Canyons Closes With a Rush to Keep Playoff Hopes Alive : College baseball: Cougars rally in seventh inning of Shaughnessy finale to claim 20th victory in their past 29 games.

For a team that has labored under a cloud all season, it was bitter irony nearly to be undone by the sun.

The black cloud hanging over the College of the Canyons baseball team was an 0-8-1 start, the worst in school history, and it was emblemized by a black flag that was raised over the Cougars’ dugout early in the season.

But in Thursday’s Shaughnessy playoff championship game against Oxnard, Canyons still had reason to be sky-shy. When right fielder Bill Horvat lost a fly ball in the sun in the seventh inning, Oxnard scored two runs to take a two-run lead.

Canyons battled back, though, with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Horvat drove in the go-ahead run, and Canyons won, 6-4, earning a shot at a wild-card berth in the Southern California regional of the state tournament.

“This team has dealt with some adversity,” said Canyons Coach Len Mohney, who added that the black flag will be removed Monday. “There have been a lot of different times this team could have gone belly up.”

Canyons might be peaking, but it has also hit an important plateau--20 victories. That total, plus a strong 20-9 finish and Canyons’ winning tradition, should improve the school’s chances of gaining one of four wild-card berths in the regional. Bids will be announced Monday.

Canyons (20-17-1) had to battle through a two-game Shaughnessy tournament and rally twice against Oxnard (21-19) to keep alive its hopes for a 10th state tournament appearance in 11 years.

Pat Avila gave Oxnard an early lead with a solo home run in the first inning. Canyons’ Jon Beauchemin answered with a solo home run in the second, and the score remained tied, 1-1, until the seventh.

With two out and the bases loaded in the seventh, Oxnard’s Carlos Cardenas hit a pop fly into shallow right. Horvat charged hard but lost the ball and let it fall about two feet to his left for a two-run single.

‘I haven’t had problems with the sun this year at all,” Horvat said. “It just so happens the sun was right in my face.”

Trailing, 3-1, Canyons hit Oxnard starter Joe Canfield (8-7) hard in the bottom of the seventh.

Jon Strauss hit a solo home run, and Walter White and Josh Bergara followed with consecutive doubles. Two batters later, Horvat put Canyons ahead, 4-3, with a double.

“I knew I was going to redeem myself,” said Horvat, who also had been thrown out at the plate in the sixth.

Canyons added insurance runs in the eighth on Bergara’s two-run double, and with the winning run at the plate, Shawn Bowen struck out Mario Sanchez to end the game.

Bowen picked up his third save, relieving Roland De La Maza (8-3) with one out in the ninth.