Crescenta Valley baseball heads back down to Mission Viejo looking for championship berth
It will have been but a week since the Crescenta Valley High baseball team ventured deep into Orange County for a playoff game in Mission Viejo.
But in a historic sense, it’s been quite a bit longer since the Falcons have gone this far.
It was 1998 to be exact. That was the last time the Falcons found themselves in the semifinals.
On Tuesday, Crescenta Valley will travel to face host Mission Viejo at 3:15 p.m. in the CIF Southern Section Division II semifinals.
“That’s part of the challenge, we have to go down there,” Crescenta Valley Coach Phil Torres said. “Our kids know what they’re getting into; we’ve already been down there once.”
Crescenta Valley (25-5), which took second in the Pacific League and has won six in a row, will face a Mission Viejo squad that boasts a 24-10 record that includes a second-place finish in the Sea View League.
“I know they’re from the best league our division, hands down,” Torres said of the Sea View League, which has gone 7-1 in the playoffs with top-seeded San Clemente playing in the other semifinal against Chino Hills and third-place Trabuco Hills having lost to CV in the second round.
Following a 4-0 victory to open the playoffs against visiting Ventura, Crescenta Valley took the long trek south to Mission Viejo to defeat Trabuco Hills in the second round, 5-1. On Friday, the Falcons downed Carter, 1-0, to advance to the semifinals.
Back in 1999, Torres was just beginning his run as CV skipper and the Falcons moved on from the semifinals to defeat Esperanza, 7-1, for the Division I championship.
Leading the charge in hopes of making some more history will be senior right-handed ace Brian Gadsby. The reigning All-Area Baseball Player of the Year threw back-to-back complete games in the first and second rounds to lead the Falcons to victory.
“It’s Brian’s turn,” Torres said. “He’s fresh and ready to go.”
Gadsby was also the 2014 All-Area Football Player of the Year after leading the Falcons to a 14-0 season and CIF Southern Section Southeast Division title, combining with the current baseball run for one of the greatest school years in CV and area history. Gadsby is also joined in the starting lineup by outfielder Chase Walker, who was an All-Area Football selection, as well.
Perhaps most amazing about the Falcons’ run thus far is that Crescenta Valley has only used two pitchers in three games and has only given up one run in three games – which was unearned.
In Friday’s quarterfinal victory, which came to be when Ryan Lynch hit a walk-off single in the bottom of seventh inning to score Dakota Cummins, Eric Ma made his first postseason appearance on the mound and threw a two-hit shutout.
Now Gadsby, a UCLA commit, takes the ball back against the Diablos, who opened the playoffs with a 6-4 win over Yucaipa ahead of an 11-0 thumping of Oxnard and, finally, a 2-1 quarterfinal win in eight innings against Royal.
The Diablos are led by an outstanding pitching staff headed up by seniors Patrick Sandoval and Donald Strickland and sophomore Tanner Bibee. Sandoval, a left-hander, is a much-ballyhooed prospect signed to Vanderbilt who touches the low 90s with his fastball and allowed just one earned run in 14 innings against San Clemente in two league games, which included a shutout win.
Should Crescenta Valley topple Mission Viejo, it would move on to face San Clemente, the No. 12 team in the nation according to Maxpreps, or Chino Hills on Saturday at a time to be determined at San Manuel Stadium.