Crean Lutheran players celebrate as the Saints score some runs in Tuesday’s win. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs / John Luciano and Howard Lyon).
Crean Lutheran High School’s baseball players welcomed a new post-season challenge Tuesday afternoon.
The Saints opened the CIF Southern California Regional Division IV playoffs with a 12-2 victory over Calexico at Crean Lutheran in a game called in the bottom of the sixth-inning due to the 10-run rule.
No. 2-seeded Crean Lutheran moves on to the semifinals Thursday at home at 4 p.m. against No. 3 Sage Creek which defeated Apple Valley 7-1. A win in the semifinals could put Crean Lutheran into the finals on Saturday against top-seeded Canyon, which defeated the Saints 3-0 in the CIF Division 4 finals at Blair Field.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Top-seeded Canyon opened the Division IV regional with a 3-0 victory over Sylmar Tuesday. The Comanches will host No. 4 Fallbrook on Thursday.
Pinch-hitter Adrien Varela drove in two runs in the bottom of the sixth to cap the win for Crean Lutheran (25-9).
“That’s kind of a nice thing to end the game,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Jake Haney. ‘You don’t get to do it very often, there is no mercy rule in CIF Southern Section, but there is in state.”
Crean Lutheran scored four runs in the second and one in the third to take command. Calexico (17-12) scored two runs in the fourth on a balk and a groundout by Derek Carrillo that drove in a run.
Crean Lutheran had great offensive production banging out 15 hits.
Center fielder and leadoff hitter James Derflinger had two hits, two RBI and a run scored, right fielder Andrew Kezerle scored two runs and had an RBI, third baseman Mark Fedro scored a run and had two stolen bases, first baseman Jack Sand had two hits, two RBI and a run scored, pitcher Jack O’Malley had a hit, an RBI and a run scored, catcher Harrison Stiles had a two-run double, shortstop Sho Garcia had two hits and two runs scored and left fielder Andrew An had two hits, a run scored and an RBI.
“We played some different guys today,” Haney said. “We’re just so deep and someone from the outside may say, ‘that’s not the same starting lineup that was most of the playoff run.’ But that’s how deep this team is, there is no drop-off. And you kind of flip coins sometimes making the lineup because we have so many good players.”
O’Malley who pitched the first four innings striking out five and allowing two runs, registered his fourth win without a loss. Jake Mercurio and Bryan Fernandez each pitched a scoreless inning to finish the game.
“The guys behind me came in and did a nice job and we played really clean defense,” added Haney.
“It was a great team win,” added Derflinger. “We all hit well and every single one of our arms did well and we did our job and we came out on top.”
Derflinger said the Saints are looking forward to the next game.
“I’m fired up for it,” he said. “We’re an excited ball club, we’re all ready to go. We all want to go far and we’re ready to go far. We have incredible depth, I don’t think I’ve seen a team with the amount of depth we have. Anyone on our roster we can put in at any time of the ball game and they will get the job done.”
Haney, the Saints coach, said he’s looking forward to another game at home Thursday and his players aren’t dwelling on a possible rematch with Canyon in the finals Saturday. He was hoping his team would secure the CIF title in the championship game.
“It’s not like a revenge thing or anything like that and if we get it done we will celebrate like crazy but it’s just different and the opportunity to compete against a good team is what these guys want to finish and for them to finish it the right way and beat any good team is way they want to do it,” he said.
“The nice thing is we’re at home (Thursday) so we don’t have to go very far.”
The finals are scheduled Saturday at 4 p.m. at the home of the highest seeded team.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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