CORONA >> Matt Kim had a shaky start on defense but Fullerton’s shortstop found a way to stay solid at the plate.

The 5-foot-10 senior made five errors but had three hits as Fullerton kept its wild postseason alive with a 14-9 victory over Santiago in a CIF-Southern Section Division 4 quarterfinal playoff game.

“Every pitch I’m thinking, ‘They’re going to hit the ball to me,’ but it’s baseball, you can’t control it sometimes,” said Kim, who accounted for two errors during a five-run fourth inning.

“So it’s about how you handle it mentally, and I pride myself on the ability to take the game one pitch at a time, on defense and on offense,” he said. “I’ve been kind of struggling in my last few games, so to be able to produce in such an important game, it feels really good.”

Kim added two RBIs and scored three runs in five plate appearances for Fullerton (23-7 overall), which moves on to play at Aquinas in the semifinals Tuesday afternoon.

“If we play defense we’re going to be fine,” Fullerton first-year head coach Shaun Hill said. “That’s been our biggest point – we know that if we take care of the baseball we’re going to be fine.”

Despite Kim’s early miscues, Fullerton led 4-0 before Santiago rallied for three runs in the third and took the lead in the fourth on a two-run double by Austin Gamell.

Chris Ramirez, Ethan Monroe and Tyler Blade each had run-scoring singles as the Sharks (21-11) opened up an 8-4 lead but they were unable to hold it in their first quarterfinal appearance in more than 18 years.

“They took advantage of our mistakes, and it was one of those days where we were unable to have a shut-down inning defensively,” Santiago coach Ty DeTrinidad said. “Every time we fought they fought right back so credit to them.”

Forced to endure a 30-minute delay before going on to beat Tahquitz 9-3 in the second round, Fullerton scored five times in a lengthy fifth inning against Santiago to regain the lead, and tacked on five more runs in the sixth to push way out ahead.

“We know we’re going to score runs and that we can swing it with anybody,” Hill said. “That’s something we’ve done well all year – swing it – and nobody lacks confidence going up in that box.”

Sebastian Fany had three hits – including a two-run double – and totaled three RBIs off the bench as Fullerton’s bats came alive in the late innings.

Kyle Kim added two hits and three RBIs, and Jeremy Maldonado reached base four times and scored three runs.

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Bryce Dean doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly from Austin Kiernan as Santiago, the third-place qualifier from the Big VIII League, plated a run in the seventh.

Matt Kim made assists on three of the four outs to finish the game, including a clean scoop and throw on the final play.