Mission Prep’s Alex Detz is congratulated after hitting his second two-run homer in the fourth inning of the Royals’ 6-4 quarterfinal playoff win against McFarland on Thursday. Mission Prep plays top-seeded Fowler in the semifinals.
Mission Prep finally used its friendly confines to gain a home-field advantage, but if everything plays out as expected, the Royals won’t see their on-campus field again the rest of the season.
In a 6-4 CIF-Central Section DivisionVquarterfinal win over visiting McFarland on Thursday, Mission Prep hammered three home runs, using short porches in both left and right field for the first time all year.
Alex Detz pulled two fastballs over the fence in right, which sits about 290 feet from home plate. Going back-to-back with Detz in the fourth inning, Bob Mott hit an opposite-field drive 285 feet and over the fence in left.
It was the first time the Royals had hit consecutive homers this season and it was the first multi-homer game for the team or an individual.
“Normally, we just drive the gaps and that’s our game,”Mott said. “We haven’t scored too much recently, and this is big power today.”
The slugging was a welcome surprise, considering Mission Prep was averaging just two runs per game in its past six.
But most of the buzz after the
game surrounded not just the Royals home run swings but their semifinal opponent, one that’s ousted them from the playoffs each of the past two seasons.
“We’re usually not a power team,” said Detz, who hit his team-leading fourth and fifth home runs of the season, “but it was nice to finally have some power in our lineup. Hopefully it’ll continue against Fowler.”
With three pitchers already committed to NCAA Division I colleges, the Redcats are regarded as the top Division V team in the state.
They beat Mission Prep 2-0 two years ago in the quarterfinals and 3-1 last year in the semis. Fowler also topped the Royals 8-0 in San Luis Obispo on April 26 this season.
The Redcats, who beat Carruthers 7-2 in another quarterfinal game Thursday, are definitely the favorite going into Tuesday’s semifinal in Fowler.
“Hopefully, they’re a little overconfident,” Royals coach Gerry Detz said. “I think we’re ready for this. I think we’re playing better baseball.”
McFarland seemed not to expect the power surge from the Royals.
After taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by Heath Pierson, the Cougars gave up an infield single and stolen base to Mission Prep’s Dylan Morrow, and Detz put his team up 2-0 with a towering home run to right.
Not a moment after Detz crossed the plate and just two batters into the game, McFarland coach John Wenger replaced starting pitcher Bernardo Palacio with reliever Pedro Rodriguez.
“I think they said, ‘Oops, they’re better than what we think they are,’ ” Gerry Detz said. “We felt confident the rest of the way, and that’s why I think it was a little disappointing we didn’t score more runs.”
With two shutout innings by Palacio, the Cougars crept within 3-2 with a solo home run by catcher Eliseo Garza.
To start the fourth, Mission Prep went with hard-throwing Morrow on the mound, and put up three runs on another two-run home run by Detz and the ensuing solo shot by Mott, which made the score 6-2.
Effectively wild, Morrow shut McFarland out for three innings, earning the win, but things got interesting when Mott took the mound for the first time in nearly a week and a half to close out the game in the seventh.
After striking out pinch-hitter Frank Garcia on three pitches, Mott gave up a walk, a single and another walk before walking in a run.
With the go-ahead run at the plate, Mott struck out Garza with the bases loaded before walking in another run and striking out Steven Ramos to end a wild seventh inning and the game.
“I got the first guy out pretty easy, and the wheels kind of fell off after that,”Mott said. “I was dropping my arms a little bit…I was getting fatigued.
“But a win’s a win. I’ll take it. I don’t care about walks or anything like that.”
————
North County Christian 5, Oakwood 3
Caleb Katches brought home two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning after he lined a double over the left fielder’s head to give the Crusaders a two-run lead they would not relinquish in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division VII playoffs.
North County Christian (13-8) added one more run in the inning when Jared Kahler singled to bring Katches home in the Crusaders’ first nonleague win of the season.
Josh Feld earned the complete game win, bringing his record to 6-1 on the season. Feld threw 96 pitches, 70 of which were strikes. Feld gave up 10 hits and did not record a strikeout.
Feld had some solid defense backing him up. Senior left fielder John Thompson made a crucial play in the fourth inning when he caught a hooking line drive to save at least one run.
The Gorillas (11-9) won their first post-season matchup 14-2 against Thatcher of Ojai in a wild-card game and finished the regular season in third place in the Liberty League.
Katches finished the game 2 for 3 at the plate with a double and two RBI.
The Crusaders now await the winner of the Upland Christian and Ventura County Christian matchup
— Tribune staff contributed to this report
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