El Toro Outplays Capistrano Valley

Last year, El Toro Coach Tom McCaffrey understood why the Chargers lost to University in the Division I wild-card playoff baseball game. He knew his team wasn’t that good.

Likewise, McCaffrey understood why El Toro won its wild-card game this year, defeating Capistrano Valley, 6-2, Tuesday.

“This is a better team,” McCaffrey said.

The Chargers played flawlessly in the field while the visiting Cougars made four errors. And El Toro took better advantage of Capistrano Valley’s Ryan Cheo’s one bad inning than the Cougars did of Brian Hughes’ one bad inning.

The Chargers (19-9) travel to Servite for a first-round game Friday. The Cougars ended the season at 11-15.

Capistrano Valley got to Hughes in the third when Cheo slugged a two-run homer to left to give himself a 2-0 lead. It was his third homer in his last three starts.

But El Toro came right back in the bottom of the third to score four, with plenty of help from the Cougars.

With one out the Chargers loaded the bases on a hit batter, infield single and a walk.

Cheo (4-2) then walked Clemente Bonilla to force in a run. Collin Stiltz drove one deep to center that looked like a home run; outfielder Wes Brown backed into the fence as the ball came down, and the ball was jarred out of his glove for a single to tie the score.

The Chargers then took the lead for good on a fielder’s choice and an error by Cougar shortstop Anthony Bingham, and added single runs in the fifth and sixth.

Hughes (6-0), who struck out seven, walked one and hit a batter, allowed only three more Capistrano Valley runners the rest of the game.

“Although we split our last four games, we’ve been playing very well coming into [the playoffs]” McCaffrey said. “And when your pitcher allows only two free baserunners in the game, you usually have a chance to win.”

Capistrano Valley Coach Bob Zamora, on the other hand, lamented at his team’s self-destructive tendencies.

“We had played well in winning five of our last six to get to the playoffs,” Zamora said. “But today we reverted back to how we played earlier this season, and it killed us.”

In other Division I games:

Fountain Valley 9, Downey Warren 2--Nick Stavale hit two home runs to drive in five runs. Senior right-hander Brian Ackerson pitched seven innings with seven strikeouts for Fountain Valley (16-11), which plays host to Long Beach Millikan on Friday.

Westminster 2, Lakewood 1--Westminster (18-9) will play at Paramount on Friday in the first round. Matt Poling scored the winning run in the 10th inning on a double by Ricky Guerrero. Mike Carey went all 10 innings and gave up only three hits for the Lions.

In Division V:

Capistrano Valley Christian 3, Chino Hills Boys Republic 2--Sophomore Thomas Grove (4-0) pitched seven innings, giving up three hits and striking out eight, as Capistrano Valley Christian (16-3-1) handed Boys Republic its first loss of the season. Josh Emery had two hits and two RBI for the visiting Eagles, who travel to Long Beach St. Anthony’s on Friday.