RIVERSIDE — Jonathan Meyer made his longest pitching appearance of the season. Kyle Raskin made the defensive play of his young life. And Eric Bernstein delivered the most memorable fly-ball out you could ask for.

It was all part of an effort in which the superlative became both commonplace and necessary — one which has the Simi Valley High baseball team playing for a CIF-Southern Section championship.

Bernstein's 11th-inning sacrifice fly provided the narrow final margin as Simi Valley outlasted Mater Dei, 6-5, in a nailbiting marathon Division I playoff semifinal at UC Riverside.

The Pioneers (24-8) will face Long Beach Wilson and after the three-hour, 13-minute first game, "late" is the operative word — in Friday's 7:30 p.m. championship game at Dodger Stadium. Mater Dei finishes 24-6.

"We came up clutch in very, very pressure-oriented situations," said Simi Valley coach Matt La Belle. "I'm very, very proud of our guys."

Tuesday's roller coaster began with the Pioneers scoring three runs in the top of the first — and Mater Dei responding with four in the bottom of the inning. After that, it was defined primarily by sparkling hitting and gutty pitching performances, with Meyer (2-2) going the final 423 innings to earn the win. His longest previous stint was two innings.

"I really didn't feel my arm at that point," said Meyer, when asked how much longer he could have pitched. The answer, in La Belle's mind, was not much longer; he and his assistants were discussing who would have pitched the 12th when the Pioneers scored the run to make the question academic.

Meyer struck out four, walked two (both intentionally), hit a batter and worked around seven hits, surviving to get the win in large part because of Raskin's huge play in eighth.

Raskin, who had started the game at third and moved to short in the seventh when Meyer went to the mound, briefly bobbled a bases-loaded, two-out grounder, but recovered in time to throw out Mater Dei batter Brian Frattali by an eyelash.

"You've got to stay with it," said Raskin. "We got the out at first and got out of it."

Meyer admitted that moment "scared the crap out of me," but La Belle saw it differently.

"As weird as it sounds, I wasn't worried," said the coach. "He is a tough, hard-nosed kid, and he doesn't get rattled. He picked up the ball, stayed under composure. Good play."

Two innings later, Raskin turned a 6-3 double play on an Aaron Northcraft grounder to get the Pioneers out of another bases-loaded jam.

The Pioneers, meanwhile, were having trouble generating offense. After scoring twice off Mater Dei reliever Matt Blanchard in the sixth — Bernstein's RBI single gave the Pioneers a 6-5 lead, only to have Mater Dei tie the game on Derek Campbell's RBI single in the seventh — Simi Valley didn't get a runner in scoring position again until the 10th.

But in the 11th, Matt Orloff led off with a double. After Northcraft took over on the mound, Brent Keys followed with a bunt single to put runners at the corners, and Bernstein followed with his sacrifice fly to right.

"As soon as I hit it, I was like, Ohhhh, yes,' " said Bernstein.

"Everybody's nervous. They're nervous, we're nervous, but everybody's going at it. I just tried to stay relaxed and do what I do, hit the ball."

There may have been nerves, but they were not apparent on the field. Each team had just one error — each on a throw by a pitcher — and sterling defense abounded. Mater Dei's outfield made some huge plays early — "They were getting everything," Bernstein said — but as it turned out, the Pioneers made their biggest plays late.

"We all stepped it up," said Raskin, his voice almost gone. "You've got to write this down: Our passion bucket was full."

Both starting pitchers had bumpy beginnings, but settled down, with Simi Valley's Nick Russo giving up five runs and 12 hits in 623 innings, and Mater Dei's Ian McCarthy allowing three runs and eight hits in five innings. And La Belle contended Russo wasn't bad in Mater Dei's four-run first, either.

"They threw their hands at change-ups that were good pitches," he said. "They just kind of flipped them and they all found the line."

The teams combined for 35 hits, with Orloff (3 for 5) and Keys (3 for 6) leading the Pioneers and Frattali (3 for 4), Tyler Rahmatulla (3 for 5) and Seth Smith (3 for 6) leading Mater Dei. Nine other players had two hits.

When it was done, they were left about 72 hours to recover for Friday's championship game. They weren't too concerned about that.

"This just gives us more momentum going into Friday," said Bernstein. "You maybe think, It's a long game, they're tired,' but we've got more momentum now. We feel much better."

Said La Belle: "It's seven innings. We'll be fine. We've got guys that haven't thrown yet."