Canyon Springs holds off Santiago, 7-5, to advance in baseball playoffs
10:00 PM PDT on Thursday, May 15, 2008
MORENO VALLEY - Jose Hernandez never expected to see the field Thursday during Moreno Valley Canyon Springs' 7-5, first-round CIF Division 1 baseball playoff victory over Corona Santiago.
Until the seventh inning, when Hernandez became a most unlikely closer, his sole job was to sit on a hill behind the backstop and retrieve foul balls.
Hernandez and two teammates spent much of Thursday afternoon discussing the game and looking at girls in the stands. That is, until Hernandez was summoned by a teammate with two outs in the final inning and asked to pitch -- with the bases loaded and Canyon Springs up by two.
Three pitches later, he forced Santiago's Shane LemMon to hit a ground ball to the shortstop, and the game was over.
"We tell the players all year that they have to be ready when their number is called," Canyon Springs coach Darious Carter said. "And that's what he did."
Canyon Springs (17-6) and Santiago (16-10) combined to use eight total pitchers, saving nothing to win the first-round game. But the Cougars came through with stellar defense and timely hits when they needed them.
"It was an all-around team effort," Carter said. "From the pitching to the hitting to the players in the dugout. Everybody stayed focused."
Canyon Springs led, 3-1, through five innings but allowed three runs in the sixth to trail by one. Four runs in the bottom of the sixth gave the Cougars a three-run lead heading into the seventh.
Canyon Springs closer David Silvas gave up a single, hit two batters, walked one and allowed a run before he was pulled in favor of Hernandez, normally a middle reliever.
"I wasn't expecting anything, not even to pitch," Hernandez said.
Said Tanner Hemphill, who allowed three earned runs in 5-plus innings as the starting pitcher: "That took a lot of heart what he did. He had one job to do, which was get the ground ball, and he did it."
Reach Michael Becker at 951-368-9528 or mbecker@PE.com