Two-Out Hits Help Los Alamitos Win

Los Alamitos, continuing a season-long trend of two-out rallies, scored five times with two outs and had 10 two-out hits during a 7-4 victory over Irvine in the first round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs Friday at Los Alamitos.

“That’s been our thing all year,” said Griffin left fielder Jerod Ball, who had three hits--all with two outs. “I guess we’ve got more spark with two outs.”

It is the first time Los Alamitos (18-9) has advanced to the second round of the playoffs since 1988. The Griffins, who face Downey in the second round, had their last postseason victory in a wild-card game in 1996.

“If you go through our score book, you’ll see we have been scoring a lot of runs with two out,” said first-year Los Alamitos Coach Rob Wigod, whose team has won eight consecutive games. “That’s what you gotta have this time of year.”

Irvine (16-10) trailed 7-1 entering the seventh but made it interesting, scoring three times against Griffin reliever David Reyna. But Reyna got James Whitted and Jon DeVries to ground out to end the game.

The Vaqueros squandered an opportunity in the sixth. With runners at first and second with no outs, pinch-runner Travis Otott was thrown out trying to take third on a pitch in the dirt. One pitch later Chris Lewis lined out to short and Evan Little was doubled up to end the inning.

“We [screwed] some things up pretty good,” Irvine Coach Bob Flint said. “But the playoffs are not going to kill our season.”

The Griffins, who had four consecutive hits with two out in the second inning and three consecutive two-out hits in the fourth, also performed in the field.

Griffin center fielder Ryan Godfrey robbed Chris Lewis of an extra-base hit when he made a diving catch in deep right-center field.