Portola baseball boosts playoff hopes with win over Irvine in 10 innings ...Middle East

IRVINE – Jack Wang made the throw of his life. Yoshi Tsuge pitched the game of his life. And Portola baseball still has a playoff life.

Locked into a must-win situation after committing six errors earlier in the week, Portola rode the arms of two pitchers and a left fielder to defeat Irvine in 10 innings, 2-1, in a key Pacific Coast League baseball game Friday.

Every arm was big, and every hit was big as the teams engaged in a pitchers’ duel that didn’t see a run score until the top of the sixth inning. Both starters were brilliant, but it was Wang’s right arm that stole the spotlight.

With runners at first and second base, two outs, and trailing by a run, Irvine’s Drake Brito lined a single to left field. “You have to make them make the play,” Irvine coach Gabe Cota said. “You can’t hold him at third and count on getting another hit.”

So leadoff batter Evan Tamayo, who had singled to lead off the 10th, was waved home with the potential game-tying run.

“Oh no,” Wang said he thought to himself. “But then I got a perfect roll come right to me, and I thought, ‘I can get that guy easily.’ I was perfectly set up.”

And he did. Wang fired a chest-high missile to catcher Cooper Marinelli, who made the tag at the plate to end the game. The Portola dugout emptied onto the infield and then the outfield to greet Wang, who may have saved their season. At least, for now.

“This game was to keep us in the playoff race, so it was a really big game for us,” said Wang. “Our practice yesterday was more about mentality, focusing on our confidence and forgetting about the last one. This was a must-win game for us”

Portola improved to 8-12 overall, 6-4 in league, and Irvine dropped to 11-12, 6-4.

Portola has never been to the CIF-SS baseball playoffs in the school’s history, but the victory over Irvine pulled the Bulldogs into a second-place tie with the Vaqueros. Although four of the league’s eight teams will receive an automatic playoff berth, there are at least five teams vying for the second, third, and fourth berths. Laguna Beach, despite a 2-1 loss on Friday to Beckman, is pretty much a lock.

“Just being in these games means a lot,” Portola coach Bryan Resnick said. “We’re battling some injuries, some guys are playing positions they’re not used to playing, and so I’m really proud we can be in a game against a good program like Irvine and, at least, battle.

“The other reason this win is so important is it helps if there are any tiebreaker issues.”

The victory gives Portola a split of the two-game series this week. It also gives them a chance to wipe away the exasperation of a 6-2 defeat on Wednesday. It was an ugly game that featured 10 errors – six by the Bulldogs, who allowed six runs on only four hits.

But Friday was much different. Portola was as polished as Lemon Pledge. The Bulldogs didn’t commit an error, though Irvine wasn’t so fortunate; they committed a couple of errors and at least one of them hurt badly.

Portola’s Marinelli reached first on a throwing throwing error to lead off the 10th. Wang drew a one-out walk. Then Brendan Villanueva lined an opposite field single to left field; Marinelli scored from second base and Wang reached third. After a walk to load the bases, losing pitcher Jack Dressendorfer got a fly ball out to end the inning.

Dressendorfer was the fourth Irvine pitcher after starter Adam Valencia allowed only two hits through the first six innings. He walked two and hit three, and struck out five.

Portola scored against Valencia after Marinelli was hit while leading off the sixth. Eli Serrano walked, and Wang bunted them to second and third. Then Caleb Rockwell’s sacrifice fly to right field scored Marinelli.

“It felt amazing to win this game,” said Villanueva, a junior left-hander who pitched the last three innings. “It’s a confidence booster. It shows we can play mistake-free baseball and beat pretty good teams.

“I thought we had it wrapped up in the seventh. In the 10th I was pretty nervous, I’m not going to lie.”

Villanueva survived a one-out double in the ninth, and memorable 10th in which he gave up two hits and hit a batter.

Villanueva’s confidence in closing out the game in seven innings stemmed from the performance of junior Yoshi Tsuge, who stands all of 5 feet 5 inches tall. But Tsuge was big Friday. He gave up two hits in the first inning, and only three hits over the next five innings.

He had the hitters fooled all day, including the seventh. Roshan Patel squirted a single up the middle for a single, and after a strikeout, Nico Macalino popped up down the right field line for a bloop single. Hudson Hall had an infield single to the second baseman to load the bases. Then Tamayo’s fly ball to center scored pinch-runner Brandon Figueroa to tie the score at 1-1.

“I think I had them beat on all three of those hits,” said Tsuge, who was making his third start of the season after injuries wiped out much of the Portola pitching staff. Even Tsuge was battling a hamstring issue, which prevented him from batting. “But I told the coach I really wanted to pitch.”

And pitch he did. Even though he allowed only one run in a complete game victory over St. Margaret’s, he said this was the best pitching performance of his high school career because of the circumstances. It’s a game he won’t forget, and neither will a lot of other players who participated.

“This is a real competitive team and it mattered more,” he said. “I just threw the ball that the coaches called and hit my spots. A lot of guys really stepped up today.”

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