Marin Catholic sophomore shortstop Johnny Greco insists there was no additional pressure despite the nature of Tuesday’s do-or-die contest in San Anselmo.

The Wildcats (11-11, 7-8 MCAL) had to win twice in a two-game set this week against Archie Williams to nail down an MCAL baseball playoff berth.

Step one is complete after MC scored eight runs in the final three innings Tuesday and cruised to a 9-1 victory against host Archie Williams (12-10, 8-7).

“We knew we had to win,” said Greco, who contributed a solo home run, a double, and scored two runs. “But we didn’t really feel any pressure. We had a great practice on Monday and the guys were having fun out here today.”

The fun never really started for the Wildcats until Greco broke a 0-0 tie when he led off the fourth inning with a towering homer over the left-field fence.

“I got the fastball I was looking for,” Greco said about his home run. “I knew it was gone just by the way it felt coming off the bat.”

Greco’s shot started the ball rolling for an MC offense that racked up 13 hits, but not after some anxious moments for coach Jesse Foppert.

The Wildcats loaded the bases on consecutive singles following the long ball but came out of the inning with zero added runs.

“Usually when you have the bases loaded and no outs and don’t score, it comes back to haunt you,” Foppert said. “But luckily we worked past that today.”

MC starting pitcher Cooper Mitchell put the Wildcats in a positive frame of mind, allowing three hits and no runs through the first four.

“(Mitchell) needed to come out and compete, and that’s what he did,” Foppert said.

Mitchell escaped a two-on, one-out situation in the first on the way to striking out six in the first four innings.

Foppert gave Mitchell the hook with two outs in the fifth when he walked in a run, his third base on balls of the frame. Reliever Walker Untermann quickly doused the flames with an inning-ending swinging third strike.

Untermann shut down the Peregrine Falcons the rest of the way, allowing only two singles and striking out three.

MC scored all the runs it would need in the fifth when Wade Untermann ripped a single to center and Greco blasted a double off the fence to set up Mitchell’s two-run infield single.

The Wildcats cashed in on a bout of wildness from a pair of Falcons’ relievers in the final two innings and erupted for six insurance runs.

Jude Baker, who was 3 for 4, knocked in a run in each of the last two innings and leadoff hitter Luke Martin blasted a run-scoring double off the center-field fence for the big hit of the three-run seventh.

Marin Catholic can lock up a league playoff berth with a victory against Archie Williams on Thursday in Kentfield.