YORBA LINDA – The Yorba Linda baseball team came from behind twice and scored all but one of its runs with two outs in an 11-7 victory over Serra of Gardena in a CIF SS Division 3 quarterfinal Friday at Yorba Linda High School.
The Mustangs (21-9), who are ranked No. 9 in the division, will play at No. 4 Great Oak of Temecula in the semifinals Tuesday.
Prior to this season, Yorba Linda had never advanced past the wild-card round of the playoffs.
The top four hitters in the Mustangs lineup drove in every earned run Friday.
No. 2 hitter Blake Wink went 3 for 4 with an RBI, No. 3 hitter Shane Curren was 1 for 4 with a double and two RBIs and No. 4 hitter Dylan Strong was 2 for 4 with a double and three RBIs.
Serra (18-12), the No. 1 seed in the bracket, also got most of its run production from the top of its lineup. No. 2 hitter Miles Jenkins went 3 for 4 with a double and four runs scored, and No. 3 batter Jordan Brown went 3 for 4 with a double, an RBI and a run scored.
Yorba Linda starting pitcher Bryce Vogel struggled with control in the first inning and the Cavaliers were able to capitalize.
Jashia Morrissey led off the game with a walk and later scored from third on a wild pitch for the game’s first run.
Jenkins was hit by a pitch and scored on a single from Damone Hale to give the Cavaliers a 2-0 lead.
In the third, Jordan Brown doubled home Jenkins to make the score 3-0.
The Mustangs tied the score with two runs in the third and a run in the fourth, but had stranded eight runners through four innings.
Yorba Linda didn’t strand many runners after that.
After Serra scored two in the top of the fifth to take a 5-3 lead, the Mustangs sent nine batters to the plate in the bottom half of the inning. Ricky Lane, Wink, Curren and Strong delivered consecutive RBI hits with two outs.
“It hasn’t been unusual this year,” Yorba Linda coach Matt Stine said of the two-out rallies. “It started early in the year. We’ve always come back and it’s been very obvious to these guys. They know that when there are two outs, we still have an opportunity. Today was a perfect example.”
Yorba Linda led 8-7 before adding three runs in the sixth, one on a wild pitch, another on a passed ball and the third on a bases-loaded walk.
Mustangs pitcher Garrett Paschal, who had struck out two hitters in the sixth to kill a Serra rally, struck out the side in the seventh to secure the victory.
“We don’t give up easy,” Strong said. “To have it happen with two outs and get all those runs in is unbelievable.”
