By Adam Stites/Garden Grove Journal
Just two more wins and the Pacifica baseball team would’ve been playing in the CIF championship at Dodger Stadium tonight at 7:30 pm (Thursday). Instead their season came to a close on Friday, May 27 with a frustrating 2-1 loss.
It was a pair of seventh inning doubles from Erik Trask and George Papavasiilou that broke a 1-1 tie and swayed the game in Arcadia’s favor. However, it was Pacifica’s inability to take advantage of scoring opportunities that proved to haunt the Mariners at the finish.
“Basically, when it all comes down to it, we couldn’t hit,” said junior shortstop Trent Chatterton. “It comes down to whether you can execute or not and we couldn’t, so we really didn’t deserve to win.”
Despite the struggles for the Mariners batters, pitcher Kyle Davis had a strong performance allowing five hits while pitching all seven innings. Davis finished the 2011 season with nine wins and 76 strikeouts, both figures ranking in the top 10 in Orange County.
It was the Apaches that found themselves on the scoreboard first in the second inning. Brendan Campbell was walked by Davis to lead off the inning and advanced to second after a single from Trask. Both runners were balked into scoring position which allowed for a run to score following a Papavasiilou sacrifice fly.
The Mariners quickly evened the score in the bottom of the second inning when a single from Jordan Ellis allowed Ryan Dickison to score. Unfortunately for Pacifica, the run from Dickison proved to be their last of the afternoon.
The Arcadia pitching combination of KJ Edson and Trask didn’t allow for a single hit in the next four innings. In the top of the seventh, the Apaches finally broke the tie when Trask led off the inning with a double. Two batters later, Papavasiilou earned his second RBI with a double over the head of the Pacifica centerfielder.
With their backs against the wall, Kyle Davis made things interesting for the Mariners when he recorded their first hit since the second inning with a lead off double. Unfortunately for Pacifica, the subsequent batter, Dickison, was unable to lay down a bunt and advance the runner to third. With a 2-2 count, Dickison then popped out for the first out of the inning.
The pop out proved costly for the Mariners as a wild pitch later in the inning likely would’ve scored a run, but instead allowed the pinch running Ricky Brito to advance to third. Instead the Pacifica season came to a close when Trask struck out catcher Cody Bistline, leaving Brito stranded at third.
“We just didn’t execute when we needed to,” said Ellis. Despite the loss, Pacifica still has plenty of hope to hold on to for next year as they will return a large majority of their roster.
“We’ll have a whole team of seniors so of course we’ll want to win the whole thing, but we’re just going to do our best,” Chatterton said.
