Baseball: Success in Tight Games Fueling Apaches' Playoff Run

Arcadia was a mere three outs away from securing a spot in Tuesday’s semifinals against Etiwanda when suddenly its one-run lead was under attack.

Pacifica’s Kyle Davis stood at second after a leadoff double to start the bottom of the second, and the Mariners had at least three opportunities to tie the game or earn a dramatic walk-off win.

On the road and in front of a hostile crowd, it would have been easy for the Apaches to unravel. But instead of buckle under the pressure, the Apaches stood their ground.

Erik Trask got the next three batters out, sending Arcadia to the semifinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 baseball playoffs for the first time since 1987. The Apaches host Etiwanda of the Baseline League on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. for the right to play in Thursday’s divisional championship game at Dodger Stadium.

And if Tuesday’s game against Eagles comes down to the final couple of outs, that’ll suit the Apaches just fine. Throughout the season they’ve excelled in situations with little to no margin for error, riding the combination of their strong pitching, solid defense and timely hitting to a bevy of close wins.

Arcadia is 6-1 in games decided be one run this year, and two of those wins have come in the playoffs. The Apaches beat La Sierra, 4-3, in the first round and then clipped Pacifica by a 2-1 margin in the quarterfinals last Friday.

“I think we have a little bit more confidence in ourselves when the game is close,” Arcadia coach Nick Lemas said. “We’ve been in battles. We’ve learned to win those close games and that has translated into that confidence.”

Oddly enough, Lemas traces that confidence back to the Apaches’ season-opening loss to South Pasadena. In that game, Arcadia rallied back from a four-run deficit to tie the game and force extra innings.

The Apaches then won their next game, 7-0, and ripped off a streak of three straight one-run wins, setting the tone for their success the rest of the year in tight games.

All that experience in pressure-packed moments — when every pitch and every at-bat could determine the game’s outcome — has paid off enormously in the Apaches’ playoff run. Against La Sierra, the Arcadia’s KJ Edson successfully closed out the final innings after the Eagles rallied to within one in the fifth.

And against Pacifica, shortstop Tyler Dominguez had the wherewithal to turn a couple of crucial double plays as the Apaches scrambled to hold off the Mariners.

Lemas said that all those one-run wins from earlier in the season has helped keep his players from getting rattled during some of the more precarious moments during the postseason.

“I think the kids are used to it now,” Lemas said.

In the past, however, that wasn’t the case.

Arcadia went 2-2 in one-run games last year, and the Apaches went 1-2 the season before that. Two of those four losses came in the opening round of the playoffs: Arcadia lost 1-0 to Placentia Valencia in 2010 and fell 2-1 to Santa Barbara in 2009.

But where those teams faltered, this year’s squad has thrived, and that knack from coming up big in key moments has carried them to just one game from playing for a title at Dodger Stadium.

Standing in the Apaches’ way is a red-hot Etiwanda squad that stumbled to a 6-9 finish in the Baseline League but caught fire in the playoffs. The Eagles outslugged Tustin for an 11-6 win in the wildcard round and then beat Trabuco Hills, Chino Hills and Redlands to advance to Tuesday’s game.

The Eagles are led at the plate by senior Jake Gallaway, who’s hitting .369 this year and went 3-for-4 with two doubles in the quarterfinals. Justin Davis is Etiwanda’s top pitcher with a 3.59 ERA in 66 1/3 innings.

“They don’t have the best league record but obviously they’re doing something right,” Lemas said. “When a team catches fire and starts playing well together (the regular season is) kind of thrown out the window.”