Huge Late Inning Rally Brings Cypress to the Super Regional Finals

Smith hit his second home run in a row Saturday.

Cypress is one win away from the State Championship Tournament.

May 19th, 2007

Final Stats

Santa Ana, Calif. - Cypress faced fellow Cinderella team fifteenth seed L.A. Harbor Saturday in the second round of the Super Regionals. Cypress fell behind but rallied a big six run eighth inning for the 8-5 win to move on to the Super Regional finals tomorrow. Freshman pinch hitter A.J. Smith played hero with his second home run of the tournament for a two run shot for Cypress’s third and fourth run.

The Chargers fell behind early allowing Harbor to score in the first off two hits and a stolen base. Cypress came right back to tie it in the second. Sophomore designated hitter Jason Schaniel produced a lead-off single to left and then reached second on a throwing error. Schaniel advanced to third on another fielding error prepared to score. Freshman shortstop Tyler Marmion flied out to center allowing Schaniel to tag up and score tying the game at one.

The Seahawks took the lead right back with another run in the third and Cypress came right back to tie it again in the fourth. Sophomore first baseman Marco Martelli hit a lead-off double to right center and moved to third off a sacrifice bunt. With two outs retired, sophomore second baseman Bryan Resnick came up big with a single up the middle allowing Martelli to score and tie it up at two. Harbor broke it open in the sixth with three more runs to take the 5-2 lead while the Cypress offense staggered.

With the game winding down in the bottom of the eighth, the Charger offense stepped up. Martelli led the at-bat off with a walk followed by Smith’s two run homer cutting the lead to one and giving Cypress new life. Marmion followed up with a single to left center and moved to second a sacrifice bunt and then third on a wild pitch. Resnick was hit by a pitch for runners on first and third. Ornelas hit into a fielder’s choice that failed to throw out Marmion scoring the tying fifth run and putting Resnick on third and Ornelas on second. Sophomore third baseman Brandon Laird was intentionally walked to load the bases. With two outs down, Schaniel stepped up and walked in a run giving Cypress their first lead. Martelli finished it off with a two RBI single to left for the eighth Charger run.

Sophomore Casey Arbiso earned the win for Cypress pitching the last 2 and two-thirds innings allowing just one hit while striking out three. Arbiso improves to 1-3 on the season. Freshman Michael Olmsted pitched the first six and a third for Cypress striking out five batters yielding nine hits and three earned runs.

Cypress improves to 27-20 and is just one win away from another appearance at the State Championship tournament. The Chargers will try to get that win tomorrow at 11:00 am against the winner of the Santa Ana and Golden West game.