SECTION 1-A BASEBALL SEMIFINALS : Denmark Leads Julian to 1-A Final

Travis Denmark pitched a three-hitter and hit his 14th home run to lead the Julian baseball team into the San Diego Section 1-A baseball final with a 7-0 victory over Imperial in a semifinal Friday afternoon.

Julian (19-6) will play top-seeded Midway Baptist, an 8-4 winner over Holtville Friday, for the championship at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Grossmont College.

Julian took the lead for good with a three-run second inning. J.D. Yohner opened the inning with a base hit, followed by two walks. Curtis Delgadillo hit a sacrifice fly to score one run, Frank Stewart singled up the middle to score another, and Graham Koonce finished the scoring in the inning with another sacrifice fly.

Denmark, a senior right-hander who struck out 10, hit his homer in the sixth, a 400-footer to dead center.

Imperial finished 12-9-3.

In the other 1-A semifinal:

Midway Baptist 8, Holtville 4--In the fifth inning, with the scored tied and Steve Cauley at the plate, Midway Baptist scored on an attempted squeeze play and then again on a squeeze right after to take a 5-3 lead.

An error by the Holtville center fielder allowed the Patriots to score two runs on Steve Smith’s single in the bottom of the sixth to make it 8-3.

Smith (8-1) is among the top pitchers in the county with 117 strikeouts in 71 innings.