Baseball: Birmingham rallies to defeat Kennedy, 4-3, in City Section quarterfinals

“Get on the bus! Get on the bus!” Birmingham Coach Matt Mowry was screaming to his players.

He had a big smile. He was rushing his team so they could get back to school for the 6:30 p.m. graduation ceremony on Friday, and what a story the nine seniors on the team had to tell classmates.

Down, 3-0, in a City Section Division I quarterfinal playoff game to host Granada Hills Kennedy, the Patriots rallied for a 4-3 victory.

“These kids showed some amazing resiliency,” Mowry said. “It was some of the seniors who came through. They wanted to make graduation even more memorable.”

But the rally started in the sixth when freshman Justin Rorick delivered a two-run single to cut the Patriots’ deficit to 3-2.

In the seventh, Ivan Lomeli led off with a single. Then the Golden Cougars’ defense fell apart. On a bunt, pitcher Felix Rubi lost his footing, then threw wildly to first. Pinch runner Nick Schwartz came all the way home to score to tie the game, with the runner ending up on third after another wild throw. Then senior Victor Robles broke the 3-3 tie with an RBI single.

Junior pitcher Jonathan Russomano, who retired nine consecutive batters at one point, got Estevan Rodriguez to ground out with the potential tying and winning runs on base in the seventh. Russomano didn’t walk a batter while striking out three.

Birmingham (16-15) will face Narbonne, a 7-0 win over Granada Hills, in a semifinal game on Tuesday at USC at 6 p.m. The other semifinal will be Chatsworth taking on Palisades at 3 p.m.

“Glad we played today,” Mowry said.

He let his seniors decide whether to play on Friday or delay the game until Saturday.

Now they’re one win away from a trip to Dodger Stadium.