–Courtesy Photo / Tuyet Castillo
By Aaron Valdez
Tried as it might, but the Arcadia baseball team was unable to stop Long Beach Wilson’s last rally in the second round of the Division III CIF-SS playoffs, effectively ending the Apaches record-breaking season.
Following a brilliant regular-season run that saw them string together a program record 23 wins, the Apaches were thwarted in their second game of the postseason. Despite being highly ranked in several national polls throughout the season, Arcadia seemed to run out of gas in this extra-inning loss to the Bruins.
After a scoreless stalemate through the first four innings, Arcadia started to pick up a head of steam when Dominick Tello hit a chopper to left field to bring in Jeffery Castillo for the 1-0 lead. The Apaches then went on to open a 4-0 lead in the sixth after Tim Van Kirk smacked a bases-clearing shot to the left-field gap.
However, the Bruins responded in a big way in the bottom half of the frame, leveling the score thanks to some timely hits by Nolen Ornelas, Ryan Guerrero and Cristian Tavares. This sent the game into extra innings, which was where it all came undone for Arcadia.
In the bottom of the eight with runners on second and third, the Bruins took full advantage of a wild pitch that allowed Kyle Clothier to come home for the walk-off 5-4 victory.
