It took the third round of the Redondo Baseball Tournament to get together arguably the Long Beach area’s best two teams Wednesday at Wilson High.
Wilson senior Tyler Radcliffe continued his torrid start with a complete game effort, the right-hander allowing just three hits and two unearned runs to lead the Bruins to a 4-2 victory over Gahr.
Radcliffe (4-1) stuck out six, including two in the seventh, and lowered his earned-run average to 1.07. The Bruins are now 3-0 in the tournament but won’t play another tournament game until April 26, with an opponent yet to be announced.
Wilson (13-3) is off to its best start since 2007 thanks to timely hitting and a team ERA of 1.03.
Josh Goldberg laced a one-out double off Gahr (9-3) starter Chris Corral in the bottom of the first inning. Chris Betts and Max Cauble walked to load the bases, but Corral got A.J. Dean swinging and looked to escape the threat.
But Jackson Foss’ two-run, two-out hit gave Wilson a 2-0 lead and Will Semenson’s RBI double in the fifth inning gave Radcliffe all he would need.
“Tyler gave us a senior effort and always comes into every start ready and focused,” Wilson coach Andy Hall said. “It’s always great to get a win against a very good program like Gahr, and we’re playing pretty good baseball. We’re very comfortable with the depth of our pitching staff.”
Gahr got one run in the third when Jesus Salazar came home from third when Jaime Estrada attempted to steal second and the Wilson second baseman dropped the ball. The Gladiators got one more in the fifth on a misplayed fly ball to center.
“I didn’t like our approach at the plate, but give Radcliffe credit for that because he went out there and threw strikes and got us to pop out a lot,” Gahr coach Gerardo Perez said. “We got a pretty good team effort on the mound, but there are things we need to get better at before league starts next week.”
Estrada, arguably the area’s best pure hitter, had two of Gahr’s three hits, and the four-year letterman’s misplayed line shot to center led to the Gladiators’ second run. Corral got the loss, going four innings and allowed four runs on five hits and he struck out four.
Valentin Flores and Nick Guerra both threw scoreless innings in relief for Gahr, which has a home-and-away series with co-SGVL favorite Warren starting Tuesday.
Semenson was the lone Bruin with two hits.
Wilson hosts St. John Bosco today and returns to Moore League play versus Compton on Friday.