Simi Starts Slowly but Wins, 5-2

Simi Valley High baseball Coach Mike Scyphers was beginning to wonder if it was going to be one of those days.

The Pioneers were scheduled to play Katella, the host team in the first round of the Southern Section 4-A Division playoffs at Boysen Park in Anaheim. Scyphers had chartered a bus for the trip. But the bus never showed up and Scyphers had to scramble to find another.

Simi Valley finally arrived almost an hour late, and Scyphers watched his team fall behind, 2-0. But the day ended on a good note for Simi, despite only getting five hits. Junior left-hander Scott Radinsky struck out seven of the 10 batters he faced in three innings of relief to lead the Pioneers to a 5-2 victory.

Simi Valley (25-4) will meet Long Beach Poly, a 7-3 winner over St. Paul, in the second round on Tuesday. Katella (17-7) managed only three hits against Pioneer starter Sean Harrigan (12-3) and Radinsky.

“We waited an hour and a half (actually 45 minutes) for a bus,” Scyphers said. “When we finally got here, I thought maybe the team left their game on the bus. We didn’t hit particularly well, but we certainly took advantage of their mistakes.”

Katella allowed one run on a passed ball, another on a bases-loaded walk and a third score when starting pitcher Chris Doll (6-3) cut off a throw to the plate that appeared to have beaten a Pioneer runner to the plate.

Said Knight Coach Tim McMenamin: “I had heard a lot about these guys (Simi Valley), but I wasn’t that impressed. We had runners on, but we couldn’t get the big hit at the right time.” Katella stranded seven runners.

Radinsky (4-0) has emerged as Simi’s relief ace. In his first season, he has appeared in 20 of his team’s 29 games and has a 1.94 earned run average. He’s started three games.

“I enjoy relief pitching,” he said. “I like coming into a situation like I did today with runners on base and the challenge of trying to end the inning.”

The Pioneers tied the score, 2-2, in the third inning and then took the lead with two more runs in the fourth. Left fielder Regan Furcolo had a run-scoring single in the fourth and executed a perfect squeeze bunt in the seventh for Simi Valley’s final run.

“We’re hitting .390 as a team, but we sure didn’t hit today,” Scyphers said. “Who knows, this could be our year. We’ve been to the quarterfinals and the semifinals before, but never to the championship game in my seven years here. We’ve got more wins than any other team, and that’s quite an accomplishment no matter what happens from here on out.”