Top-seeded University City wins 16th straight game, captures Division 4 baseball championship

One mistake in a championship game can be the difference between a loss and a dogpile on the pitcher's mound.

Locked in a tie game at UC San Diego's Triton Ballpark, Imperial High School made two critical mistakes — an error on a pickoff play and a passed ball — and University City scratched out a 2-1 win over the Tigers in Saturday's CIF San Diego Section Division 4 title game.

The win, the 16th in a row for the top-seeded Centurions (27-5), sends them to the Southern California Regionals. Pairings will be announced Sunday afternoon.

Imperial, seeded No. 3, finishes 24-8.

With the score tied 1-1 in the sixth, University City's Jack Clark punched a one-out single to right. Sergio Cebrero came in to run and went to second on an errant pickoff attempt.

Cebrero went to third on a grounder to second and scored on a passed ball.

"The game was mistake-free right to the end," said University City coach Rick Frink. "In big games like this, it boils down to mistakes. Both teams played really well. Imperial is really good. But the baseball gods were on our side today."

Clark was the winning pitcher, hurling the first six innings and allowing one run on four hits, walking three with six strikeouts to run his season record to 10-3. He has 120 strikeouts in 68 innings.

"I knew I'd have to pitch my best, and I think I did," Clark said. "My command was a little off, but I made it work.

"This season is the best I've pitched in my life. Obviously, things have worked well."

Asked if he wanted to finish the game and pitch the seventh inning, Clark said: "No way. I was out of gas."

So Frink went to Garret Gillum to close the game.

Gillum walked Jacob Gastelum to start the seventh and pinch runner Jacob Milan stole second.

But Gillum got a strikeout and a pair of groundouts to finish the victory.

"Big games come down to big players and big plays," Frink said. "We got great pitching and Josh Kaplan (the right fielder) made a great thrown to get a runner at home.

"Really, Imperial was a quality opponent and it took everything we had to win this."

For University City, this was the first baseball championship since capturing Division 3 in 2007. Imperial has played in three section championship games without a title .

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune .