CIF action on the diamond
Brawley, Calipatria, Southwest boys and Calipatria girls make bids for next round
BRAWLEY — It was win and get in … to double-elimination at least for the Brawley Union High baseball team on Tuesday night here.
The No. 9-seeded Wildcats hosted No. 8 Mater Dei High in a rematch of a previous game and unlike the first go-around, Brawley was able to win when the stakes were highest.
Brawley beat Mater Dei, 5-1, to advance to the second round of the CIF-San Diego Section Division III playoffs.
“This was obviously an important game for us and we had our horse out there and it was nice getting a home game. I think playing Brawley at home is always challenging,” said Brawley head coach Pedro Carranza.
In their first meeting of the season, the Wildcats fell to the Crusaders, 7-3, which caused for a little caution heading into Tuesday’s contest.
“They had a record below 500 but they played some serious teams in San Diego so that record was deceiving … not to mention they beat us this year,” Carranza said. “I was expecting a dog fight and that’s what we got. We just had the clutch hits with runners on base tonight.”
Brawley opened the scoring in the third inning as they begun the inning with a Garrett Mamer double, a Dylan Reina walk and an A.J. Grijalva sac bunt fielder’s choice to load the bases with no outs.
Wildcat junior Alec Gastelo stepped to the plate and drove in two runs on a double down the left field line. Freshman Casey Kline then added a sacrifice fly to give Brawley a 3-0 lead.
“My biggest thing was trying to be nervous, stay calm and think of it as a regular game,” Gastelo said about playing in his first CIF game. “I just felt comfortable in the box, footing was good and swing was good tonight.”
Mater Dei responded with a run of its own in the top of the fourth inning but that would be it.
Brawley’s Robert Brodell toed the rubber and only allowed the one run in his complete game winning effort.
“I was very nervous heading into tonight but I trusted my team with every pitch and that helped me,” Brodell said. “I was feeling great in that inning, I get mad when teams score runs against me so it gives me the drive to do better.”
The drive stuck as Brodell finished the game for his Wildcats to advance.
Brawley added its final two runs in the fourth inning as Grijalva and Gastelo delivered back-toback RBI singles to make it a 5-1 game.
If it wasn’t evident the Wildcats were having fun on the field that feeling was vindicated in the top of the seventh inning as Brodell and his teammates pulled off the decoy pickoff play at second base.
Brodell spun to attempt a pickoff throw to second base and his teammates perfectly acted out a bad throw. The Mater Dei runner took off for third base thinking he had just advanced just to be tagged out after a real throw from Brodell who still had the ball.
Brawley advances to play the No. 1 seed in Coronado at 3:30 p.m. today in Coronado.
“We are motivated right now and the only difference for (today’s game) is that it’s not at home,” Gastelo said.