Fullerton Stops Sonora to Win Freeway League

Sonora may be the defending Southern Section Division II champions, but the Raiders are no longer the Freeway League champions.

Fullerton snatched that title Tuesday with a 7-2 victory over Sonora at Fullerton. It was Fullerton’s second victory this season over the Raiders, and it clinched the Indians’ first league championship since 1992.

The 10th-ranked Indians (19-4-1, 13-0-1), whose only league blemish is a tie with Troy, were led by senior left-hander Michael Garner, who has been their leader all season.

Sonora has hit a county record 42 home runs this season. Fullerton is the only team that hasn’t allowed Sonora (19-4-1, 11-3) to go deep and Garner (9-1) is the reason. He has struck out 24 Sonora batters (11 on Tuesday) in the two meetings between the teams. The Raiders managed only four hits off Garner, three of them coming in the fifth when they scored twice to tie it, 2-2.

“The kid is just nails,” Sonora Coach Pat Tellers said of Garner. “There’s a reason he’s the top pitcher in the county and he showed it today.”

Still, the score was close until the fifth, when Fullerton got to Sonora starter Jeremy Weinberg.

Weinberg (8-1), who worked out of two bases-loaded situations in the first and fourth, could not escape in the fifth. The Indians loaded the bases with no outs, and Greg Johnson hit a two-run double to center. Weinberg was replaced by Ryan Owens, but three more runs would score, the capper being Pedro Torres’ fourth home run.

For Fullerton Coach Marty Berson, who returned to high school baseball from Santa Monica College, it was his first league title since Savanna won in 1974.

“I inherited a very good team,” Berson said. “From the first day I saw them I believed they could be league champions.”