week of the Southern Section baseball playoffs.

All Whittier Christian did was pound Capistrano Valley Christian, 14-4, in a five-inning wild-card game halted by the mercy rule. Then the Heralds shocked top-seeded Riverside Woodcrest Christian, 10-3, in the first round.

Katella eked out a 3-2 wild-card victory over Troy and then throttled defending Division III champion Villa Park, 6-0, in the first round.

“If you had told me before the season that this was going to happen, I might have wondered what was going on,” Katella Coach Tim McMenamin said. “We were picked fifth in the league. But the kids have come together, and when they come out and practice with intensity, it shows in the game.”

McMenamin said his team, which finished third in the Empire League, was not thrilled when it learned it would have to play a Division II wild-card game. The Knights lacked passion in their playoff opener, which they won only after throwing out a baserunner who tried to stretch a double into a triple.

But the victory propelled the team to sharpen its focus in practices Wednesday and Thursday, and Katella responded with a gem Friday against Villa Park.

Starting pitcher David Hanger threw a two-hitter, hitting one batter, with no walks. One of the Spartans’ three baserunners was erased on a double play as the Knights played their fielding positions to perfection.

“Every ball was caught, every throw was good,” McMenamin said. “It was as good a defensive performance as I’ve seen in my 17 years at school here.”

Katella (19-9) must now turn its attention to today’s game at Boysen Park against Edison (18-8-1), which has won three games in a row. In 1998, the last time the Knights advanced this far, they played the Chargers in the second round and won. But Katella has never made it past the quarterfinals under McMenamin.

Whittier Christian, which played .500 baseball during the regular season, looked unbeatable in its victories. Anthony Villa was three for three with five RBIs in the triumph over Woodcrest Christian, the defending Division V champions. The Heralds (14-12) play at Mojave today in the second round.

Whittier Christian and Katella weren’t the only Orange County teams to fare well in the first round. As a whole, the county went 22-12 Friday, with six of those losses coming at the hands of other county teams.

Teams from the Empire, Olympic, Sea View, South Coast and Sunset leagues are undefeated.

Comeback Kings

Mater Dei’s 11-inning, 8-7 victory over Palmdale in Division II was perhaps the wildest game of the first round.

Trailing, 6-2, with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the seventh, the Monarchs loaded the bases with a triple and two walks. Richard Mercado then hit the next pitch for a grand slam.

“It went from a morgue to bedlam in five minutes,” Mater Dei assistant coach Greg Soper said.

In the ninth, Palmdale pushed across a run, but the Monarchs’ Sergio Santos hit a one-out double, took third on a fly ball by Mercado and scored on Mike Harris’ sacrifice fly to tie it.

Harris then singled home C.J. Cook from second with one out in the 11th for the victory.

Mercado finished three for five with five RBIs and pitched a scoreless 11th in relief to pick up the win after catching the first 10 innings.

“It was wild,” Soper said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

A Farewell to an Arm

To paraphrase Westminster Coach Bill Whiteley, one depressing aspect of the playoffs is that you’re going to lose your last game unless you win a section title.

Another is that you’re going to lose your seniors--win, lose or draw. Whiteley lost one of the best Friday in Freddie Rodriguez, a pitcher who is 145 pounds of heart.

Rodriguez was hit in his left ankle by a line drive late in the Lions’ 6-3 loss to Capistrano Valley but refused to leave the game.

“There was no way he was coming out,” Whiteley said. “He’s the reason people coach.”

Rodriguez pitched well enough to win, giving up only three earned runs as he changed speeds and kept the Cougar batters off balance for much of the game. A couple of Westminster errors were too much to overcome, though.

“We came out and battled,” said Rodriguez, who will play next season at Chapman or Cypress College. “But the key to this game is defense, and we didn’t play defense.”

Looking Ahead

Fountain Valley and Capistrano Valley, which met in the second round of last year’s playoffs, are again on a collision course.

The teams could play in Friday’s quarterfinals if the host Barons can defeat third-seeded Camarillo and the host Cougars can beat Lakewood today. Capistrano Valley topped Fountain Valley, 2-1, last season en route to a section title.

In other Division I games today, Aliso Niguel can make a statement when it hosts fourth-seeded Long Beach Millikan, and second-seeded Esperanza plays at Diamond Bar.

Irvine and Tustin face the toughest matchups of the day. The Vaqueros play top-seeded Newhall Hart in Division II, while the Tillers, looking to erase the memories of last season’s playoffs, meet second-seeded West Torrance in Division III. Tustin advanced to the semifinals last year before having to forfeit all its victories for using an ineligible player.

Correspondent Mark Alai contributed to this report.

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