Prep Baseball: Beyer presents Merced tough test

The Merced baseball team opens the playoffs against a familiar opponent today.

Beyer defeated Merced 2-0 in the Coca-Cola Classic back in March.

"Anytime you've seen a team it's better than going in blind," Merced coach Lou Souza said. "It was early in the year. They've progressed throughout the year and they've gotten better."

The two teams will square off in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs at the University of the Pacific today at 4 p.m.

The first round is single-elimination. The winner advances to the double-elimination portion of the tournament on Friday at 7 p.m. against the winner of tonight's Lincoln-Tokay matchup.

"There's no doubt that there's no tomorrow," Souza said. "You can't be stubborn. It's different than the regular season.

"Everybody has to be ready. You hope you have the best guy going for you and he gives you the best chance to win.

"But you have to have an open mind. We brought up some young guys. We told our freshmen to be ready. If they're the fastest guy we have available, we may need them to pinch run."

Merced (13-14) may need a performance from Andrew Jaurique similar to the one he turned in against Golden Valley Friday.

The junior left-hander struck out 12 hitters on his way to a three-hit shutout in Merced's 10-0 win that clinched the playoff spot.

Jaurique, Matthew Farias, Josh Rivard, Derek Slate and Alec Winn all came up big at the plate during Merced's two-game sweep of GV last week.

The Modesto Metro Conference champions, Beyer will likely counter with freshman left-hander Trey Ridenour, who is 6-2 with a 0.93 ERA.

"I didn't get to see the lefty," Souza said. "I did see him throw in a tournament earlier this year. He throws pretty hard. He's got good movement on his fastball. He changes speeds well. He pitches above his years, obviously."

The Beyer offense is led by Garrett Roberts, who led the team with a .412 average and 24 runs. Stephen Roy led Beyer (19-8) with four home runs and 20 RBIs.

The pressure of the playoffs shouldn't be anything new to Merced, which emerged from a tight race with Buhach Colony and Golden Valley for the Central California Conference's second and final playoff berth.

"We were telling our guys that this week," Souza said. "We've kind of had a playoff atmosphere the last week and a half. When you're playing to get in those are playoff games."

This story was originally published May 19, 2010 at 1:37 AM with the headline "Prep Baseball: Beyer presents Merced tough test."