Oilers’ magical run continues

HUNTINGTON BEACH — The Yucaipa High baseball team came into Friday’s CIF Southern Section Division II semifinal game as the top-ranked team in the state.

The Highlanders were ranked No. 4 in the nation by USA Today, and No. 12 by Baseball America.

None of this mattered to Oilers senior Blake Cestr. The usual closer started on the mound — and closed as well.

Boy, did he close.

Cestr allowed just one earned run for his first win of the year, and Huntington Beach got what may be the biggest win in school history by shocking Yucaipa, 10-2, at Huntington Beach High.

“It could be,” Coach Benji Medure said. “It’s the biggest win in nine years since I’ve been here. We won a league title in 2004 and we had some good ones that year, but I don’t think anyone believed outside of this dugout believed that we could get it done today.”

The Oilers, who finished third in the Sea View League and had to play a wild-card game, now advance to the Division II semifinals at Chino Hills Tuesday. The Division II championship game is Saturday at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, at 4:30 p.m.

Huntington Beach (18-12) has never advanced to the CIF finals in baseball. They’re one win away now though, after slaying the giants from the Inland Empire.

Yucaipa, the Citrus Belt League champion, finished with a 27-3 record. The Oilers have now beaten three straight league champions in the playoffs.

“We end seasons,” Cestr said. “We’ve been saying it as much as we can. We end seasons. We try to go into every game with a swagger and a confidence.”

Cestr got tough Friday. After allowing back-to-back singles to open the game, he got Yucaipa senior Matt Davidson to ground into a double play to end the threat.

Then the Oilers’ bats started working. With one out in the bottom of the first, junior Sean Guite singled, and senior Beau Amaral followed with a towering home run to right for a 2-0 lead.

But they weren’t finished against Yucaipa starter Frank Martin. Jon Combest reached on an error — one of five on Yucaipa infielders — and Cestr and Buddy Johns (three for four) followed with singles to load the bases.

Jake Porter walked to force in a run. An out later, David Van Doornum reached on a wild throw to first, allowing two runs to score and staking Huntington Beach to a 5-0 lead after an inning.

“The big boost of confidence was Beau’s home run in the first inning,” Cestr said. “That set the tone for us, and we stayed on that pace the whole rest of the game.”

The Oilers got three more in the third and were cruising. Johns scored on a wild pitch, then Amaral’s double down the right field line scored two more.

Down, 10-1, Yucaipa loaded the bases with no one out in the seventh. But Cestr got out of it cheaply enough and the Oilers had finished their upset.

“We thought we were going to have to score seven or eight, because we thought they were going to score five or six,” Medure said. “Looking at their scores, they’ve put up 30, and 25. It’s like they’re scoring touchdowns and not runs. I believe in our pitching staff and I believe in Blake, but for him to come out and do that on a big stage was huge.”

”... Blake matched up the best with their team. He has a good slider and a good change-up.”

The matchups are secondary now, though, for a team that has just gotten hot at the right time. The Oilers will now look to show Chino Hills just how far they’ve come.

“It’s great having a team come so close together,” Amaral said. “It’s amazing.”

In Division I quarterfinal action Friday, Edison got by Dana Hills, 3-2, while Marina fell at Capistrano Valley, 11-0.

The Chargers’ Kurt Heyer allowed two first-inning runs but shut out Dana Hills the rest of the way. Edison’s Jimmy Madden scored the winning run in the seventh after Eric Snyder reached on an error.

Madden scored all the way from first on the play, crossing the plate after leaping over Dana Hills catcher Spencer Kuehn, who had the ball and tried to leap to tag Madden.

Edison (23-5) plays Mater Dei in the Division I semifinals Tuesday at Long Beach State.