Coronado surges past Foothill to clinch baseball playoff berth

Coronado baseball coach Dave Padilla has plenty of confidence in his team’s offense. But it took the Cougars awhile to come alive Friday.

Coronado had just one hit through three innings but scored eight runs over the next three on the way to an 8-2 home win over Foothill.

“We knew we could stay in it,” said Padilla, whose team trailed 2-0 after three innings. “We just had to put our bat on the baseball.”

The win clinched a playoff berth for the Cougars (17-11, 8-4 Southeast League). Coronado is fourth in the league and has a two-game lead over Foothill (14-12, 6-6) for the final playoff berth with two games to play. Coronado holds the tiebreaker, having swept the Falcons.

Center fielder Dillon Fahr sparked the rally in the fourth when he reached on an infield single. Two errors helped keep the inning alive, and Fahr scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Miles Bice.

Chris Johnson added an RBI single on a high chopper to short to tie the game, 2-2.

Tyler Brown led off the Coronado fifth with a single, and Cody Howard reached on an error, putting runners at second and third. Fahr singled up the middle to score one run, but center fielder Gaby Soto cut down Howard at the plate.

Fahr then stole third and came home when catcher Zack Steiber’s throw went into left field, giving Coronado a 4-2 lead.

“He’s been a spark plug for us all year long,” Padilla said of Fahr, who was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs. “He’s batted No. 2 or leadoff all year long, and he’s just doing his job very, very well.”

Once Coronado had the lead, sophomore reliever Chandler Blanchard made sure the Cougars held on. He threw three scoreless innings to get the win.

The game didn’t start well for Coronado, which committed three errors in the first. But Foothill had a runner thrown out at the plate, and starter Dylan Myers had a key strikeout with runners at second and third to limit the damage.

Myers allowed one earned run on four hits in four innings before giving way to Blanchard.

Chris Blake and Brown each added two hits for Coronado.

Dayton Kurian was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, and Steiber went 2-for-3 with a run for Foothill.