Jake rakes walk-off as Estancia baseball wins second CIF championship
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FULLERTON — The Estancia High baseball team has held tightly onto the belief all season that hard work could mean eventual success.
It started with the first game of the season, a 15-3 loss to Woodbridge that veteran coach Nate Goellrich called “ugly, putting it nicely.”
“We went down the line after the game and I told the guys that was going to define our year,” Goellrich said. “We can either work to get better, or it was just going to be a lost year. To their credit, man, they worked hard.”
Like the season itself, the most important game of the campaign also didn’t start well. Estancia gave up three runs in the top of the first inning to Pasadena Marshall on Saturday in the CIF Southern Section Division 6 championship game.
Undeterred, senior starting pitcher Vaughn McCrea and junior reliever Lincoln Silva shut out Marshall the rest of the way.
In the bottom of the seventh, things set up for senior Jake Humphries to be the hero.
The only remaining player from the program’s first CIF title team in 2022 delivered, stroking a bases-loaded triple to deep right field to score three and help Estancia earn a 4-3 victory.
“This title means everything,” Humphries said. “This team had so much perseverance. We had a good season, but man, we got kicked down so many times. But it’s about how many times we got right back up. It’s amazing.”
Marshall (20-7-1), which shares the Eagle mascot with Estancia, jumped out to the lead in the opening frame. The designated visitors scored three unearned runs after Trevor Lam reached on a one-out infield error. Nate Callaway’s double brought him home, then a single by Ben Muro scored two more runs.
Estancia (20-13) answered with a run in the bottom of the second, courtesy of a two-out rally. Carlos Hauser drew a full-count walk, then No. 9 hitter Athan Perez followed with a single to right. The lineup flipped and leadoff hitter Miles Dodge roped a double to right-center to bring home Perez.
That was all Estancia would get off Marshall ace pitcher and senior left-hander Caleb Thatcher. He threw 5 ⅔ innings, allowing the lone run on four hits. He walked four and struck out 10.
The score stayed the same until the bottom of the seventh. McCrea, bound for Lewis and Clark University in Oregon, kept Marshall at bay for the rest of the game until departing with two outs in the top of that frame.
“It was just a journey,” McCrea said of the season. “We were projected to finish last in league and we just won CIF. It’s a big switch-up from what everybody thought.”
Silva allowed a double to left to Callaway in the seventh, but a Marshall pinch-runner was easily out at home, with Estancia junior catcher Sawyer Atkinson supplying the tag.
Goellrich joked that Silva was a “super vulture” in the playoffs, earning three wins in each game that McCrea started, also including the opening 10-8 win over Alhambra and a walk-off, nine inning 4-3 win over Pacifica Christian in the Division 6 quarterfinals.
The CIF quarterfinals, semifinals and title game all ended with the same 4-3 score and Estancia on top.
On Saturday, Estancia immediately put pressure on Marshall in the bottom of the seventh. No. 2 hitter Jacob Ramirez led off with a single to right and Atkinson walked.
Cleanup hitter Nico Viramontes, who had previously been hit by a pitch twice in the game, poked a single to shallow right-center to load the bases with nobody out.
Callaway, the Marshall relief pitcher, quickly got to an 0-and-2 count on Humphries. But Humphries battled back with the walk-off triple over the right-fielder’s head on a 2-and-2 count four pitches later. The ball rolled to the base of the wall.
“I knew the wind was blowing out all game, and I saw him running in and I thought this might have a chance,” said Humphries, who also had the walk-off hit against Pacifica Christian. “I was screaming, ‘Get over his head,’ and what do you know, it went over his head. Having the boys rally was amazing.”
Viramontes slid across the plate with the winning run, setting off a wild celebration. Estancia had clinched the title in dramatic fashion, as it did when it edged Anaheim 2-1 in 11 innings for the Division 6 crown in 2022.
“It’s been amazing,” said Viramontes, who is also 9-0 on the mound. “I don’t think I could ask for any better ride than this. We fought hard for this, and I feel like we deserve it by the way we played. This group of guys is special. We never back down to anyone … I feel like when we have pressure on us is when we’re most powerful, and we just showed it right there.”
Dodge finished with a pair of hits for Estancia, which earned its second CIF title in four years in Goellrich’s second stint as head coach. He was also head coach from 2011-2017, before returning in 2021, turning a fifth-place in league team from the year before into the program’s first CIF titlist.
Now Estancia has doubled up. Goellrich said each championship was special in its own right, and that he’s proud that Estancia did it with neighborhood kids.
“We’ve got the private schools around us that try to take our best players, and we’ve got the public schools that act like private schools that try to take our best players,” Goellrich said. “My first stint as head coach and now, I want people that want to be here. These guys are here, and we work hard with what we’ve got. We’ve got a successful program, and that’s all we can ask for.
“If you don’t want to win CIF championships, then don’t come to Estancia, right?”
Estancia will now compete in the CIF State Southern California Regional Playoffs, which begins with games on Tuesday, June 3. When the Eagles won their first CIF Southern Section title in 2022, they also earned a regional crown.
“We’ve got our banquet [Sunday], practice Monday and we’ll get ready for Tuesday,” Goellrich said.
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