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| Playoff window closing on Tigers |
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| Written by Marc Aceves / Patterson Irrigator / | |
| Wednesday, 30 April 2008 | |
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“Today was kind of the story of our season. For one reason or another, we just can’t seem to win that close game.” — Benji Lozano PHS varsity baseball coach GUSTINE — The 11th hour has seemingly come and gone for the Patterson High baseball team. Barring a complete collapse atop the Western Athletic Conference standings, it appears the Tigers — and their lackluster offense — will miss out on playoffs this year.  Patterson’s Waylon Berrios slides safely under the tag of Gustine catcher Jacob Filippini in the sixth inning to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead in Friday’s game. Despite their opportunistic baserunning, the Tigers would lose, 4-2. Photo by Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator “Today was kind of the story of our season,” Patterson coach Benji Lozano said. “For one reason or another, we just can’t seem to win that close game.” Indeed, the Tigers found themselves in familiar territory. Despite the efforts of Gustine pitcher Ben Griset — who went the distance, allowing just two hits while striking out 16 — Patterson managed to scrap together a late-inning rally, taking a 2-1 advantage into the bottom half of the sixth inning. The lead was short-lived, however, as costly defensive mishaps coupled with further futility at the plate permitted the Redskins to regain control, blanking the Tigers down the stretch. “When you go into the sixth inning with a lead, you expect to have a good shot at winning,” Lozano said. “Gustine came up with some key hits and made some big defensive plays when they had to.” Both teams’ offenses sputtered in the early innings. Patterson’s David Gonsalves nearly matched Griset’s performance on the hill, keeping the Tigers in the contest throughout as he surrendered just six hits while striking out 10. Still, it was Gustine that provided enough opportunistic hitting to eventually get the job done. Gustine’s Jovany Romero led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a crisp single to right field before advancing to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Teammate Tommy Sanfillipo hammered a one-out double off the center-field wall, plating Romero and giving the Redskins a 1-0 lead. The Tigers answered in the top of the sixth inning.  PHS third baseman Chris Chase fires the ball to first. Photo by Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator That’s when Griset made his lone mistake of the game, firing a wild pitch into the dirt and past his catcher. The catcher scrambled to the backstop and tossed an errant ball back toward Griset in a failed attempt to slap a tag on the sliding Reza. The ball momentarily trickled away, allowing Berrios to round third base and dive safely into home for a 2-1 Patterson lead. But the Tigers’ defense broke down in the bottom of the inning. Griset struck out to lead off the inning, but he reached base when Patterson’s catcher allowed the ball to skip past him. Gonsalves calmly responded by retiring the next two batters in order before trouble once again reared its head for the Tigers. Gustine’s Justin Zalinski got a hold of a Gonsalves offering, ripping a pitch deep to right field. What appeared at first to be a very playable ball ended up bouncing just shy of the fence, allowing Griset to tie the game up at 2-2. Griset made quick work of Patterson in the top of the seventh inning, sitting the Tigers down in order. Gustine’s Kory Bettencourt led off the bottom of the seventh with a routine grounder to second base. A rushed throw by the Tigers’ second baseman allowed Bettencourt to reach, posting the winning run. Griset dealt the game’s final blow, stepping in with one out and pelting Gonsalves’ fastball deep and out over the right-field wall. “I knew it was going to go out,” Griset said. “We’ve played through a lot of adversity this year. We jumped right into this season having never practiced with our current coach. Everyone doubted us, but we came out fighting, and I’m really happy with how we’ve been playing. This game puts us one step closer to the playoffs, which is our goal.” Lozano refused to allow Gonsalves to hang his head, saying it is hard to win when the team isn’t fully behind him. The pitcher agreed. “We couldn’t put the ball on the bat,” Gonsalves said. “We just haven’t done a very good job of helping our pitchers. Sometimes we expect our pitchers to go the distance. It can’t always be like that. This is a team sport. We just need to work better under pressure.” Although the postseason may be out of reach for the Tigers, Lozano looks forward to closing the season out strong — starting with supporting Patterson’s arms. “We can’t ask (Gonsalves) for anything more,” Lozano said. “We can’t expect the guy to throw a shutout every time. We have to be able to score some runs for him and to play some defense behind him. He kept us in the game and threw very well for us.” To reach Marc Aceves at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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