PHOTOS: Support was at a fever pitch for CIF finals; see how many fans showed up

On By tim-burt-oc-sports-zone

This post was originally published on this site

Canyon fans including Gareth Goetz (black cap, standing) father of the Comanches’ Camden Goetz, cheer on the Comanches Saturday at Blair Field during the CIF Division 4 finals. (Photo: John Luciano, For OC Sports Zone).

Fans turned out in big numbers for the CIF baseball finals at Blair Field and the softball championships at Deanna Manning Stadium in Irvine. Both championships were held on Friday and Saturday.

How many?

According to Thom Simmons, asssisant CIF commissioner, 7,017 fans turned out at Blair Field and 4,362 at Deanna Manning Stadium over the weekend.

Attendance seemed the highest for the Friday night baseball game between JSerra and Santa Margarita and the softball game the same evening between Pacifica and Norco Friday evening in Irvine.

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At Blair FIeld, the home of the Long Beach State Dirtbags, a near capacity crowd watched JSerra defeated Santa Margarita 1-0 in eight innings in the CIF Division 1 championship game. It was the Lions second straight Division 1 title.

Also on Friday night, at Deanna Manning Stadium, it appeared between 2,000 and 2,500 fans watched Pacifica top Norco 15-9 in the highest scoring CIF softball final in history. The stands were packed and fans were standing in the grassy areas down each line and very vocal.

“It’s everything honestly, there was so much preparation going into it from the fans,” said Pacfica’s winning pitcher Brynne Nally after the game. “We knew when we were going to this game, they were going to be here and we were so excited to have them because they really just keep the game going and they bring the energy to the game, it’s just so nice to have.”

Attendance was steady at both the softball finals again on Saturday for other divisions.

Fans turned out in solid numbers Saturday for the CIF Division 4 game at Blair Field to watch Canyon defeat Crean Lutheran 3-0.

“Canyon had a lot of success, they just haven’t been back here for a while,” said Canyon Coach Jason Smith after the game. “It really means a lot, I’m reallly happy for the seniors, they’ve worked really hard, they’ve had to deal with COVID first coming into high school, then they had to do with a coaching change with Coach (Mike) Najera retiring and then us coming in trying to put our own system in.

“I’m just super excited for the seniors, all the alumni, our parents, our fans, our administration. I can’t be more proud of how these guys really played for each other.”

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com