Calabasas Floored by Rialto’s 1-2 Punch : Baseball: Johnson’s bat, Magdaleno’s arm derail Coyotes, 4-0.

Jared Sandler threw 80 pitches in Calabasas High’s Southern Section Division IV quarterfinal game against Rialto on Friday.

He wishes he had two of them back.

The crafty left-hander tossed a three-hitter, but two of the hits were home runs by the Knights’ Forrest Johnson, helping Rialto to a 4-0 victory and handing top-seeded Calabasas its only loss of the season.

The Coyotes (25-1), one of the area’s top offensive teams, managed only four hits against Rialto’s Leonard Magdaleno (3-1) and stranded nine runners. They produced a succession of fly outs and strikeouts in crucial situations.

“The guys wanted to win so badly but I think they were a little overanxious,” Calabasas co-Coach Scott Drootin said. “This was only the third time all season we were behind and they started to press.”

Johnson, a 6-foot, 175-pound sophomore, put Calabasas in a hole with a solo home run in the fourth inning and a two-run shot in the sixth off Sandler (8-1).

“They were both fastballs down,” Sandler said dejectedly of the blasts to center field. “I thought they were good pitches but he got them. He hit them real hard.”

Rialto (20-5) scored a final, unearned run in the seventh. Calabasas first baseman Darin Reisman collared a line drive by Dennis Castro but threw the ball past Sandler at the bag, allowing Castro to reach second. Castro moved to third on an errant pickoff throw by catcher Josh Goldfield and scored on a sacrifice fly by Magdaleno.

Rialto committed three errors to the Coyotes’ four, but Calabasas was unable to punch a run across.

Calabasas stranded two runners each in the second, third, sixth and seventh innings. Brett Niles was the only Coyote to reach third as Magdaleno stayed a step ahead all afternoon.

“Give [Magdaleno] credit, he was the difference,” Drootin said. “As big as those home runs were, he shut down a great hitting team and kept them off-balance.”

Reisman agreed.

“I didn’t think [Magdaleno] was overpowering but he pitched smart,” he said. “He threw a lot of 2-and-1 curves and changes. We were caught off-guard.”

In only their second season at the varsity level, the Knights showed no signs of being intimidated by the Coyotes.

“We were happy to come up here,” said Magdaleno, who struck out four and walked three. “We got a scouting report and studied a video of [Calabasas], so we figured out where a couple of their batters liked the ball and didn’t give it to them there.”

The batting slump closed the book on a memorable season for Calabasas, which won its first outright Frontier League title and set a school record for victories.

“This was the best,” said Drootin, an assistant on Kennedy’s 1985 City championship team. “Everybody knows how hard it is to win 25 in a row and these guys are gonna remember this season for the rest of their lives.”