SAN MARCOS — It’s called “Elimination Saturday” when every losing team is knocked out of the CIF San Diego Section baseball playoffs.
And it’s to be avoided at all costs.
Friday afternoon, in a marathon 3-hour game, Patrick Henry put up five runs in the third inning, sixth in the fifth and five more in the sixth — batting around twice — beating San Marcos 18-8 in a second round San Diego Section Open Division playoff game.
The victory keeps the sixth-seeded Patriots (20-8-2) in the winners’ bracket, allowing them to skip over Elimination Saturday and play Tuesday.
San Marcos (20-7-1), seeded No. 2, hosts No. 7-seeded Eastlake at 11 a.m. Saturday. Eastlake eliminated La Costa Canyon on Friday.
On the other side of the Open Division bracket, top-seeded Granite Hills edged St. Augustine and moves to Tuesday. St. Augustine hosts Del Norte, which beat Carlsbad, at 11 a.m. Saturday at Hickman Field.
“No one wants to play Saturday,” said San Marcos coach Jeff Dufek. “You want everybody else to play Saturday and use up their pitching.”
Patrick Henry got into San Marcos’ pitching for 14 hits, including a two-run homer by Sal Gagliano in the second and a grand slam by Tyson Bobo in the third.
The Knights walked five, hit a pair of batters and committed two infield errors.
“Honestly, that’s the first ball I’ve ever hit that I knew off the bat it was out,” Bobo said of his fourth homer of the season. “It was a fastball up, and I was able to take advantage of it.
“This is a huge win for us. Keeps us out of the elimination day. The chemistry on this team is at another level. It’s a big family. Everyone, even the guys who don’t play much, show up and are ready to play. It’s just a super-positive atmosphere.
“I love these guys.”
Bobo also had a single and scored twice.
Gagliano walked and scored twice.
Alex Mestman drove in one and scored twice. Preston Conlin and Lukas Oquendo drove in two. Cody Cappelletti drove in two and scored one.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to avoid the Saturday elimination,” said Henry coach Sheldon Watkins. “And we got to use our whole roster, give a bunch of guys an at-bat in a playoff game.
“San Marcos is a great hitting team, so we knew we had to match them. They weren’t going to back down. I’m glad we didn’t settle. We kept pushing. It’s so important not to be playing Saturday. We have a deep pitching staff, but by not playing, we get to reset our pitching and get ready for Tuesday.”
Max Farrell had a two-run homer for San Marcos, his ninth home run of the season. He also doubled and scored twice.’
Grayson Wren drove in two.
