Irvine coaches congratulate the Vaqueros after Tuesday’s home win. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Irvine’s baseball team team knocked off a top-seeded team Tuesday afternoon and turned a rare triple play too in the second round of the CIF Division 5 playoffs.
In a back and forth, dramatic contest the Vaqueros edged top-seeded Citrus Valley 3-2 in front of a large crowd at Irvine.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
The Vaqueros (16-13) advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2019 and will face Cathedral of Los Angeles Friday. Cathedral defeated Long Beach Poly 2-1 Tuesday.
Friday’s game will be at East Los Angeles College at either 3:15 p.m. or 4 p.m.
“Everybody contributed,” said Coach Gabriel Cota. “We preach it all the time, it doesn’t mean it’s always going to come true, it’s about everybody contributing. The guys on the field obviously get the accolades and the press, but it’s the guys, all 25 that we have here, the guys on the bench who have been carrying us every day showing up for practice when they don’t always necessarily get their shot.
“I can’t be prouder of them. They had their senior day at Disneyland yesterday and they came in on their own and practiced on their own and got their work in and as a head coach I can’t be more proud of that.”
Irvine had solid pitching from Matthew Sandoval, who pitched the first three innings allowing two runs and four hits. Jason Alderson (2-5) came on in the fourth inning and pitched three scoreless innings to earn the win.
Jack Dressendorfer, who started at third base, got the save retiring the lineup in order in the seventh inning.
“Absolutely amazing, that’s an amazing team, the one seed, you’re going to have to do something special if you’re going to have a chance,” Cota said.
Irvine indeed something special in the second inning after Citrus Valley (14-15) loaded the bases following a hit batter, an infield single and a sacrifice in which Peyton O’Laughlin reached on an error.
But Citrus Valley was unable to execute a suicide squeeze play.
After the batter missed the bunt attempt, catcher Nico Macalino fired a throw to Dressendorfer who was playing third base. He was able to get the runner who broke from third and tried go get back and another runner was tagged out by shortstop Smith Spivey for the second out.
Spivey then got the third out throwing to first baseman Roshan Patel to complete the 2-5-6-3 triple play and the Vaqueros charged off the field.
“Things have to fall your way,” Cota said. “It happened to fall in place on that play. Extremely great team and well coached. We pulled it out.”
The play seemed to fire up the Vaqueros, who scored in the bottom of the first inning. Macalino walked, Cole Reidel singled and Brady LaGrass pushed a single just past the shortstop to put Irvine ahead 1-0.
“It was executed perfectly by us,” Spivey, the shortstop said of the triple play. “Sando knew where to throw it, Nico knew what to do, it was a great team effort. I tagged him out at second {for the second out} and threw to Roshan and he got the guy out at first {for the third out}. I’ve never been a part of one or seen one.
“Our starting pitcher Matthew Sandoval threw what he always does, he threw strikes, gets outs, he’s solid all-around and the team chemistry on the triple play, that really helped us out and saved that inning for us. Everyone is pulling their weight, everyone is pulling the same direction, it was a great team win.”
“It was a huge victory and a huge confidence boost for us especially after last game, last game our pitching helped us out a lot, especially beating a one seed, that’s huge for any team,” Macalino added. “Our pitchers are always our strong point, this year, especially, we have the bats to back them up.”
Citrus Valley came back in the top of the third inning to tie the game. Aaron Rossi walked, was sacrificed to second base by Martin Esparza and scored on an RBI single by Tristan Garcia-Rojas.
Sandoval worked out of trouble to keep the game tied.
In the bottom of the third inning, Owen Song reached on an error, Spivey and Macalino singled and Patel drove in a run on a groundout to give Irvine a 2-1 lead.
Citrus Valley used two singles and an error to score a tying run in the fourth inning.
But Irvine moved ahead 3-2 with a run in the fifth inning. Dressendorfer singled and was advanced to second on a groundout by Song. Spivey singled to put runners on first and third and Macalino singled to give Irvine the lead.
The Vaqueros also had two runners in the bottom of the sixth inning but could not extend the lead.
However, Dressendorfer got three quick outs in the seventh and the celebration began and 16 seniors could begin thinking about a trip to the quartefinals.
“With all the seniors, unfortunately we all can’t play,” Spivey said. “It’s nice to have seniors who even though they can’t play, they still help the cheer team on and they help everyone else around them. Everyone contributes, the seniors and juniors.”
“I think there are nerves in general in the playoffs,” Cota said. “But it’s the right kind of nervous where you have an opportunity to do something special, that’s how we feel for us to be here. We’re just going to continue to try our best and whatever falls, we will be proud of our guys.”
Macalino and Spivey each had two hits for Irvine which had 10 hits off two Citrus Valley pitchers, including starter Adam Hinds who pitched into the fifth inning.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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