Corcoran gets best of Lindsay again

CORCORAN — They tempted fate once by surprising No. 2 Bakersfield Christian in the second round of the Division V Valley playoffs.

Then fate went out the window in the semis, when Lindsay’s baseball squad ran smack into their old ESL foes, Corcoran, in a 2-0 loss Wednesday afternoon.

After averaging five runs per contest in the previous 28 games this season, the Cardinals drew a blank against the third-seeded Panthers, who beat Lindsay for the third time in four tries in 2009.

Lindsay’s Angel Diaz and Gary Baker mustered up the only two hits of the day — both singles — for the Cardinals, who bowed out with a much more successful postseason run than last year’s first-round exit against Coalinga as a ninth seed in Division IV.

“The last three times we played ‘em, we couldn’t get enough offense going,” Lindsay coach Eric Smith said of the 15-0, 7-2 and now 2-0 showings against Corcoran. “We’ve only had about seven or eight hits total in those games. But they’re good — they’ll represent our league well in the Valley finals.”

Panthers pitcher Ryan Luna earned his payback after he dropped one of the Panthers’ six losses, to the Cardinals — 5-3 — back on March 24. Luna struck out seven Cardinals and walked six more and the Panther defense stranded eight on base for the shutout.

Lindsay’s star pitcher Misa Villarreal did his part by limiting the Panthers to just four hits while striking out four and walking three. 

The sophomore who bats fourth in the lineup didn’t have much luck from the plate — a strikeout and two groundouts.

“Our defense was good; we just didn’t get the big hit,” Villarreal said. “(Luna) really changed speeds and he threw a knuckle ball that was hard to hit.”

The Cardinals’ best shot came in the third inning when Nathan Rojas took a hit by the pitcher and Adam Gamboa walked to put two on base. But Donovan Castro’s bunt went long and Luna threw out Gamboa at second.

Rojas tried to sneak home during the play but Corcoran second baseman Mason Gonzales hit catcher Austin Fugate in plenty of time to tag out Rojas, who tried to plow through Fugate at home plate.

“We were right there — 2-0 — the whole way,” Smith said. “We let opportunities get away in the second and third innings and made a couple base running errors before the top of the lineup order was coming up.”

The Panthers earned both of their runs in the bottom of the third when Manny Madrid singled and Gonzales cracked a long double to left field for a 1-0 lead.

Moments later, Fugate drove in Johnny Barrera with a ground-ball single that hit daylight into left field.

“That’s the difference in baseball: the timely hit,” Smith said. “I think if you would’ve told me we would hold (Corcoran) to two runs, I would’ve said we had a good chance of winning.”

Instead, the 21-6 Panthers will face Liberty in the finals and Smith gave his final speech to his group out in right field after the game.

“(We thanked) the seniors for all their hard work, what they contributed this year and how they... put us back on the map this year,” Smith said. “I really think the next two years, we’ve got a lot of success ahead of us.”