St. Monica Academy baseball ousted by Academy for Academic Excellence

GLENDALE — A goal of the baseball program at St. Monica Academy this season was a return to the postseason, where the Crusaders fell in the first round of last year’s playoffs.

The Crusaders accomplished their mission of returning to the CIF Southern Section Division VII playoffs, where they had already progressed further this season with a first-round win versus Lennox Academy.

Up next was a return bout with the Academy for Academic Excellence, the very school that eliminated them from the postseason last year.

On Tuesday, the visiting Knights kept the hits coming against host St. Monica Academy to defeat the Crusaders, 7-1, in the CIF-Southern Section Division VII’s second round at the Glendale Sports Complex.

“Up and down their lineup they were incredibly tough,” said SMA Coach Paul Gleason, whose team entered the postseason having won their fourth consecutive International League title. “They were well coached and [had] ‘A’-game at every position.”

The Academy for Academic Excellence (16-6), the No. 2 entry from the Cross Valley League, had at least one hit in every inning for a total of 12, including seven doubles. The Knights, ranked No. 8 in the final divisional poll, scored a single run in the first and second innings off of SMA starter Riley Gosnell and then a pair of runs in both the third and fourth innings.

“[AAE pitching] pounded the plate. They dominated,” Gleason said. “They did what they had to do. ...They deserved to win.”

Ian Fonville was the catalyst on offense for the Knights, going four for four at the plate, including three doubles. The freshman also scored three runs and drove in one. Aaron Fonville and Isaiah Siens each hit a double and a single. Siens drove in both runs scored in the third inning with two outs on a double to right-center field.

St. Monica (12-5) trailed by one going into the bottom of the first against Knight starting pitcher Trevor Delabousaye. With one out, Beau Barry lined a single into left field. Jack Golbranson followed and hit the second pitch he saw for a double into the left-center field gap to drive in what turned out to be the hosts’ only run of the contest.

“We tied it up early, scoring a run in the first inning and I thought we are off to a pretty good start,” SMA captain Matt Golbranson said. “But they kept hitting the ball and put a lot of pressure on us.”

The loss brings an end to the baseball career of SMA’s only senior, Matt Golbranson, the eldest of three brothers playing Tuesday.

“[Matt] is an incredible athlete and an incredible human being,” Gleason said. “He is a leader and the spokesman for our team.”

Against AAE, the elder Golbranson recorded a single in the third inning before moving in from shortstop to pitch the final three innings. On the mound he pitched a scoreless fifth and seventh innings while allowing a run on two hits in the sixth. He had three strikeouts.

“I’ve been with this program for four years and it is tough to get a grip on that this was my last game,” said Golbranson, who will attend Santa Clara in the fall and play soccer. “I am just very happy that I got to spend four years at such a great school, with great teammates and a great coach who cares about all of us”

His brother Jack, a junior catcher, was the only Crusader to get two hits. He added a single in the sixth to his RBI double in the first. Mark Golbranson, a freshman who scored the eventual winning run in the first round, legged out an infield single in the fourth inning.

“We worked as hard as we could. We didn’t get the result we wanted, but we are happy with our performance,” Jack Golbranson said.

Just as it had been in the first round, the Crusaders were the home team, but Tuesday’s second round was not played on SMA’s regular home turf. Instead it was shifted on game day to the GSC in a move precipitated by a broken sprinkler flooding the home plate area at the Crusaders’ regular home venue at the Scholl Canyon Ball Fields.

Up next for AAE is a quarterfinal game on Friday against the winner of Coast Union at Santa Clarita Christian, while the Crusaders season comes to a close.

“We left it all out there on the field,” Gleason said. “We are battle-tested, we ended up 12-5 and we had a great year.”