Sonora pushes past Temple City
Sonora pushes past Temple City
Litchfield pitches five-hitter to lift the Raiders to 6-1 victory in Division IV wild-card game.
LA HABRA - Sonora's Jimmy Litchfield ran into some trouble in the late innings of Tuesday’s CIF-SS Division IV wild-card game.
However, Litchfield escaped both situations, and eventually led the host Raiders to a 6-1 victory over Temple City (16-10).
Temple City finished third in the Rio Hondo League. Sonora was third in the Freeway League.
“He’s been our go-to-guy,” Sonora coach Pat Tellers said. “You have to get this one (victory) to get in, and he did an outstanding job for us.”
Litchfield improved to 9-1, allowing one run on five hits.
The Raiders (17-10) will visit Victor Valley in a first-round game Thursday at 3:15 p.m. Victor Valley is the champion of the Desert Sky League.
Sonora led 3-1 in the top of the fifth inning, but Temple City had runners on first and second with one out and its top hitter Dusty Sanderson (.393) at the plate.
Litchfield fell behind in the count, 2-0, before getting Sanderson to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat and the inning.
The Raiders turned around and scored a run in the bottom of the fifth for a 4-1 lead.
“He (Sanderson) had hit the ball hard off of me the first two times,” Litchfield said. “It was huge to get that double play there.”
In the sixth, Litchfield allowed a leadoff single, but responded by striking out two and getting another batter to pop-out to shortstop.”
“As long he keeps the ball down, he’s fine,” Tellers said. “We didn’t panic because we know he’s a ground ball, pop-up kind of guy.”
The Raiders opened the scoring in the second inning when Brian Jew’s RBI single scored Jake Fascitelli, who led off the inning with a double.
Fascitelli added an RBI single in a two-run third inning for the Raiders.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister
