SAN ANTONIO- The Apaches and Pericos advanced to the semifinal round of the Texas Winter League playoffs with victories on Wednesday at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

 

PERICOS 4 - TEJANOS 3

 

Jason Merjano’s 2-out triple in the bottom of the seventh inning off Jeremy Hall drove in Thomas Shull to tie the game before scoring on a wild pitch to give the Pericos a come-from-behind 4-3 victory in dramatic fashion.

 

Hall (2-1) was one out away from putting the Pericos into the semifinal round before Shull, his 2014 teammate with the United League’s Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings, collected his second hit of the game with a sharp ground ball under the glove of first baseman LeAndro Fernandez before Merjano tripled over the head of centerfielder Daiki Miyazaki on an 0-2 pitch to tie the score.

 

Hall then went ahead of third-place hitter R.J. Perucki, whom the Tejanos (6-9) had walked intentionally in a similar situation, 0-2, and his fastball on the outside corner just missed outside, with catcher Gabe Garza walking towards his first base dugout to try and sell the pitch to home plate umpire Rob Foster.

 

But Hall’s following pitch, a 1-2 slider, went under the glove of Garza for the winning run of the game.

 

Though the game featured great pitching from Hall and Pericos starter Rene Solis, who struck out 10 hitters in five innings, and Joshua Ferrell (4-0), the seventh-inning rally was redemption for Shull.

 

An infielder learning how to catch in the hopes of improving his chances of landing a spot on a professional roster in 2015, Shull committed five pass balls in the game. Every run scored by the Tejanos was aided by a Shull pass ball.

 

But by starting the 2-out rally that won the game, Shull was able to “givueth and takueth” in the game and avoid wearing the goat horns.

 

“You can’t think about that when you come up to the plate, but I was glad it worked out the way it did,” Shull said after the game.

 

The Tejanos took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second off Solis when Garza collected a one out walk, went to second on a Curtis Batten sacrifice, and scored from second base when Shull dropped the swinging third strike by Cesar Pintor.

 

But the Pericos (7-6-2) took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Perucki’s long double off the wall in left center scored Merjano and, after an infield hit from Matt Garza, Will Chapman hit a sacrifice fly to right field to give his team the lead.

 

In the following frame, Fernandez singled home Ryan DiMascio, who had singled and advanced into scoring position on a pass ball, to tie the game 2-2.

 

The rest of the game proved a case study in how pitchers could work themselves out of jams. In the bottom of the fifth, a Merjano double that bounced over the wall put two runners in scoring position. After Tejanos manager Carlos Lezcano went to the mound, the decision was made to walk Perucki, and Hall as able to retire Garza on a ground out.

 

After Ferrell was put into the game in the sixth inning, the Tejanos put two runners on when Daiki Miyazaki struck out for the fourth time but Shull dropped the ball. He advanced to second when Dillon Sauers walked, but Ryan DiMascio could only ground to first to end the threat.

 

In the bottom of the sixth, Andrew Mulato was on second base with two out after forcing Chapman at second and then stealing the base. But he took off for a steal of third with two out and David Peterson, who had driven in 14 runs this year, at the plate before Hall could throw a pitch, and the right-hander from North Carolina easily picked the former Big Ten player off.

 

In the top of the seventh, Fernandez struck out, but reached on another Shull pass ball. Atsuyoh Tokoh sacrificed him to second base, and, after an out, Fernadez went to third on another pass ball before scoring when Shull couldn’t handle a called strike three taken by Gabe Garza; the fifth pass ball on Shull and the fourth time a batter reached on a strikeout.

 

Hall was able to get the first two batters of the last of the seventh to pop out, but, with Jamie Perez warming up in the bullpen, couldn’t get the third out of the seventh.

 

APACHES 8 - CAPITALS 3

 

Kori Melo had three hits, including a 3-run double off Tomahiro Yamashita to give the Apaches a 4-1 lead they would not relinquish, as the sixth-seeded Apaches (5-10) used three pitchers to beat the Capitals 8-3 in the first game of the day at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

 

Melo’s opposite field double inside the foul line in deep left came after the Apaches loaded the bases primarily on poor Caps (6-6-3) infield defense. Mario Apolinar was able to beat out an infield hit when fellow second baseman let a slow roller play him rather than charge the ball, and subsequent attempts at sacrifices by Samuel Gonzales and Julius Gaines resulted in Capitals errors.

 

While the Caps cut the deficit to 4-3 when Will Wurth scored from second on an infield hit from Connor Battaglia to go to third and subsequent throwing error from Apolinar, and Kazuki Nakayama’s run scoring single off starter Chadd Flick, such competitiveness was short lived.

 

That’s because Melo started a two out, 3-run rally in the top of the fourth when he singled to center and went to third on Tyler Latham’s double. After Jacob Fabry walked, Nate Lewellyn, who had not driven in a run on the season before Sunday, drove in his third of the game with a 2-run single past third baseman Brandon Thomas to make the score 6-3. Lewellyn would then perform a second-and-home double steal with Fabry that allowed the seventh leading hitter in the United League last season to score.

 

Meanwhile Yusuke Inoue (1-0) came on in relief of Flick in the third inning and produced three hitless, shutout innings to earn the victory by scorer’s discression. The right-hander struck out five of the 11 Caps batters than fanned in the game and walked only one batter.

 

Pete Martinez came on to pitch the final two innings, a surprising turn of events since Martinez was slated to pitch on Friday if the Apaches won.

 

But Apaches manager Brooks Carey had his reasons.

 

“I didn’t want to play a consolation game tomorrow,” he said. “If I have to pitch my ace with a 10-run lead, I will.”

 

Martinez scattered three hits while fanning four in two scoreless innings.

 

The Apaches took an early lead in the first inning on Lewellyn’s bases loaded single in the top of the first off Yamashita (2-1) to score Melo, though Latham was thrown out at the plate on a strong throw from Nakayama in right field.

 

The Caps tied the game in the bottom of the first off Flick on Brian Haggett’s one out double to score Nakayama.

 

In the top of the fifth, Julius Gaines, who had collected only one hit in the season prior to the game, collected his second to drive in Jonathan Grishman to conclude the scoring.

 

Yamashida allowed 10 hits and eight runs, six earned, in five innings while walking three and striking out two.

 

Ken Iida pitched two scoreless innings in defeat.

 

Melo, Latham, Lewellyn, Grishman, and Gaines all had multi-hit games for the Apaches, but only Wurth had a 2-hit game for the Capitals.

 

NOTES- The Apaches will play the second seeded Alamos (7-3-4) at 11 a.m. while the Pericos will play the Wranglers (7-4-3) at 2 p.m. Carey stated he would “flip a coin” to decide whether Hidekatsu Mitani (1-2) or Fumitaka Sakaguchi (0-1) would start for the Apaches, while Mike Pinto has stated TWL ERA leader Bobby Orozco (2-0, 0.72) will start for the Alamos. The game will not be broadcast on texaswinterleague.com.

 

The Capitals will host the Tejanos in a consolation game at 11 a.m. at the Missions Academy. Gabe Garza is expected to start behind the plate for both the Tejanos and Alamos, as the Alamos’ regular catcher, College of Charleston product Ben Boykin, has gone home with a popped hamstring.

 

Carey stated he would be willing to use Martinez in relief in the semifinals if necessary.