Up and down; this has been the recent theme of our Boys Varsity Baseball. The team has lost two consecutive games last week after beginning the season winning 23 straight games, which was not ideal leading up into CIF, and ultimately led to losing the Pacific League title.

The Apaches hope to end the season with another winning streak, and they got off to the right start on Friday. Sophomore Chris Wilson threw six shutout innings, and senior James Nagaoka had an RBI (run batted in) single in the fifth inning, which led to a great start to CIF play. In the Division 3 contest, the home team opened the CIF Southern Section playoffs with a 2-0 victory over Santa Monica. James and senior Andrew Scannell had two hits each for the No. 2 Apaches (24-2), giving them great contributions to win the contest. The victors will travel to Long Beach Wilson in Tuesday’s second round. With the loss, Santa Monica end their season with a record of 14-16. “It could’ve gone one or two ways,” Arcadia coach Nick Lemas said of the Apache’s two losses to rival Crescenta Valley last week that cost them the Pacific League title. “It could have pumped us up or deflated us.”“There was a little bit of being upset and frustrated, but getting out of here with a win was all we really needed. I’m really happy we were able to escape and battle and get the job done.” Again, it was another game where sophomore stud Chris kept Arcadia in the game until the offensive came to life late, scoring the game’s only two runs. Andrew led off with a double and advanced to third on a bunt single by junior Dustin Allen. Nagaoka then broke the tie with a line drive to left field. The Apaches loaded the bases and pushed it to 2-0 on a walk to junior Jeffrey Castillo. “James has struggled a little bit this year,” Nick said, “but he’s been persistent. Today, he had a really good day at the plate.”

The pitching from Chris was impressive all game. He gave the Vikings only one decent look in the game. Santa Monica got singles from Simeon Downing and Moises Guerrero before Chris ended the threat by inducing Michael Finklestein to pop up. “I just stayed calm and trusted my defense,” Chris said. “I just executed.” Santa Monica also had two hits in the third, but catcher Tyus Santa Anna picked off one runner at second base before throwing out the other on a steal attempt. Santa Monica’s Daniel Melendez singled with only one out in the seventh. But Jacob Morales relieved Chris and ended the game by inducing a fly out and groundout. “We had a rough week last week,” Chris said. “We really came together this week. It’s do-or-die now and we have to be on our ‘A’ game.”