Flintridge Prep baseball braces for another playoff tilt with Salesian

With half of the Flintridge Prep baseball team in Santa Barbara on their senior trip the past two days, it’s been a bit difficult for the Rebels to get in full practices as it vies for its second straight CIF championship.

Seven Rebels are seniors and headed north Wednesday morning.

However, they are all expected to return in time for Flintridge Prep’s CIF Southern Section Division VI quarterfinal home game against Salesian at 2:30 p.m. Friday at the Glendale Sports Complex.

“It’s been a bit crazy at practice, but we’ve managed with who we have in terms of the underclassmen,” said Flintridge Prep Coach Guillermo Gonzalez, whose fourth-seeded team posted a 4-2 second-round road win against Providence on Tuesday at Foy Park in Burbank. “They will be back, but they might be a little bit rusty.

“We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully, they can produce when they get back.”

Flintridge Prep (18-5) and Salesian (20-11) are certainly no strangers to one another.

The teams met in the semifinals last season, with Flintridge Prep rallying for a dramatic 10-9 victory en route to winning the program’s first CIF crown. The Rebels overcame deficits of five and three runs and a final one-run deficit. Theo Rosenfeld drove in the winning run in the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly.

Flintridge Prep, which won the Prep League championship outright, began its current playoff journey with a 28-0 win against Joshua Springs before turning back Providence.

Flintridge Prep starting pitcher Robbie Leslie went the distance against Providence, yielding two earned runs on three hits and three walks while striking out four. Catcher Cole Pilar collected two hits, walked twice and scored a run.

Salesian, which captured the Santa Fe League title under coach David Sifuentes, began the postseason with an 11-4 win against Vasquez before earning a 5-3 victory against Rancho Christian.

Outfielder Andrew Amador had three hits and drove in a run and catcher Edmund Rosas drove in two runs for Salesian to eliminate Rancho Christian.

Gonzalez, the reigning All-Area Baseball Coach of the Year, said Salesian will be another good test.

“I don’t know too much about Salesian, but they are going to be solid defensively,” said Gonzalez, who added he’ll start Aidan Schraeder or Richard Pan on the mound. “They have some real good players and they’ve been playing well, so it will be a very good game.”

Sifuentes said the Mustangs, who will start ace pitcher Patrick Peña, have played a difficult schedule to prepare them for the postseason.

“Playing a tough schedule has helped us and we are expecting another tough matchup with Flintridge Prep,” Sifuentes said. “They are the defending champion and we just came up a little short against them last time. We want to get to where they are.

“I think the final eight teams left in our division are probably the best teams remaining.”

The winner will meet top-seeded Sage Hill or Santa Paula in a semifinal game Tuesday.

The other quarterfinal games in the division pit second-seeded Crean Lutheran against Lancaster Desert Christian and third-seeded Calvary Murrieta versus Buckley. The championship game will be held June 4 at UC Riverside.