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Crean Lutheran’s Jayce DeJong scores on a Brady McKay RBI. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs, John Luciano).
Friday afternoon’s opening CIF Division 2 baseball playoff game pitted two North Hills League rivals, Crean Lutheran and La Habra, against each other for the fourth time this season with the winner to take all.
Saints’ pitchers Ethan Chavez and Blake Armstrong limited La Habra to one run and Ben Keller slammed three hits and had three RBI to lead the Crean Lutheran to a 6-1 win over the Highlanders.
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The Saints (19-10) advance to the second round next Tuesday and will travel to Valencia to meet West Ranch. La Habra, which had won 11 of their last 12 games entering Friday’s game, finishes the season with a 19-10 record.
Friday’s victory marked the third time in four games this season the Saints have defeated La Habra.
“I stayed calm,” said Chavez. “The last time I pitched against these guys they got to me verbally. This time I had the mindset just to have fun with it. I took today pitch by pitch. It’s a relief to win this game and move on.”
“My job is to keep us in the game,” said Armstrong, who pitched the final three innings and shut the Highlanders down. “It’s amazing we beat them for the third time. We had great offense today and this win brings us a lot of confidence.”
Saints Coach Jake Haney was extremely pleased with his pitchers’ performances.
“Ethan was calm today and when he did make a mistake, he slowed himself down and executed and did a great job,” said Haney. “I trust both Ethan and Blake completely. There is no situation too big for Blake. He’s such a competitor. Ben missed about a month to injury earlier this season, but over the past month his swing has progressively improved.”
The Saints took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on RBI by Griffin Theetge and Quinn Tucker. Quinn had two hits in the game. La Habra cut it to 2-1 on an RBI double by Jonah Mayo in the bottom of the second.
The Saints added three runs in the fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run, two-out RBI single by Keller and an RBI single by Tucker, giving Crean Lutheran a 5-1 lead.
“We beat the number one seed today and we feel if we’re playing at our best we can beat anyone,” said Keller, who added an RBI double in the seventh inning. “We’ve practiced all season for this and we’re a resilient team. We keep scratching.”
The Highlanders had scoring opportunities but left runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth innings.
After La Habra got its first two runners on base in the fourth inning, Izaiah Posada struck out and then Saints second baseman Dylan Maez fielded a ball out by second base, tagged the base and threw to first for the double play to end the inning.
“We had scoring opportunities, but we didn’t cash in,” said Highlanders’ Coach Jack Brooks. “It’s disappointing. We’ve had a great season and it’s always hard for it to end this way. We’ll take a few weeks off and then start to get ready for 2026.”
Ian McDermott and Davis Rutten had excellent games for the Crean Lutheran. McDermott had two doubles and scored two runs. Rutten was on base three times, stole a base and scored three runs.