ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - Once again, a pitching gem from senior Russell Pettis gave the Elk Grove Thundering Herd the win, this time in the Division Two CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Baseball Playoffs quarterfinals against the Patterson Tigers by a score of 5-1. 

Pettis threw a complete-game two-hitter and allowed one unearned run with seven strikeouts. His head coach, Joe Bellotti, said Pettis’ experience in these types of games favors him. 

“He’s been in these situations before pitching in playoff games and he’s able to command three pitches, and his ability to do that to keep batters off balance and to get a strikeout when he needs it, so I thought he did a really good job,” Bellotti said. 

Along with Pettis’ pitch-mixing, Bellotti said, his ability to get ahead in the count on hitters helped him be successful, as well as his defense in making plays to get out of innings when needed. 

Despite getting three up and three down innings in four of the first five innings, Pettis ran into trouble in the sixth and seventh. 

“I think a little bit (that Pettis was running out of energy) but sometimes the situation has you amped up and it’s the end of the game and you feel that excitement that you’re three outs away and I thought he was in a bit of a hurry,” Bellotti said. 

The starting pitcher for the Tigers was mixing speeds to avoid solid contact from the Herd, which Bellotti said is what he thought his game plan was, and he did a good enough job to keep his hitters off balance. 

“When we’re playing a team like this that we haven’t seen, there is a feeling-out period where we’re trying to see what everything is, so I thought our guys did a good job getting some timely hits,” Bellotti said. 

It wasn’t the long ball or doubles in the gap that dominated for the Herd; rather, it was infield singles, sacrifice bunts, sacrifice flies and walks that led to their five runs. 

“I thought we did a good job with our short game by a couple of bunt hits and moving guys around,” Bellotti said. “We understand in the playoffs every run is so important, and if you could force the issue to get runs early it’s really beneficial.”

The middle to lower half of the lineup came up big and sparked the offense to get the Herd on the board, which Bellotti said is crucial in a playoff run.

“It’s huge and if you want to make a deep run it’s usually not going to be the one or two hitters carrying the offense, so you need to have a consistent lineup, and I think our lineup is being a little bit more consistent,” Bellotti said. 

Bellotti said his team is still young and his players are being exposed to playoff baseball for the first time, so he’s still watching them grow and gain confidence. 

Runs were pushed across on sacrifice flies from Anthony Bascherini and Antonio Cuevas, while the only extra-base hit for the Herd came off the bat of Ethan Groves for an RBI.  

The other two runs for the Herd came on RBI singles from Hudson Hall and Devin Mitchell in the fourth inning. 

The Herd now look to a three-game series with the No. 1 seed Whitney Wildcats, who took down the Laguna Creek Cardinals in a close ballgame by a score of 5-4. 

“They’re the No. 1 seed for a reason and they have a track record of the past three years of making deep runs,” Bellotti said. “It’s going to be a battle.” 

Regardless, Bellotti was able to take the Herd to the semifinals after being knocked out last year in the first round. 

“I think our guys understand that the expectation for us every year is to try to win league then win a section championship, and is that always going to happen? No, but I think that the standard that we put in place, that coach Jeff (Carlson) built, and we’re trying to maintain is what makes this place great,” Bellotti said. 

The three-game series against the Wildcats was to be played May 13, 14 and 15, if game three is necessary, to decide who will play in the section championship game.