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Irvine seniors (from left) Brandon Figueroa, Adam Valencia and Owen Featherston had big games for the Vaqueros. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
It was a special senior day for Irvine High School’s baseball team.
Seniors were honored with their families before the Pacific Coast League finale Thursday against St. Margaret’s and Coach Gabriel Cota was able to get every senior in the game at Irvine.
Parents, brothers, sisters and grand-parents walked out with the Vaquero players and fans were told about their accomplishments by public address announcer Eric Spivey, who’s son Smith Spivey is a junior.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Irvine jumped out to an early 5-0 lead and went on to defeat St. Margaret’s 6-1 for its fourth league win in a row. The Vaqueros (15-12, 10-4) finished in second place in the PCL and will find out their playoff draw on Monday, May 12.
“Today was one of those games where we got it secured we were going to be in second place so it was hats off to all the seniors for all they’ve given me and all that they’ve given the program so I was happy they were able to go out there,” Cota said. “We played pretty much seniors the entire game so it was really cool to see guys who haven’t had the opportunity to play in real games to come out and do well.”
Senior righthander Adam Valencia pitched the first six innings, allowing one run and four hits. Valencia, with his brother Nathan (a former Vaquero) and parents cheering him on, struck out eight and fanned the side in the sixth inning. Roshan Patel pitched a scoreless seventh, striking out one.
Irvine scored two runs in the second inning. Ivan Guerrero drove in one run on a groundout and Evan Tamayo knocked in the second with a double.
The Vaqueros added three more runs in the third inning, two coming on a rare inside-the-park home run by Brandon “Figgy” Figueroa to deep right center field.
The Sage Hill outfielder made a valiant effort to catch the ball but could not and Figueroa, inspired by his former Vaquero football players who were cheering him on from a hill above the field, came racing home.
“That was fun, I’ve been playing baseball my whole life and it was nice to have one of my last games with a home run like that,” said Figueroa, who was a stellar running back for the Vaqueros. “We had an alumni game recently and I hit one out of the park against one of our coaches so that was pretty fun.”
Figueroa said he plans to play football for Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon next year.
Guerrero capped the inning with an RBI single and also had a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to put Irvine ahead 6-0.
Senior Owen Featherston also had a hit and scored two runs and senior Prathamesh Pantakar had two hits and scored two runs for Irvine.
St. Margaret’s (3-17, 2-12) broke the shutout in the fifth inning. Jack Kleinhanzl singled and scocred on an RBI single by Chase Spring.
But Valencia and Patel shut down the Tartans the rest of the way.
“It was fun, I feel I could have done a little bit better,” said Valencia. “It was good to win. The last few years, our senior night has been down to the wire, we got to win to make playoffs. This time, we were a little more laid back. We were able to go with our guys and have some fun.
“We’re excited, we’re going to have a fun ride I think. This team can go really far. I think we’re going to be a well-built team all-around. We have the hitting, we have the pitching. It’s going to be fun to show everyone what we can do.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com