Carpinteria’s Sal Delgado was the winning pitcher and reached base three times as a batter.
Carpinteria assured itself of a playoff spot on Thursday by defeating Malibu 10-4 in a Tri-Valley League game. The Warriors started with a bang, scoring five runs in the first inning to set the tone.
David Martinez was 3 for 3 at the plate for the Warriors, who improve to 6-6 in TVL play. Carpinteria will finish in fourth place or tied for third with Nordhoff. Either way, Warriors head coach Pat Cooney expects to play in a CIF wild-card game next Wednesday.
Jonah Spach hit two doubles and scored twice. Malcolm Gordon’s contribution was two hits, two runs and three RBI. The Warriors sent 10 men to the plate during their big first inning, scoring five runs on five hits and one walk.
Carpinteria’s other offensive leader was starting pitcher Sal Delgado. The sophomore lefty reached base three times and scored two runs.
“Delgado really improved as the game wore on,” Cooney said. “He was coming off a couple of rocky outings and the offensive outburst gave him the opportunity to work on a few things. We saw his off speed pitches improve which led to 3 of his 4 strikeouts coming in the last two innings.”
Carpinteria (9-15, 6-6 TVL) will learn its first CIF opponent on Monday when brackets are released.
“The important thing was to win today. We evened our league record at .500 and achieved the goal of earning a spot in the playoffs. We are looking forward to some bonus baseball.”
LINESCORE:
C 510 030 1 10 12 2
M 030 001 0 4 11 2
WP Delgado
LP Simoneau
2B C Spach, J. (2), Gordon
