STOCKTON — The Patterson Pirates’ second consecutive trip to the Cal-Mex Baseball League playoffs ended in a power failure.

One of the league’s highest-scoring teams in the first half of the regular season sputtered once the playoffs started, leading to a quick and dismal sweep at the hands of the Stockton Tigres on Saturday, Sept. 12.

Handcuffed by Stockton’s young but effective pitching staff and maybe feeling a little squeeze from the spotlight of postseason baseball, the Pirates’ late-season charge ended with a screeching halt in a best-of-three sweep against the Tigres on a rainy Saturday at Stribley Park.

Patterson dropped the series opener 6-2 before losing a one-sided Game 2, 5-1.

“We just didn’t hit,” Patterson catcher Rudy Lozano said. “We haven’t been playing our best baseball, and we were a little tight.

“I wouldn’t call it pressing. I would say we were anxious.”

Led by player-coach Jose Garza and veterans like Lozano, Juan Garza and Josh Hamm, the Pirates overcame a rough start to the season to track down a playoff bid early, winning nine straight during one stretch.

But just when it looked like Patterson might have a chance to end its quest for a championship, the Pirates’ bats went silent at the worst possible time — against a team they had beaten three times during the regular season, no less.

After scoring nearly 5.5 runs per game during most of the regular season, Patterson managed just three in two games against Stockton’s young staff. The Pirates didn’t come close to their .274 batting average during the season, either.

The worst of it came in Game 2, when the dark clouds began to move in at Stribley Park and on Patterson’s season. After a brief surge to open the contest, the Pirates fell flat in the finale, managing a run and eight hits while putting just four runners in scoring position.

“The way our staff was able to pitch to the top five of that Patterson lineup was special,” Stockton pitcher Eric Watts said. “That’s as good a lineup as you’ll face every day. We didn’t want to face them anymore. Two games was enough.”

The top of the lineup never really got going at the plate or on the bases, going 4-for-11 with one stolen base. Jose Garza hit a homer in Game 2 but struggled in his other at-bats. Collectively, the Pirates struck out 11 times in two games.

And when the Pirates needed them the most, the heart of the order — the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters — couldn’t come through, combining for three hits in nine at-bats and striking out twice in Game 2.

“I honestly believe it would have taken one inning for us, one at-bat, one sequence for us to turn this thing around,” Jose Garza said. “Coming into this ballpark, if we would have won (Game 2), I think we could have won the series.”

But that one moment never came, sending the Tigres into their dugout to spray cans of beer in celebration while the Pirates walked off in disgust, extending a hunt for a title for yet another year.

“We knew what we had to do when we came in,” Jose Garza said. “Three runs in two games is not going to come close to cutting it in the playoffs.

“We had to step up, and it just didn’t happen.”

• Contact Marc Aceves at 892-6187 or marc@pattersonirrigator.com.