Laguna Beach baseball rallies past Grand Terrace into second section title game
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The Laguna Beach High baseball team has come from behind in three of its four postseason games.
Belief never wavered.
Of course, having an ace pitcher is also plenty useful.
Senior right-handed pitcher Branson Wade allowed no earned runs in six innings Tuesday afternoon, as the Breakers rallied for a 2-1 win over visiting Grand Terrace in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs.
Laguna Beach (20-11) has advanced to its second section championship game in program history, the first since the program won its only CIF title a decade ago in 2016. The Breakers will play Glendora (19-11) for the Division 4 title at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.
“We never count each other out, we just keep going,” said Wade, a Loyola Marymount commit who improved to 11-3 this season with a 1.23 earned-run average. “No matter what the score is, I always trust in my guys that we can come back.
“It’s an honor,” he said, when asked what it meant to be the ace of the team. “It’s been 10 years [since our last CIF title], a very long time, and that needed to change. I just hope we can get this win, but yeah, I’m really grateful.”
Wade now has 25 career wins for the Breakers, which ties the mark set by Blake Burzell from 2015-18. Earlier this season, he threw the third no-hitter in school history against Portola, and he also continues to add to the program career strikeout record with 247. He struck out five and allowed five hits on Tuesday.
Wade can pitch up to four innings on Saturday, as pitchers can record up to 10 innings (30 outs) per week.
Grand Terrace (20-8) took the lead on an unearned run in the third inning, as Ezekiel Jahen singled home Ray Roybal. The score stayed the same until the bottom of the fifth.
Breakers senior Jackson Arrasin led off with an infield angle, and was sacrificed to second by Aaron Crosby. An out later, Arrasin came home on a two-out, two-strike single through the hole to right field by senior leadoff hitter Otis Boultinghouse.
“Never a doubt in my mind that I would get the job done,” Boultinghouse said after the game. “I just always talk to myself positively, and make sure I clutch up for my boys. They do the same for me. Branson Wade, hell of a game on the mound, and [Dylan] Yencho coming in to close it. I’m just making sure I do my part there.”
Boultinghouse came home on a double by Lincoln Adams, giving Laguna Beach the lead.
With Wade at 108 pitches, Yencho came on in the seventh to record the save.
“When he comes off the field and says, ‘Give me the ball,’ there’s nothing else I wanted to do,” second-year Breakers head coach Ryan Belanto said. “He wanted the ball. That kid is the ultimate competitor, and he went out there and did exactly what he needed to do, got us through it.”
Yencho walked the leadoff hitter, but then induced a double-play ground ball to the shortstop, Adams. The next batter was hit by a pitch, but a grounder to Adams ended the game.
Yencho and Gabe Paz were both two for three for the winners. The Breakers also got a single from junior catcher Parker Moore against Grand Terrace starting pitcher Noe Villanueva, who allowed two runs on eight hits.
The Breakers have now won 20 games in back-to-back years. Last year’s team had 25 wins and advanced to the second round of the Division 1 playoffs.
Belanto noted that many of last year’s graduates were at Tuesday’s game to support their alma mater.
“It’s just a testament to the kids in this community and what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re hoping to perpetuate it, just keep all the kids in eighth grade, seventh grade, sixth grade to keep coming to Laguna Beach. We’re going to start a program. I’m going to be here for a while, so it’s going to be good.”
