Esperanza refuses to be stopped by Wilson

LONG BEACH – Esperanza had one base runner tagged out in a rundown between second and third base in the first inning, and another picked off of second base in the second inning.

That was not going to change the Esperanza game plan.

“As Big Al says, ‘Be relentless,’ ” Esperanza coach Mike Curran said, quoting veteran Aztecs assistant coach Al Verdun.

Big Al was right, big time.

Click here for a photo slide show from Tuesday's semifinal action.

Esperanza kept running the bases aggressively, got some clutch base hits, made some highlight-type plays in the field and got strong pitching to beat Long Beach Wilson, 6-2, in a CIF-Southern Section semfinal playoff game Tuesday at Blair Field.

Esperanza (23-10) will play J.W. North of Riverside (26-7) in the Division 1 championship game at Dodger Stadium on Friday at 7:30 p.m. North beat two Orange County teams, JSerra and Canyon, in earlier rounds.

Esperanza’s Aztecs last played in a CIF-SS baseball final in 1998, when they lost to Crescenta Valley at Dodger Stadium in the Division 1 championship game. The previous year, Esperanza beat Long Beach Millikan in the Division 1 final to capture the school’s third CIF baseball championship.

Junior left-hander Scott Mason pitched five innings, allowing one earned run to improve to 7-0. Austin Pettibone, Friday’s likely starter, pitched the sixth and seventh innings.

Ryan Cooper had two hits, including a triple, drove in one run and scored another. Brandon Morones had an RBI single and Ryan Aguilar had two hits and scored a run.

Several players made running or diving catches of pop flies, including shortstop Ryan McCall, first baseman Brad Anderson and catcher Morones.

The most crucial of them all came with Wilson runners on first and second and two outs in the sixth. Wilsons’s Tim Richards hit a slow bouncer that went over Pettibone’s head, Esperanza second baseman Mitch Mossman charged, grabbed the ball and threw side-armed to Anderson who made a fine stretch-and-scoop to finish the third out.

“That charge and flip, to end that inning, that was huge,” Curran said.

Wilson (26-7) had taken a 2-1 lead with two runs in the top of the fourth inning.

Esperanza responded by scoring four in its half of the inning, in what has become typical Aztecs style during these playoffs.

Anderson led off the Esperanza fourth with a single and went to second on Aguilar’s single. McCall’s sacrifice bunt advanced Anderson to third base and Aguilar to second. With the infield drawn in, Mossman hit a chopper to Wilson second baseman Daniel DeWolf, whose throw to the plate skidded past catcher Jake Hardy.

Anderson scored and Aguilar, accelerating all the way, followed Anderson across the plate.

The inning continued when Catalano walked, Cooper singled to drive in Mossman, and Morones singled to drive in Catalano for the fourth run and push the Aztecs’ lead to 5-2.

Esperanza added a run in the sixth when, with two outs, Cooper tripled and scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-2.

Esperanza scored first, in that typical Aztecs way. With Morones on third base and Mitch Christensen on first, Curran signaled for a double steal. Morones and Christensen took off and Wilson catcher Hardy threw to second baseman DeWolf, whose quick return throw to Hardy was on time but the ball slipped out of Hardy’s glove on his sweep tag of Morones, giving Espearanza a 1-0 lead.

Wilson scored twice in the top half of the fourth inning. DeWolf walked, went to third on Soloman Williams’ ground-rule double, and both scored on a double by Stefan Miladinovich to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

Esperanza regained the lead with the four runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Morones said Esperanza won Tuesday like it has all season, and will have to on Friday.

“We knew coming in we had to be aggressive,” he said. “We used our speed to our advantage, and we got a couple of clutch hits.”