After one inning, with a 4-0 lead and ace Nick Barnese on the mound, the Simi Valley High baseball team was right where it wanted to be Tuesday afternoon.

Turns out, Long Beach Wilson was pretty comfortable with its chances, too.

"No, I wasn't concerned," said Wilson senior right fielder Aaron Hicks. "I know we've got a good hitting team. We're always think that we can score a lot of runs."

Hicks and his teammates lived up to their confidence.

Hicks belted the game-tying home run in the top of the sixth, touching off a four-run rally that propelled third-seeded Long Beach Wilson to a 9-5 victory over Simi Valley in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division I playoffs at Simi Valley High.

Barnese, coming off a no-hit outing in the first round against Corona, allowed four runs and eight hits in five innings, but exited with a 5-4 lead.

Chase Cross hammered a grand slam in the first inning, and Brett Hale ripped a two-out, two-strike single in the bottom of the fifth to score Eric Bernstein with the go-ahead run for Simi Valley.

Against heavy-hitting Wilson, it wasn't enough.

The Bruins (29-3) finished with 16 hits, including a home run, double and single by Hicks, who also stole three bases and scored four runs.

Third baseman Zach Wilson had a double, two singles and three runs scored, left fielder Richard Hanson collected a pair of doubles and shortstop Tyler Albright and catcher Pat Radford each had two hits.

"That's a good team," said Simi Valley coach Matt La Belle, whose team finishes 19-10-1. "They got about six or seven seeing-eye singles, but they also hit the ball hard.

"I'm just proud of our guys because we battled the whole way. Our guys stepped up and fought for what they wanted."

Barnese, coming off seven innings on Friday, was not at his sharpest, he said.

"I was a little tired, coming right back and pitching today," he said. "But that's not an excuse.

"Nobody likes to lose, including me. They (the Bruins) were able to come up with key hits when they needed them."

Hicks said the Bruins refused to be intimidated by Barnese's no-hitter in his previous outing.

"We didn't think about that at all," he said. "We had to look at him as just another pitcher. We had to play our own game."

Cross, a junior right fielder, put Simi Valley up 4-0 in the bottom of the first inning with the first grand slam of his career, high school or otherwise.

"We were confident," he said. "But that's a very good team we played today. They kept coming back."

Hicks' infield single, doubles by Wilson and Hanson, and an line single by Albright accounted for three runs in the top of the third.

The game was tied, 4-4, in the bottom of the fifth, when Hale stepped to the plated with two outs and Bernstein on second. He greeted relief pitcher Elliott Glynn with a sharp single to right the gave Simi Valley a 5-4 lead.

But relief pitchers Nick Russo and Drew Sandler couldn't hold the lead.

Hicks notched only his second homer of the season in leading off the sixth inning.

Four singles, one walk and one error later, Wilson had tallied four runs to take control at 8-4.

Simi Valley finished with seven hits, including two apiece by Hale and Cross.