LOS ANGELES – Griffin Canning needed runs. So did Hudson Hughes.
Canning got more of them.
Santa Margarita scored three runs in the sixth inning to blow up a pitcher’s duel and beat Foothill, 3-1, in the CIF-SS Division 1 championship baseball game Friday at Dodger Stadium.
Canning, a senior right-hander who signed with UCLA, gave up two hits and struck out 11. Canning had an array of emotions after the game.
“We’ve been practicing since August, and now it’s over,” he said. “It’s the last time I’m going to play with these guys. It’s tears of joy, definitely.”
He faltered in the sixth inning when he gave up a hit and three walks, including one with the bases load.
He walked the first two Foothill batters in the seventh. With runners on first and second, Santa Margarita second baseman Jordan Steele got to Dylan Doherty’s hard ground ball up the middle, stepped on second for one out then fired to first for a double play.
A flyout to left fielder Kevin Thomsen ended the game.
Steele and Nick Meyer had RBI singles for the Eagles (20-10-1). They got their other run on an error.
Hughes, also a senior right-hander, gave up five hits and two earned runs in seven innings. He struck out nine with two walks.
Canning finished the season 11-3 with a 1.18 ERA and 94 strikeouts in 71 innings.
Hughes was 8-1 with a 1.96 ERA.
Canning and Hughes traded strikeouts through five innings. In Santa Margarita’s three-run sixth, Nick Wallace reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second. Canning followed with a bunt.
Foothill third baseman Randell Kanemaru picked up the slow roller and threw on the move to first to try to get Canning. His throw was wide and flew past first baseman Trent Etchandy. Wallace scored and Canning went to second.
Hughes struck out the next Eagles batter for the second out. Meyer then singled to right field to drive in Canning and make it 2-0. Steele followed with single to right to score Meyer for a 3-0 lead.
The Knights got their run in the bottom of the sixth. Alex Diaz walked, went to second on Kanemaru’s single, Hughes walked to load the bases and Etchandy walked to send home Diaz. Foothill’s Cameron Liederman lined into a double play and Canning struck out Dillon Brown, Canning’s 11th and final strikeout, to end the inning.
Foothill, which won the Century League championship this season after a last-place showing last year, finished 22-11.
Meyer was confident the three runs in the sixth would be sufficient.
“Our whole thing with Griffin pitching this year was ‘get him one run,’” Meyer said. “I knew we were confident when we got him two, then Jordan got him another one and we kind of knew it was done right there.”
It is Santa Margarita’s first CIF baseball title. The Eagles lost in CIF championship games in 1995 and 2002.
Santa Margarita finished second in the Trinity League before winning five playoff games.
It is Santa Margarita’s sixth CIF team championship in 2013-14, the most of any school year in its history.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
