Bay League rivals Mira Costa and Peninsula advanced to Friday’s quarterfinal round in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs with 4-2 wins on Tuesday, leaving the teams one win away from facing each other in the semifinals on Tuesday.
Mira Costa has capitalized on good pitching and stellar defense in its first two playoff victories. Gordon Cardenas and Chris Alcala stifled a potent Quartz Hill offense while preserving a four-run third inning by the Mustangs.
Cardenas improved his record to 7-3 and third baseman Braden Casady continued his sparkling defense at the hot corner. Keyon Allen, Austin Henning and Jack Webber each had RBIs for the Mustangs.
Mira Costa (21-10) will go on the road for the first time in the postseason, taking on Del Rey runner-up Bishop Amat (18-11) on Friday. All games with the exception of the finals are scheduled for 3:15 p.m.
The Mustangs opened the playoffs with a 15-1 rout of visiting Los Altos, scoring 11 runs in the fourth inning.
Allen went 3 for 4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. He slugged a two-run home run in the fourth-inning offensive outburst.
Cardenas, Kevin Lopez and Garrett Wells each had two-hit games and the Mustang defense played errorless ball behind a trio of pitchers.
Peninsula (20-12) eliminated Westminster in the second round Tuesday after routing No. 8 Carter 9-0 in the first round. David Odle pitched 6 1/3 innings limiting Westminster to five hits while improving his record to 7-1.
The Panthers will play Sunbelt runner-up Elsinore (18-10) in the quarterfinals Friday.
Second-seeded Serra (26-5) has scored 25 runs in its two playoffs games, defeating Knight 23-13 in the second round. The Cavaliers will host No. 10 Garden Grove (23-3) in the quarterfinals.
Bay League runner-up West Torrance (18-12) was eliminated with a 3-0 loss at Diamond Bar in the first round.
Redondo (16-14-1) was granted an at-large entry but lost its wild-card game 5-3 at Segerstrom.
In Division 4, Pioneer League champion South Torrance (18-11) lost a heartbreaker at No. 8 Northview, falling to the Vikings 5-4 in the seventh inning.
Three other Pioneer League teams earned wild-card berths. Runner-up El Segundo (20-13) beat visiting Chaffey 7-2, won at Granite Hills 5-1 and scored eight runs in the first two innings to upset No. 2 Kaiser 10-2 in a second-round game on Wednesday. The Eagles play at El Rancho (17-10) in the quarterfinals Friday.
Torrance (15-13) edged St. Bonaventure 3-2 before losing at No. 4 San Dimas 7-1 on Friday.
North Torrance (16-13) had its season end with a 9-2 wild-card loss at La Habra.
In Division 7, Vistamar (9-5 defeated host Lee Vining 10-7 in the first round but lost at home to No. 6 Cate 19-8 in the second round.
