SOUTHERN SECTION 3-A BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : La Mirada Advances by Edging Tustin, 3-2

La Mirada High School’s baseball team followed its well-worn method of operation, gaining a come-from-behind, 3-2 victory over Tustin in the semifinals of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs Tuesday at Rancho Santiago College.

La Mirada scrapped and hustled and never gave up, advancing to the championship game for the second time since 1988.

The Matadors’ gritty play was enough to slow a heavy-hitting Tustin team that was averaging 12 runs per game in the playoffs. La Mirada starter Mike Greenlee downloaded the Tillers’ powerful lineup, giving up only a bunt single over the final four innings to improve his record to 12-0.

La Mirada (21-5-2) advances to play Ontario, an 8-4 winner over Central in the other semifinal, in the 3-A title game Saturday at Anaheim Stadium. Tustin ends its season 20-8.

Unlike the Matadors’ 1988 championship team which belted 36 home runs, this year’s model is bent on making its own breaks.

Trailing, 2-1, with two outs in the sixth, La Mirada went to work. The Matadors took advantage of a breaking ball by Tustin starter Andy Gonzales that didn’t break far enough and an outside fastball that wasn’t far enough outside.

The former pitch hit Mike Mischetti in the helmet; Frank Cicero hit the latter into right-center field for a triple, scoring Mischetti.

“I know Andy would like to pull back those two pitches and throw them again,” Tustin Coach Vince Brown said.

Steve Pereria, the next batter, singled just out of the reach of shortstop Zack Elliott, scoring Cicero for a 3-2 La Mirada lead.

Greenlee, who had eight strikeouts, allowed one walk and seven hits. He retired Tustin in order in the sixth and seventh innings.

Afterward, Brown praised La Mirada’s determination.

“That team never gave up,” he said. “They worked hard to get that win. I thought we had pretty good control of the situation (going into the sixth).

“We didn’t get the hits when we needed them. We had the bases loaded at one point (in the second inning) and we could have broken it open.”

Instead, Greenlee wriggled out of trouble and Tustin had only a solo home run by Ben Munoz to show for three hits in the inning.

In the first inning, La Mirada shot itself in the foot as its gambling game plan wrecked what could have been a big inning.

With Chris Wren, who had walked, at third base and Mark Harrington, who had doubled, at second, Mischetti tried a suicide squeeze. But he missed the pitch and Wren was an easy out for Tustin catcher Brian Igoe.

Mischetti then singled down the left-field line, scoring Harrington. Always hustling, Mischetti tried for second but was thrown out by left fielder Geoff McManus.

In the end, two walks, a double and a single produced just one run.

“If we wouldn’t have won, I’d be thinking about that inning until next February,” La Mirada Coach Tony Corrente said. “But that’s the style we play. We live and die by that style.”

In the third, Tustin took a 2-1 lead on Nick Cantu’s run-scoring bloop single to center. The lead held up until Pereria’s run batted in single in the sixth.