SOLEDAD — Soledad High’s baseball team may have only won five games in the Gabilan Division, but the Aztecs earned the right to enter the Central Coast Section playoffs.
Soledad defeated North Monterey County, 8-1, last Friday in Castroville in a Central Coast Section play-in game. Vidal Perez had double figures in strikeouts to get the victory.
The Aztecs won their first game of the week, beating the Monterey Toreadors at home, 2-1, and lost 15-2 to host Palma last Thursday.
At home against Monterey, Perez pitched the first five innings allowing no runs and striking out eight. Ethan Sanchez entered the game in the fifth inning to earn the victory.
Jordan Nichols led Soledad with three hits and Daniel Valenzuela added two hits.
In the Palma game, Soledad took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but the Chieftains scored three runs in the bottom of the first, four runs in the third inning, two runs in the fourth and six runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Soledad now heads to Menlo School (Atherton) on Saturday, May 24, at 2 p.m. for the CCS playoffs.
Season ends for other local teams
Greenfield Bruins finished seventh in the Mission Division with a 5-9 record and were 13-9 overall. Last week the Bruins lost 13-3 at Stevenson and 9-1 to the Pirates at home.
In the home loss, Fabian Gonzales, Isaac Ramos and Danny Nava had the three Greenfield hits. Greenfield petitioned for a CCS playoff berth.
Gonzales (7-9, 7-5 in Cypress) and King City (8-16, 8-4 in Cypress) competed in a two-game series last week, with the Mustangs winning the first game, 9-2, in King City and the Spartans securing the second with a seventh-inning comeback, 6-5.
In the first game, Sebastian Lizardi was the winning pitcher for the Mustangs, allowing just two runs and striking out six.
King City held a 6-0 lead at the bottom of the second inning, then the Spartans cut the lead to 6-2 with two runs in the top of the sixth. The Mustangs scored three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth.
In the series finale in Gonzales last Thursday, the Mustangs held a 5-1 lead until the bottom of the fourth when the Spartans began to chip away at the deficit.
Gonzales tied the game late and was just two outs from losing when Sergio Delgado was up with two outs. The count was 3-2 when Delgado swung and struck out, but the catcher didn’t catch the ball, allowing Delgado to run toward first base.
The catcher overthrew the ball, which allowed Delgado to be safe at first. Tony Garcia was next at bat and on the first pitch the ball was thrown into the dirt, which allowed Delgado to steal second base. The pitcher threw another ball into the dirt again and Delgado stole third.
On a 3-2 count, Garcia swung and hit the ball in front of the shortstop and third baseman. As the infielders looked up to make a play, the ball fell to the ground in between them allowing Delgado to score the winning run.
