Simeon played a pristine game defensively and then took advantage of Washington’s mistakes to come away with a 7-2 victory in the Public League quarterfinals.
With the win, Simeon is looking to repeat as City champions.
‘‘[Rhakeem Thomas] pitched real good today,’’ Simeon coach Leroy Franklin said. ‘‘It was about time our defense played good. They’re supposed to. That’s our strong suit.’’
The Wolverines (18-7) took the lead in the second inning by taking advantage of three walks and three singles off Washington’s Adrian Luna. Darius Day, Raphe Gross and Marshawn Taylor all walked and scored to give Simeon a 4-1 lead.
Ronell Coleman, Cory Ray and Jemary McKinney all produced RBI singles in that same inning.
‘‘We really kept our focus throughout the game,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘We scored runs off of walks and their errors.’’
The Wolverines pulled away in the fourth when Gross and Coleman both reached base on errors to start the inning and came around to score as part of a three-run inning. Taylor and McKinney both produced RBI in that inning.
Thomas struggled with his command early for Simeon and gave up a first inning run on a Jose Lopez sacrifice fly. He got bitten by two walks in the third inning when the first one he gave up to Robert Garcia came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Marco Arias.
It was after that inning that the junior lefty settled down and retired 11 of the next 12 hitters on his way to a complete game victory. A minor rally by Washington (18-10) in the seventh inning was quickly extinguished on a nicely turned double play turned by Robert Fletcher and Taylor.
‘‘I just had to slow myself down,’’ Thomas said. ‘‘ knew this was a big game. I told coach that I was not going to get taken out. I would go nine innings if I had to.’’
‘‘They came back on us in the last inning the last time we played them,’’ Taylor said. ‘‘That’s what we talked about on the mound and then right after that they hit that double play.’’
Coleman had a pair of hits, two runs and a stolen base. Taylor scored two runs and McKinney had two RBI.
Arias had a double, an RBI and made two nice defensive plays at third base.
