Big inning sparks Pacifica, Gerritse to victory

GARDEN GROVE - Pacifica's Brett Gerritse was a bit nervous at the outset of Thursday's CIF-SS Division II baseball playoff opener.

Gerritse, who was making his first playoff start, quickly found himself trailing visiting Bellflower after the first two innings. But things changed in the third inning.

Pacifica sent 12 batters to the plate and scored six runs, giving Gerritse the boost he needed, and the Mariners went on to a 9-3 victory.

“After that (six-run inning), I was able to loosen up and get back to my game,” said Gerritse, who improved to 10-1. He allowed just two hits after the second inning.

The Mariners (19-6) will face Crespi of Encino in the second round Tuesday. Crespi (17-11) defeated Alta Loma, 6-0, in a first-round game.

Gerritse allowed three runs in the second inning, but shut down the Buccaneers through the rest of his six innings of work on 88 pitches.

Keith Myrwold and Jason Deitrich combined to pitch a scoreless seventh. Josh Ancona took the loss for Bellflower.

Bellflower took a 3-1 lead in the second inning.

Pacifica's comeback in the next inning started with consecutive singles by Nick Lum and Kyle Maury. Daniel Urbina followed with perhaps the biggest at-bat in the inning.

Urbina, the cleanup hitter in the lineup, sacrificed the runners into scoring position. The next four batters drove in runs for Pacifica, the biggest being Johnny Brewer's two-run double, giving the Mariners a 7-3 lead.

“That was the right thing to do,” Pacifica coach Mike Caira said of Urbina's sacrifice bunt.

“After that we were able to get a couple of hits back-to-back.”

Freshman designated hitter Kyle Davis capped the scoring for Pacifica with a two-run home run in the fifth inning.

Brewer was 3 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs scored.  Leadoff hitter Trent Chatterton also had three hits for Pacifica.

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com