Estancia baseball walks off against Pacifica Christian, advances to CIF semifinals
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Estancia High baseball senior Jake Humphries is the last remaining player on the roster from the Eagles’ 2022 CIF championship team.
Humphries was a bench guy as a freshman on that squad; his older brother Tyler playing a bigger role. Still, there is something to be said for having that kind of experience when making one last run.
When he saw a 2-and-0 hanging curveball in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday, Humphries knew exactly what to do with it.
“You’ve got runners at the corners,” he said after the game. “All you’ve got to do is just poke something, get something to the outfield, allow your team to have a fighting chance really.”
Humphries laced a single over the shortstop and into the outfield, scoring junior teammate Sawyer Atkinson from third base and starting a wild celebration on the Estancia baseball diamond.
The Eagles had rallied for a 4-3 win over next-door neighbor Pacifica Christian Orange County in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 6 playoffs.
Estancia (18-13) will stay at home to face Rancho Mirage in a Division 6 semifinal game on Tuesday. The team graduated a senior-laden squad a year ago, and Humphries is one of just four seniors this year, but Estancia again finds itself in the final four.
“We’re not going to rebuild,” said Eagles coach Nate Goellrich, whose team finished second in the Coast League. “People were saying that around us, but we were just saying that we were retooling all year. So for us to qualify for playoffs and now being in the semifinals, credit to the seniors, credit to the kids for just buying in. Our expectation is that we’re going to win, and we’ve been fortunate to do that so far.”
Pacifica Christian (14-12), in just its fourth varsity year, has also gotten used to winning. The Tritons made the Division 8 title game a year ago.
They were close to knocking out the Eagles on Friday. The visitors took a 3-0 lead in the third inning, with Taisen Morishita, Blake Hayes and Scout Escobedo all crossing the plate. Morishita scored on a wild pitch, while John Coopman’s sacrifice fly and a single to center by Luke Miller plated the other runs.
Tritons starting pitcher Jon Stone was cruising, but Estancia answered with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth, as Atkinson and Nico Viramontes both walked to lead off the inning and came around to score.
Jon Stone went four innings for Pacifica Christian, allowing just one hit, and he was followed by Josiah Miller and Carter Canada on the mound.
“Josiah hasn’t pitched in weeks, and he came out and battled for us,” said first-year Pacifica Christian head coach Beau Amaral, a former Huntington Beach High and UCLA standout who played six seasons in the Cincinnati Reds organization. “I was really proud of him for that. Carter coming in, he’s a freshman. I couldn’t be more proud of our guys. It’s not the outcome we wanted, but they battled.”
Amaral’s father Rich went to Estancia before a 10-year career in Major League Baseball. He had his Estancia jersey retired and currently works as a scout for the Baltimore Orioles.
“He couldn’t make it today,” Beau Amaral said. “He’s out in North Carolina right now.”
Dad’s alma mater ended up with the victory. Down to its last out, Estancia evened the score at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh, with Atkinson’s two-out double off the left-field wall scoring Athan Perez.
Goellrich said as Atkinson goes, so Estancia’s offense goes.
“I thought it was out,” the Eagles junior said of the seventh-inning smash. “I was seeing the ball well all day long, I just was having trouble sitting back on my back leg. I was kind of lunging forward. The pitcher had some [velocity] on him, so I was just thinking sit back and drive from there.”
The clutch hit set the stage for the ninth inning heroics for Estancia.
Senior pitcher Vaughn McCrea went eight innings for the Eagles before junior Lincoln Silva got the win in relief, throwing a scoreless ninth inning.
Humphries said he’s glad Estancia will be back at home Tuesday for the semifinals.
“We grew up our whole life in Costa Mesa, and we didn’t transfer out or go to any special school,” he said of himself and his teammates. “We stayed at our hometown school, and it’s really cool to see everyone who watched us from T-ball all the way up just stay in the same environment. I feel like it’s just a really cool thing to see the community come together.”
Fountain Valley 5, Torrance 2: Senior Logan Hunt pitched five shutout innings for the Barons in Friday’s Division 2 playoff quarterfinal game on the road.
Tyler Peshke, Drake Robinson and Josh Grack each had a pair of hits for Fountain Valley (18-13), which took a 5-0 lead into the seventh inning. Anthony Zamora and Isaac Lomeli each drove in a run.
Fountain Valley will play at Mater Dei in a Division 2 semifinal game Tuesday. The Barons will be attempting to advance to their first CIF title game since 1996.
Glendora 2, Costa Mesa 1: The Mustangs’ season ended in the quarterfinals of the Division 3 playoffs Friday at Costa Mesa High.
Pitchers Troy Simmonds and Will Morales combined to yield no earned runs for Costa Mesa, while Wylan Rottschafer was one for three with a double and run batted in.
Golden West League champion Costa Mesa finished the season 24-7, the 24 wins representing a single-season program record.
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