West Park downs Del Oro in D-II playoffs

West Park High School sophomore Bradley Hunter didn't start the season on the varsity baseball team. He was on the junior varsity roster, but injuries on the pitching staff gave Hunter the opportunity to be called up, something West Park head coach Ben Petersen anticipated at the beginning of the season. "We gave him a varsity jersey at the start of the year because we knew that he was likely going to be called up at some point," Petersen said. "In all of his opportunities that we gave him this year, he just got better and better and better." Trailing No. 10 seed Del Oro 1-0 in Tuesday's Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoff game, Petersen handed the ball to Hunter and he flipped the momentum of the game, stifling Del Oro's bats and keeping the Golden Eagles off the board. "In terms of availability, he's our next-best guy we had so we thought, let's throw him in there," Petersen said. The decision paid off, as Hunter pitched four hitless innings and earned the win in the 2-1 victory, sending the seventh-seeded Panthers through to the quarterfinals. Hunter had Del Oro's hitters stumped, catching four of his five strikeouts looking. He said keeping hitters guessing is part of his game, and he likes to do anything he can to get in their heads. "I love playing mental games with hitters and will use a lot of shake-offs, making them think what I'm gonna throw next," Hunter said. "My pitching coach has helped me with that a lot. I also have a lot of movement and have good off-speed pitches that I can work with and put in the zone consistently." Hunter said he didn't feel any nerves entering the game despite his team trailing, adding he was confident his team would find a way to get the job done. "Trusting my teammates is the main thing," Hunter said. "My teammates have my back all the time every day and they have been behind me this whole year, so I had a ton of trust in them today." West Park didn't break through until the fifth inning, when Zachariah Jingco scored on a wild pitch. A few at-bats later, Nick Pajcin brought the decisive run home when he reached on a two-out error to put the Panthers on top. Del Oro's Ben Brown took the loss despite his strong pitching performance. The senior struck out seven in 4 2/3 innings and allowed just two hits. Brown was in command for four innings, but the Panthers got him out of his groove with their aggressive baserunning when they were able to put runners on. "He was burning us to start the game so we were trying to force him to get out of his comfort zone by stealing, hitting and running," Petersen said. "As soon as he got tired, we knew we were gonna make him make pitches and there were a couple pitches that he didn't make and we capitalized." The victory was the first playoff win in program history for West Park, an accomplishment Petersen said is huge for the program and helps alleviate the pressure moving forward. "Getting that first playoff win and getting that monkey off your back shows the kids that it's possible and we can do this," Petersen said. The Panthers won't travel far for their next postseason game, as they will make the short trip to No. 2 Woodcreek for the D-II quarterfinals on Thursday. The Timberwolves defeated No. 15 Bear Creek 3-1 on Tuesday.