Merced High beats Turlock with two-out rally in extra innings

With two outs and nobody on, it appeared the Merced High baseball team was headed toward a ninth inning against Turlock.

Not so fast.

The Bears connected on three straight hits, winning on a walk-off single by Tanner Pellissier to extend their winning streak to six with a 5-4 win on Thursday afternoon at Merced High.

“I don’t know if we’ve done that all year, string three straight hits together,” said Bears coach Justin Parle, whose team improved to 8-13 overall and 5-4 in the Central California Conference.

After a 1-12 start, the Bears have won seven of their last eight games. Merced used small ball to beat the Bulldogs, and its ability to get bunts down and Turlock’s inability to get outs on the bunts played a big part in the game.

Twice the Bulldogs tried to get the lead runner after a Merced bunt and failed each time, leading to an extra run in the fourth and a run in the fifth. When Turlock needed a bunt in the eighth inning, the bunt went right back to the pitcher for a double play.

“We work on it all the time and we couldn’t do it today,” said Turlock coach Mark de la Motte, whose team dropped to 13-7, 7-2. “You have to give Merced credit. They executed. They’re a scrappy team. I’m sure we out-hit them, but it didn’t matter. They out-executed us.”

A misplayed bunt helped open the door for a three-run fourth inning that gave Merced a 3-1 lead. Mando Flores, Trevor Phillips and Pellissier drove in runs during the inning.

Turlock answered back in the fifth inning as Brandon Booz hit a two-out, two-run single off of Merced reliever Billy Burkett to tie the game at 3-3.

The Bears again played small ball, loading the bases with no outs with a Brent Brewer single and bunts by Ulonzo Gilliam and Anderson. Turlock starter Marcus Lopez was able to limit the damage to one run with the help of a double play, but the Bears took a 4-3 lead.

“We place a lot of importance on getting the ball down and moving runners around,” Parle said. “Our guys really executed that today. They did a good job of putting the ball in positions where it made it a tough decision on which base to throw to on the bunts.”

With the lead, Parle turned to his ace Mitchell Miller in the sixth to close the door. However, the Bulldogs scored an unearned run on Lopez’s RBI single in the sixth to tie the game at 4-4.

Miller, who usually starts Fridays, pitched 2 1/3 innings to pick up the win. Miller said he’s unsure whether he’d be able to pitch today at Turlock.

Phillips and Evan Hanneman singled with two outs in the eighth to set the stage for Pellissier against Lopez.

“I had seen the guy and I knew I could hit him,” Pellissier said. “I had the same confidence I had in the first inning. I got a fastball and I just hit it. It was the best feeling in the world.”

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 11:03 PM with the headline "Merced High beats Turlock with two-out rally in extra innings."