By Scott Galetti, Staff Writer
SAN GABRIEL -- When it comes to playoff baseball, fundamentals are extremely important.
San Marino High School's baseball team stuck to the basics in Thursday's CIF-Southern Section Division V first-round contest at Gabrielino.
Throw in a solid performance by senior right-hander Nick Wilson, and the Titans are on their way to the second round following a 5-1 victory over the Eagles.
David Ramirez had a pair of hits and drove in a pair of runs to lead the Eagles.
"It's big because of No. 3 in league against No. 1 and just the extra motivation," Ramirez said. "Last year we finally got to CIF after a long drought and now we're moving on, so it feels good."
San Marino (16-6-1), the Rio Hondo League's third-place team, advanced to Tuesday's second round and will host Campbell Hall, which beat Grace Brethren 12-4.
Gabrielino, the Mission Valley League champions, committed five errors and finished the season at 18-8.
"At the end of the day, when you see five errors compared to one, it's tough," Gabrielino coach Joe Laski said. "It's tough to win a baseball game when you make that many errors, and (San Marino) really did a good job in all three aspects of the game: pitching, defense and offense."
The game featured a matchup of two of the area's top pitchers as Eagles starter Angel Cabral (8-6) went head to head with Wilson (9-1).
Wilson worked all seven innings and allowed a run on six hits to collect the win.
"I was just throwing strikes and letting my defense because I know they're always there to back me up," said Wilson, who struck out four, including one of Matt Izumida to end the game. "A lot of fans came out to support us and it was a great way to get over the hump in the first round."
San Marino loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the third, but Cabral got Chandler Caldwell to pop out to short to end the threat.
Gabrielino broke the ice with a run in the bottom of the third inning.
Nick Hovermale lined a double to the gap in right-center field to score Stefan Jarrin, who reached on a two-out, infield single, to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
The Titans came right back to take the lead in the top of the fourth. James Brunette singled, went to second on runner's interference and eventually scored on a double play off the bat of Peter Brunette. Michael Thompson reached on an error, stole second and scored on an error.
"Even though we got off to that one-run lead, we weren't able to take that momentum and run with it," Laski said. "We really feel like when we're on our game and playing right that we can beat anybody, and that wasn't the case today."
Cabral was pulled after just four innings as Calvin Chambers came on in relief in the fifth.
"It felt like a momentum swing and, a couple of times through the lineup, we needed a little different approach and Chambers gives us that," Laski said. "Calvin came in and did a really good job. We had some unearned runs and there weren't too many earned runs in there, unfortunately.
"If our defense plays a better game, we've got a close game at the end, but they were the better team today."
San Marino quickly capitalized by loading the bases with nobody out. David Ramirez's single to left field drove in a pair of runs to increase San Marino's advantage to 4-1.
"It helped the energy really pick up in our dugout and really motivated us," Ramirez said.
The Titans added a run in the seventh when Caldwell walked, stole second and third and scored on a throwing error by catcher Andy Tholt.