WEST COVINA – With revenge on its minds, the Calabasas baseball team defeated host South Hills 6-3 in the CIF State Southern California Division II Regional semifinals Thursday.
Calabasas (24-10) advances to Saturday’s championship game. It will play at Santana (21-10) of Santee, a 3-1 winner over top seed Crespi in the other semifinal.
South Hills (25-7), which lost in the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 championship game, tried to rally in the seventh inning while trailing 6-2. It loaded the bases, but couldn’t get the big hits it needed for a comeback win.
For Calabasas, it was payback because it had lost to South Hills in the CIF-SS Division 2 semifinals.
“They’re a really good team and came down here in the semi’s and they beat us,” Calabasas coach Thomas Cassidy said of their previous meeting. “To have the opportunity to come back here and play them again was definitely exciting and we were definitely up for the challenge.”
Coyotes senior Peter Lynch who was the losing pitcher in that semifinal loss, but he got his own revenge and was the winner in his last high school game Thursday.
“I’ve pitched in some big moments as a sophomore and for the last three years and pitched against (South Hills) in that (semifinal) loss,” said Lynch, who won’t see any mound time in the finals. “It feels great coming back winning. This is a game that finishes my high school career.”
Leading the way for the Coyotes was junior catcher Will Stubington with a double and two RBIs and junior right fielder Simon Hoffman with a two-run single.
South Hills was led by junior third baseman Paul Vazquez with two of the five Huskies hits.
After both pitchers retired all but one batter in each of the first two innings, Calabasas broke through with three runs in the top of the third.
The Coyotes loaded the bases on a walk and two hit batters with two outs. The turning point of the game at that point was a full count walk to senior Phoenix Call to force in the first run of the game.
Stubington doubled to left, scoring sophomore first baseman Matthew Witkow and senior left fielder Dezi Gonzalez for the 3-0 lead.
“Before my at bat coach Cassidy came up to me and said it’s time to get a barrel (hit) right now,” Stubington said. “I just heard that voice in my head and swung as hard as I could.”
An inning later, the Huskies loaded the bases on a single by Vazquez and walks to senior shortstop Marcos Rosales and junior first baseman Steve Jimenez but were left stranded.
In the bottom of the fifth, South Hills broke through with its first run on a walk to Sterling Patick, who scored on a pinch-hit double by freshman Andrew Lulet. The Huskies scored a second run and didn’t score again until the bottom of the seventh.
“We got to play seven playoff games and had 25 wins and with the history that (South Hills) has, it’s something to say that we have one of the most wins in school history,” South Hills coach Darren Murphy said.
“We’re extremely proud of the kids and even (Thursday) we were down two different times, and we had the tying run at the plate. I have nothing but good things to say about our kids.”
Calabasas added three insurance runs in the top of the seventh on a two-run single by junior right fielder Simon Hoffman, scoring Brandon Hoffman and senior second baseman Tyler Shulman. A third run came in on the play on a throwing error by the huskies.
The lone run by South Hills in the seventh was scored by junior Matt Moreno on a bases-loaded hit batter.
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