Baseball: Temecula Valley wins Southern Section Division 2 championship

With all nine starters back from a team that made it to Dodger Stadium but lost to Cypress in the 2013 Southern Section Division 2 championship game, Temecula Valley was determined not to come up short this season. And the Golden Bears delivered.

They scored four runs in the first inning, taking advantage of two errors, and knocked off Aliso Niguel and standout pitcher Kyle Molnar, 5-3, on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

The game ended with Aliso Niguel having runners at second and third and Jared Morton striking out Eric Wagaman for the final out.

“I’m feeling insane right now,” said junior shortstop David Maldonado, who had two of his team’s seven hits against Molnar.

Aliso Niguel (23-10) was never able to overcome a horrendous start that saw Temecula Valley’s first three batters reach base on a single, a botched bunt and a botched throw on a ground ball. A.J. Sawyer got an RBI single, another run scored on a wild pitch, then Samari Buchanan got an RBI single and Alec Garrett drove in another run with a bunt single.

Brandon Koch threw six solid innings for Temecula Valley (24-8), giving up six hits.

“That first inning I can kind of relate to what they went through making a few errors,” Temecula Valley Coach Tony Nobiensky said. “We kind of did the same thing last year. It’s first-time jitters. I was happy we capitalized.”

Blake Sabol had three hits for Aliso Niguel.