Greene Comes Through in the End for Cypress

FRESNO — Cypress took a wild ride behind reliever Brian Greene and hung on for an 8-6 victory over College of the Sequoias Saturday in the first round of the state baseball tournament at Fresno City College.

Greene, who has three victories and a loss in the playoffs, entered in the sixth with the bases loaded and two outs. He struck out Johnny Estrada to end the threat.

Greene (9-3) struck out the side in the seventh around a walk and a hit. In the eighth, he allowed two runs and had two runners on base when he struck out Jeff Depew for the third out.

He gave up two more runs in the ninth, and Sequoias had two with two outs when Greene fell behind fourth-place hitter Popi Sanchez, 2-0, in the count. But Greene, a sophomore right-hander, got Sanchez to look at three consecutive strikes to end the game and pick up the win.

“This was the guy that got us here,” Cypress Coach Scott Pickler said of Greene. “I liked the idea of having Greene out there in that situation. I was going to roll with him.”

Green finished with eight strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings but gave up four runs and six hits.

Cypress called on its two home run threats to get three runs in the top of the ninth to take an 8-4 lead.

Matt Roman hit a soft fly to center field for a single and one out later, Kuzmic launched a homer over the left-center field fence. It was his 16th of the season.

Greg Jacobs followed with his 12th homer, a towering blast that easily cleared the center-field fence.

Cypress had gotten two home runs earlier in the game, but from much more unlikely sources.

Scott Daeley put the Chargers up, 3-2, when he pulled a ball over the left-field fence. It was his fourth of the season and second in three games. Junior Rodriguez had tied it, 2-2, with his fifth home run of the year in the sixth.

Roman drove in Cypress’ first run with a fielder’s choice in the second inning. Matt Dempsey had a double and scored in the second and then singled in a run in the eighth as Cypress took a 5-2 lead.

Cypress (39-11) advances to play Sacramento in the second round at 3 p.m. today. The winner moves on to the championship game at 11 a.m. Monday and the loser plays at 7 p.m. Sunday in an elimination game.

It will be Cypress’ first meeting with Sacramento since the Chargers beat the Panthers in the state title game in 1991. Sacramento is expected to start sophomore Brandon Bowe, who is 12-0.