The article below originally appeared on MercuryNews.com and is being reprinted with permission.

Devin Bradley pitched three innings last Tuesday. That’s as far as the rain let him work.

The College of San Mateo right-hander was slated to come out of the bullpen during Saturday’s showdown at Canada College. The rain, once again, refused to cooperate.

But with the skies clear Monday afternoon, Bradley returned to the mound.

The layoff did nothing to slow the sophomore ace who allowed one hit over seven innings in an 8-1 victory during the make-up game against Coast Conference rival Canada.

“To be honest, I really wanted to pitch against them,” said Bradley, who threw 103 pitches and lowered his ERA to 0.52 — good for second in the state behind teammate Josh Fredenhall (0.00). “So I was ready whenever.”

“That’s Devin Bradley,” CSM coach Doug Williams said. “He’s got the mental toughness where it doesn’t matter the situation. If you’re playing at home or if you’re playing away, he’s the model of consistency.”

Canada (10-8, 4-4 Coast), which technically was the home team even though the game was played at CSM because of the rain, got its lone hit in the bottom of the third when a two-out flare to left field landed in front of a diving Abi Arias.

“It was a little dinker and he tried to make the play,” Bradley said. “He dove and didn’t get it, but he went all out for it.”

A wild pitch and the eighth error in four games by shortstop Riley Goulding allowed the Colts to take a 1-0 lead on an unearned run.

But Bradley, a Carlmont-Belmont grad who struck out six and walked one, was rarely in danger as he relied on command of the fastball to pound the strike zone.”He threw strikes and obviously we couldn’t hit him,” Canada coach Tony Lucca said of Bradley. “But I just think we’re very feeble with the bats, personally.”

The Bulldogs (12-6, 6-1) broke through in the top of the fifth by loading the bases with one out before designated hitter Anthony Feliciano hit a fly ball into no-man’s land that landed for an RBI single. Catcher Shawn Walters followed with a walk to make it 2-1 before Canada starter Darius McClelland, a member of CSM’s pitching staff last season, settled down by inducing a double play.

“It’s tough when you have a team that doesn’t score any runs behind you,” Lucca said. “You feel like you have to pitch a shutout every time out, and that’s not the way you should go into the game.”

The game broke wide open in the top of the seventh when Feliciano delivered a two-run double over the third-base bag to ignite a four-run rally. Third baseman Cody Zimmerman capped the scoring with a two-run blast down the left-field line in the eighth.

“This team can be very good if we continue to get the timely hits,” Williams said.

Same could be said about Canada.

“We’re really at a funk at the plate right now,” Lucca said. “By the time we figure it out at the plate, hopefully it’s not too late to make a playoff run.”

E-mail Vytas Mazeika at vmazeika@dailynewsgroup.com.