Woodside baseball downs Aragon in nine

But Aragon rallied for three runs in the sixth and three more in the top of the seventh to beat Woodside 9-8.

“We had a comfortable, maybe too comfortable, lead Tuesday,” said Woodside manager Dan Rogers.

The rematch was Thursday in San Mateo and instead of a slugfest, Woodside starting pitcher Colby Fernandez and his Aragon counterpart, Alex Gosselin, hooked up in a classic pitcher’s duel.

Neither factored into the decision, as Woodside pushed across the tying run in the top of the sixth inning to send the game to extra frames. The Wildcats plated the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth, before reliever Anderson Comfort closed out the Dons in the bottom to notch a 4-3 victory and split the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division season series.

“[The win] was a big a one,” Rogers said. “Today our guys were fired up.”

After the teams combined to just four runs in seven innings of regulation, they had three in the eighth and ninth innings.

The Wildcats, who had scored in the top of the second, pushed the tying run across in the top of the sixth when No. 3 hitter Charlie Dalrymple reached on an error, with courtesy runner Andrew Ortiz going to second on a sacrifice bunt from clean-up hitter Jeremiah Arias Torres and moving to third when Hunter Taylor reached on the second error of the inning.

Mateus Mokhtarani then tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center. Despite giving up a two-out double to Nick Mazzola in the bottom of the seventh, Comfort got the game to extra innings.

Woodside took a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth against the Dons’ second pitcher of the day when Comfort walked and came around to score on a Taylor bloop single down the left-field line.

But Aragon answered in the bottom of the eighth when Keith Mayte, the Dons’ No. 5 hitter, cracked a one-out double to the left-field corner. Pinch runner Zach Laguna would come around to score on a Kai Thornton single to left to tie the game at 3-all.

Comfort then came up with the go-ahead RBI to make a winner of himself on the mound.

The Wildcats quickly retook the lead in the top of the ninth when Henry Schwab led off the inning with a single and went around to third when Carter Ball put down what was supposed to be a sacrifice bunt into an error by the pitcher, who had the ball jarred loose from his glove as he tagged Ball near the first-base bag.

Schwab, meanwhile, hustled around to third and came home on Comfort’s one-out single to left.

Comfort then wiggled out of a jam in the bottom of the ninth, with the Dons getting back-to-back, two-out singles from Xavier Ruiz and Sean Tam. But Comfort got a groundout to third to lock up the win.

“I was not initially going to put [Comfort] out there for the ninth. But he looked me in the eye and said, ‘I got this,’” Rogers said. “Just a good baseball game.”

And Woodside (1-1 PAL Ocean, 7-3 overall) had to do it without the services of leadoff hitter and starting centerfielder Cruz Torres, who was suspended one game after being ejected Tuesday.

That forced Rogers to not only juggle his defense, but also the batting order. But unlike Tuesday, the Wildcats came up with the big hit when they needed it Thursday.

“Everyone contributed,” Rogers said. “It was a true team win.”

Good thing Aragon’s two-year old baseball facility has lights, because they were needed to get through the nearly three-hour game.

“It was obvious both teams saved their 1s (best pitchers) for today,” said first-year Aragon manager John Rally.

Gosselin took the mound first, struck out two of the first three batters he faced and was through in 13 pitches.

Then it was Fernandez’s turn. He also struck out the first two batters he went against and got out of the inning after 13 pitches.

The Dons touched Fernandez for a run in the bottom of the second to tie the game, with a leadoff walk and an error opening the door. Tam, who was 2 for 3 with two walks and an RBI, walked to lead off the inning, followed by a walk to Mayte. Fernandez got the next two batters to bring up Brandon Potter. He singled sharply to left and Rally was initially holding Tam at third. But when the ball got past the leftfielder, Tam scampered home with the first run on the game.

Tam added a bloop RBI single in the third, but those would be the only two hits allowed by Fernandez. The sophomore worked six innings, giving up one earned run while striking out nine.

He did walk six, which contributed to his 95-pitch outing.

“He’s been throwing really well,” Rogers said of Fernandez.

Gosselin was just as good for Aragon. The Wildcats opened the scoring in the top of the second when Taylor drew a one-out walk . He went to second on a passed ball, went to third on a foul out deep in the right-field corner and came in to score on a Schwab single.

Gosselin would shut the Wildcats down for the next three innings, allowing three hits in that span before Woodside pushed across the tying run in the sixth.

Gosselin went seven innings, giving up two runs on just four hits. He struck out five and walked only one on 98 pitches.

“Gosselin came out on fire. … He’s our guy,” Rally said. “It was the kind of game we expected. Both pitchers threw very well. Both teams made a lot of plays.”