Baseball: Van Nuys earns trip to Dodger Stadium with dramatic walk-off victory

A year ago, Van Nuys won the City Section Division II championship with a 5-4, eight-inning victory over Chavez by scoring two runs.

The Wolves topped that drama on Monday in a Division II semifinal with a 6-5 victory over Huntington Park in which Gerry Macias delivered a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the seventh.

“Anything can happen,” Macias said as he was being drenched with water on his head afterward by teammates.

Huntington Park seemed ready to get the bus engine started for a trip to Dodger Stadium. The Spartans made a dramatic rally in the top of the seventh, getting a two-out, two-run double by Abram Sosa on an 0-and-2 pitch to take a 5-4 lead.

They had their ace, Angel Albanez, on the mound. Albanez got a strikeout and groundout to start the bottom of the seventh. But with two outs, the Wolves launched their comeback. Raul Pacheco drew a walk and Chayden Amaro singled.

Up came Macias, who had played brilliantly in right field and already had two hits on the day.

“When we needed him, he was there,” Coach Alfredo Avila said.

And Macias belted a pitch over the head of Huntington Park’s right fielder, sending home the tying and winning runs and sending Van Nuys to Dodger Stadium for Saturday’s 10 a.m. championship game against Dorsey, an 8-5 winner over South East.