Murrieta Mesa wins Division 1 baseball championship in 10 innings, 3-2

At just after 11:05 p.m. on Saturday night, Murrieta Mesa baseball players came charging out of their dugout at San Manuel Stadium to celebrate the first Southern Section championship in school history.

Zac Filos came up with the strikeout to end a marathon 10-inning game that saw Murrieta Mesa prevail over Harvard-Westlake, 3-2, in the Division 1 championship game.

“This means the world,” Murrieta Mesa Coach Bryn Wade said.

Filos scored in the top of the 10th inning off a squeeze bunt by Andrew Dunkel.

“We win a lot of close ballgames,” Filos said. “We overcome a lot of adversity. A lot of people didn’t expect us to get this far.”

Yes, Murrieta Mesa (27-7) went from last place in the Southwestern League a year ago to champions in its first ever playoff appearance since the school opened in 2009.

Much of the Rams’ success on Saturday can be traced to the standout relief pitching of Kevin Palm. He came into the game in the second inning with his team trailing, 2-1. He threw 7 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, allowing just three hits.

Harvard-Westlake (25-9) got its own stellar relief pitching from Gabe Golob, who came into the game with the bases loaded in the fourth inning. He escaped and maintained a 2-1 lead until tiring in the seventh and giving up a bases loaded walk. Then Nico Mannucci threw 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relef.

Murrieta Mesa took the lead in the first inning when Justin Randle scored from first on a single that got away from right fielder Paul Giacomazzi.

Harvard-Westlake came back in the bottom of the first to score two runs. Jake Suddleson had an RBI triple and John Thomas drove him in with a sacrifice fly.

Then the relief pitching took over until Murrieta Mesa broke through in the 10th off Jesse Bergin.

“You have to tip your cap to them,” Harvard-Westlake Coach Jared Halpert said. “They never gave up.”

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