Patrick Henry edges Christian 8-7 to force league title showdown

Coming off a one-run loss Monday and with five starters out with injuries, Patrick Henry High coach Sheldon Watkins didn’t like his chances Wednesday in an Eastern League first-place showdown at Christian.

“We’re beaten up,” Watkins said. “Guys are getting a chance to play.

“I don’t know if we’ll play well, but we’ll play hard. And we’ll fight.”

Turns out Watkins’ team played well, took advantage of eight Christian errors and beat the Patriots 8-7 to force a first-place title game tiebreaker at Henry on Friday.

“I told you these guys would fight,” said Watkins said after his team improved to 30-7 overall and 9-2 in the league. “This is a resilient bunch of guys.

“With all the injuries we’ve had, all the adversity we’ve had to fight through, for this group to win 20 games and have the league championship come down to the last game at our place, is amazing.”

Henry scored eight runs on just five hits.

Bur Christian (20-5, 9-2), last year’s CIF San Diego Section Division III champion, committed eight errors and hit four batters.

All eight Henry runs were unearned.

“Can’t do that, not in a big game,” said Christian coach Mike Mitchell. “Honestly, our guys were trying to do too much.

“There was a big crowd, a lot of students, and they wanted to get it done.

“Give Henry credit, though. We gave them opportunities and they took advantage of every one.

“You can’t make errors against good teams and expect to win.”

Henry scored two runs in the fourth, three in the fifth and three more in the sixth.

Leadoff man Eddy Gomez was hit by pitches three times and scored all three times.

Talin Gardini, the No. 2 hitter, also scored three times and drove in a run.

“The injuries aren’t a recent thing,” Gardini said. “We’ve been battling injuries since fall ball.

“But guys have stepped up. We just get the job done.

“We do what we need to do to win games.”

Wednesday, that came down to blunting a Christian rally in the seventh.

Christian scored twice to pull within a run and had the bases loaded with two outs when pitcher Dylan Dyersen fielded a slow roller in front of the plate and threw the runner out at first.