Rancho Alamitos seniors (from left) Henry Garcia, Emmanuel Salazar, Gerardo Avila, Davian Sanchez and Leo Monroy following their final high school game Tuesday. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).
Rancho Alamitos baseball team’s magical run through the post season came to an end Tuesday afternoon as the Vaqueros fell to Roosevelt 7-4 in the opening round of the CIF So Cal Regional Division V playoffs at Rancho Alamitos.
No-5 seeded Roosevelt (11-17) won its seventh consecutive game and advanced to Thursday’s semifinals and will face No. 1 seed Verdugo Hills which defeated Rolling Hills Prep on Tuesday.
No. 4-seeded Rancho Alamitos, which advanced to the CIF Division 8 finals for the first time in school’s history, finished the season with a 15-13 record.
“It’s tough and it’s disappointing but this team accomplished a lot this season,” said Vaqueros Coach Sammy Macias. “We’ve been on an emotional run over the last part of the season but today our energy wasn’t as high as it normally is. The kids are out of school and we didn’t play a clean game. These kids put new life into our program this season and we’re proud of their accomplishments.”
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Roosevelt pushed across run in the top of the first inning to take an early lead.
Lead-off hitter Maddoxx Davila was hit by a pitch. He then stole second and moved to third on an infield ground out. Davila scored on Ivan Gonzalez’s infield ground out, giving the Rough Riders a 1-0 lead. Davila was on base three times, stole two bases, scored two runs and pitched the first three innings for the Rough Riders.
Rancho Alamitos tied the score in bottom of the first inning. Ethan Shepherd reached base on an infield error and came around to score on Aiden Martinez’s RBI single tying the game at 1-1.
The Rough Riders took a 2-1 lead in the second inning on a pair of doubles by Izaiah Cortez and Jayden Sanchez. Cortez had two doubles in the game, an RBI and scored a run.
Roosevelt took advantage of three walks, two errors and two hits in the third inning to score four runs to open up a 6-1 lead.
Henry Garcia’s RBI sacrifice fly in the third inning trimmed the Rough Riders lead to 6-2. However, Vaqueros hurlers gave up six walks and the Rancho Alamitos’ defense committed four errors that hurt the Vaqueros comeback efforts. Roosevelt also stole six bases in the game.
The Rough Riders upped their lead to 7-2 in the fourth inning when Gonzalez collected his second RBI of the game on an infield ground out, following a costly Rancho Alamitos error.
Jacob Neri’s RBI single in the fifth inning cut the lead to 7-3, but on the play Martinez was thrown out attempting to score from second on a strong throw to home plate by right fielder Sanchez, thus ending the inning and the rally.
Carson Lamb led off the seventh inning with a single and scored on Martinez’s infield ground out. The Vaqueros brought the tying run to the plate but reliever Ivan Gonzalez retired Neri to end the game.
“We felt good and we were ready to go today,” said Gonzalez, who also scored a run for Roosevelt. “We feel when we’re going good, we’re hard to stop.”
“The key today was that our bullpen pitched well and we hit,” said Roosevelt Coach Jose Flores. “Our program hasn’t been through this experience before, but we’re advancing and we get to play a D1 team and see how we pair up against them.”
The Rough Riders used five pitchers and we able to prevent Rancho Alamitos from scoring more than one run in any inning.
Despite starting the season 1-13, Roosevelt rebounded to finish fourth in the Eastern League, reached the playoffs and won the Los Angeles City Section Division 2 championship. It marked the school’s first CIF baseball championship in 103 years. The school opened in 1923.
“The kids attitude changed and they bought into what we were teaching them,” said Flores. “It’s a testament to their their character. They started playing as a team.”
The Vaqueros themselves had a strong run at the end of the season that propelled them to the CIF Division 8 final.
Rancho Alamitos finished third in the Grove League and advanced to the school’s first CIF final but lost to Schurr of Montebello in the championship game. The Vaqueros defeated Los Amigos, Edgewood, Chadwick and Oxford Academy before reaching the finals.
Rancho Alamitos’ ace hurler Henry Garcia said it was a memorable season.
“After we lost in the first round of the playoffs last season, I never thought I would be pitching in the CIF finals or a regional tournament game,” said Garcia, who threw a no-hitter and a perfect game this season as well as a one hit, 3-0 shutout over Oxford Academy in the CIF Division semifinals. “It’s been a special season and I’m looking forward to pitching in college.”
Lamb had two hits and scored two runs and was on base three times for the Vaqueros. Shepherd, a catcher, also scored runs and threw out a base runner attempting to steal third and he picked off a runner at third base.
Gonzalez had two RBI and scored a run for the Rough Riders. Izaiah Cortez and Jayden Sanchez added RBI for Roosevelt.
Notes:
—Garcia has committed to play baseball for Orange Coast College next season.
—-Both Roosevelt and Rancho Alamitos made their first state regional appearances in their school’s history.
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