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Estancia baseball players and coaches celebrate after capturing the regional title. (Photos: OC Sports Zone, Tim Burt).
Estancia High School’s baseball team settled the issue early Saturday afternoon on its way to the CIF Southern California Regional Division V championship.
The Eagles scored eight runs in the first inning and went on to defeat Baldwin Park 11-2 to win the title in front of a big crowd at Estancia. Estancia (31-5) also won the CIF Division 6 title two weeks ago and completed the mission with its 13th victory in a row. Estancia won seven games all of last season.
Senior Trevor Scott (11-1) went the distance for the Eagles, scattering eight hits and allowing one earned run. He struck out three.
Estancia players celebrated with a dogpile on the mound and later accepted the championship trophy from Rob Wigod, CIF Southern Section Commissioner.
“Obviously getting eight in the first really helped settle the nerves down of our team and helped settle my nerves down,” said Estancia Coach Nate Goellrich. “I thought our hitters did a great job going middle right side on the pitcher. We knew kind of where he was going to locate his ball and we committed to that kind of middle right-side approach.
“We hit some balls hard, and hit some balls hard in the hole and were fortunate to get that eight-run inning to kind of settle things down and it seemed when they had something going he (Scott) would throw a quality pitch to get out of that to keep everything to a minimum and keep the momentum on our side the whole game.
“For Trevor to finish his career with a complete game regional victory is amazing for him, I’m so proud of him. He was not even going to be a starter for us in January and for him to finish 11-1 and throw the complete game today, is an awesome moment for us.”
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Estancia sent 12 batters to the plate in the first inning. Jack Moyer, who was 4 for 4 with two runs scored and two RBI, singled to start the inning and later delivered a two-run double to cap the scoring.
Scott, James De La O, Tyler Humphries and Andrew Mits, also had RBI singles in the inning.
“It was a great day and an unbelievable feeling coming out here going 4 for 4 and making four or five plays in the infield,” said Moyer. “We broke it open early with a leadoff hit from me and it felt good to keep it rolling all the way through.”
Baldwin Park scored an unearned run in the third inning. After an infield error, Jason Martinez tripled to drive in a run.
But Estancia countered in the bottom of the third inning. Humphries led off with a single and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Coyotzi to put Estancia ahead 9-1. The Eagles added another run in the fourth. De La O doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Humphries.
Moyer scored his second run in the fifth when he singled and eventually came home on an error.
Baldwin Park (22-12) added another run in the seventh when Martinez drove home a run on a groundout before Scott retired the final batter on a groundout.
“It just shows how the team works together,” Scott said. “Everyone had to click today for things to go the way it did. That (big first inning) definitely helped calm some nerves. Once we put up an eight-spot, it’s a lot easier to calm down and just throw strikes.
“I never thought we would get there, my freshman year, we won two games, sophomore year got cancelled due to COVID, last year we got seven and now we’re champions.”
Scott, who had two hits got plenty of support with a 15-hit attack. De La O was 3 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI, Andrew Mits was 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored. Left fielder Tyler Humphries, who Goellrich said was inserted into the lineup because another player was out due to a family emergency, finished 2 for 3 with two runs scored and two RBI.
“This is my first game back hitting in a while,” said Humphries. “I’ve been getting dh’d lately and then got told today I would be hitting and I was a little nervous at the start, but I got back into it and was able to put up two hits and a sac fly and get us two RBI. It felt really good knowing this is how I’m finishing up my baseball career and my career here at Estancia. It’s such a great end to everything.”
Mits, who had a complete game victory on the mound in Tuesday’s semifinal win over Kennedy of Delano, was also excited.
“I can’t believe it, it’s crazy, we put blood, sweat and tears into this win and we came out on top,” Mits said. “From the start of this game, we knew it was going to be a battle and we got on top early and kept pounding into them. We got a little comfortable but then we let up a little bit and we knew we could not let that happen,we just had to keep pushing and pushing and getting runs on them and we came out on top in the end.”
–Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
