By Carter Cromwell

Things seemed easy for San Rafael Thursday night. Until they weren’t.

After clear sailing for seven innings, the Pacifics hit the shoals of a very difficult eighth and a tension-filled ninth before emerging with a 7-6 victory over Napa that catapulted them into the Pacific Association finals.

San Rafael will meet regular-season champion Sonoma in a best-of-three series for the title. The teams will play in Sonoma Friday evening and in San Rafael Saturday – a 5pm scheduled start, and tickets are available now. If a third game is necessary, it will be in Sonoma Sunday afternoon.

The Pacifics found it necessary Thursday to dig deep to fend off the Silverados. They built a 7-1 lead on the two-hit pitching of Ridge Ackerman over six innings, as well as opposite-field home runs by Mike Annone and Markus Montelongo and a two-run double by Raul Navarro. Then they nearly lost it in the eighth inning when Napa scored five runs and could have had a tying sixth if not for a baserunning mistake.

“We just couldn’t throw strikes in the eighth inning,” San Rafael manager Oscar Suarez said. “When you start walking people, you give the other team a chance to build a rally. I’d rather they’d have hit three home runs in a row.

“I was really afraid that we were going to lose the game for Ackerman,” Suarez added. “That would have been especially hard, since he pitched such a great game.”

In his fourth game since being acquired from league rival Salina on August 15, Ackerman had his best outing. He began by getting all three first-inning hitters on swinging strikes and had five strikeouts in the first two innings, ending up with seven while walking four batters. He allowed no earned runs, the only run he gave up coming on a wild pitch.

“He’s learning how to control the other team’s running game and also his pitching tempo,” Suarez said. “He’s learned a lot from (closer and pitching coach) Jailen Peguero. In fact, it was Peguero who wanted him to go tonight … I was going to hold him and have him ready Friday for Sonoma if we were able to win tonight.”

Ackerman, who posted an 8.81 ERA in eight games with Salina, had improved that figure to 4.62 with San Rafael before his gem on Thursday.

“I haven’t really changed a whole lot of things. I’ve just been working on keeping everything nice and smooth on a consistent basis,” the Springfield, IL, native said. “It’s mainly just finding the right rhythm and maintaining the right arm slot. That’s mostly a mental thing. Tonight, my arm felt good in warmups, and I could tell my velocity was good.”

The Pacifics started supporting Ackerman immediately, getting Axel Johnson’s RBI-single in the first inning and then Annone’s home run and Navarro’s two-run double in the second.

“Their pitcher tried to sneak a fast ball by me on a 1-1 count, and he got it up and out,” Annone said. “I hit it well, but I didn’t think it was going out at first.”

Napa scored its first run in the fourth when Dakota Conners scored on Ackerman’s errant pitch, but San Rafael answered with Montelongo’s two-run shot in the bottom of the inning.

“It was on the outer half of the plate, and I just went with the pitch,” Montelongo said.

The Pacifics supported Ackerman defensively, as well, turning in a couple of nice double plays along with a fine catch by centerfielder Chuck Rocker and throw from catcher Ermindo Escobar that nabbed a baserunner at third. San Rafael then added one more run in the fifth on Annone’s groundout that scored Johnson. Probably no one imagined at the time that it would be the difference in the final score.

The Pacifics got a 1-2-3 inning from reliever Joe Rivera in the seventh, but then Edward Perez took the ball in the eighth and ran into trouble because of control issues. Napa’s Austin Fitzpatrick led off with a single but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double – eventually costing the Silverados a run. A walk, single and a walk loaded the bases, and Jailen Peguero replaced Perez.

Peguero struck out the first batter, but then gave up a bases-clearing triple to Josh Montelongo, who later scored on a wild pitch the make the score 7-6 before Peguero fanned Dom Bethancourt to end the inning.

The ninth inning wasn’t easy, either, as Peguero hit the leadoff batter with the first pitch and later gave up a one-out single. But he struck out William Salas and induced Conners to fly out to right to end the game.

“We got into situation where we were having trouble throwing strikes,” Suarez said. “Perez was trying to be perfect instead of just pitching to contact. Peguero hadn’t pitched in nearly a week – he wasn’t supposed to come in then, but I felt we needed him to try and close the door.”

And, while it wasn’t easy, he did.