Despite 26 wins and 299 runs scored, the Camarillo High baseball team knows another statistic could have caused the No. 1 seed's playoff ouster before the CIF-Southern Section Division II playoffs even got interesting.

Seven errors in two playoff games.

"We're lucky," said second baseman Jake Mahan. "We don't usually do things like that."

But when they do, they have the offense to fill in such cracks.

Senior Garrett Rau hit a three-run home run and senior John Erb hit a three-run double as host and top-seed Camarillo overcame five errors to hold off Redlands East Valley, 6-4, in a second-round game Tuesday afternoon.

"In the past two games, we've made enough mistakes to be gone," said Camarillo coach Richard Jaquez. "But we're still kicking."

The Scorpions (26-2) might have instead been kicking themselves if Redlands East Valley (18-9), leading 2-0 in the top of the second, hadn't run itself into a crippling triple play.

With the bases loaded and none out, leadoff hitter Tyler Chatwood drove a 3-1 pitch so deep in the right-center-field alley that all three runners went flying around the bases.

Until Camarillo center fielder Brendan Hindle somehow flagged it down.

"I got a pretty good jump on it," said Hindle. "All I had to do was get it to the infield and let them do the rest."

It was a big moment as for Erb, who improved to 9-0 by surviving a rough two-run first inning to allow two earned runs on eighth hits, striking out eight, in a complete game victory.

"They came out swinging," said Erb. "That triple play changed the entire game."

Rau gave Camarillo the lead, 3-2, in the next half inning with his fifth homer of the season deep down the left-field line.

Despite errors behind him in each of the next three innings, Erb used five strikeouts to limit the damage to a single unearned run, then ripped a bases-loaded double that one-hopped the center field wall after Redlands walked Rau to get to him in the fourth.

"It was 2-0 and I was sitting dead red on a fastball," said Erb. "I put a good swing on it."

Redlands would have threatened to steal the game in the seventh if it hadn't stumbled into another mistake on the bases.

Chatwood led off with a double and seemed bound to score on Josh Garcia's single to right, before he fell between third base and home. Instead of scoring easily, Chatwood made the first out of a potential big inning.

"We got a lot of breaks today," said Erb.

Camarillo advances to a quarterfinal date against Temescal Canyon (24-4), the Southwestern League champion, Friday at a site to be determined by coin flip.

The pitching matchup appears to pit Camarillo's Mike Sliger, 17-0 in his Camarillo career, against 12-0 Matt Larkins.

Sliger hopes the experience of two close playoff games allows Camarillo to return to its regular-season form.

"We're just jittery," said Sliger. "We've got a lot of young players. "I think they'll be good by the third round. If not, we're in trouble."