MISSION VIEJO – One Trinity League team down, one more to go.
At least one more.
Trabuco Hills beat Orange Lutheran, 3-2, on Friday in a CIF-SS Division 1 baseball quarterfinal playoff game at Trabuco Hills.
The Mustangs (24-10) will play Santa Margarita (23-10) in the Division 1 semifinals doubleheader on Tuesday at Blair Field in Long Beach. In the other semifinal, JSerra (22-7) plays Foothill (21-10).
Orange Lutheran finished in third place in the Trinity League. Santa Margarita finished second. JSerra was the Trinity League champion.
Any late-round playoff game gets the athletes excited. When it’s public school vs. private school in such a game, there is a bit more edge to it.
“We’re excited for it,” Trabuco Hills senior center fielder Cole Stanton said.
“It’s always a lot of fun to beat the privates,” Trabuco Hills coach Mike Burns said. “They play in a great league and it’s great competition. We like to think we’re every bit as good, scrappy, competitive and all that good stuff.”
Trabuco Hills used three pitchers to get past the Lancers (18-12).
Senior right-hander Eric Neeley started. He surrendered six hits and two runs. Matt Torretto entered in the fifth inning and went 12/3 innings, giving up no hits or walks. Matt Majors pitched a scoreless seventh.
“This was probably a B-plus performance for Neeley,” Burns said. “He didn’t have his A-plus command or change up. He had it at times, and he didn’t have it at times.”
Neeley’s last four wins have been against good teams: Mission Viejo, Capistrano Valley, Esperanza and Orange Lutheran.
Trabuco Hills scored its three runs in the fourth inning. Billy Ray Surch started it with a double and scored on Stanton’s single. Stanton scored on Robbie Biehl’s double to make it 2-0. Biehl scored on Majors’ single.
Orange Lutheran got its two runs in the fifth. Colin Brecheen singled, went to second base on Josh Bissonette’s sacrifice bunt, took third on Tristan Hanoian’s infield single, and scored on Josh Morgan’s double. Hanoian scored on a ground out.
The Mustangs, who finished second in the South Coast League, have won four playoff games. They beat Royal of Simi Valley in the wild-card round, Esperanza in the first round and second-seeded Loyola of Los Angeles, also a private school, in the second round.
Stanton was confident the Mustangs could get to this year’s Division 1 final four.
“We know everybody thought we weren’t going to be here,” he said. “We’re going to prove everybody wrong.”
Orange Lutheran also emerged from the wild-card round, in which the Lancers defeated Newport Harbor, before beating Hart of Newhall and Long Beach Wilson to reach the quarterfinals.
This is the first time the Division 1 baseball final four is composed of four Orange County teams. The last time there was an all-O.C. Division 1 championship game was in 2010, when Mater Dei beat Dana Hills. The other two times the Division 1 finalists were both county teams were 2009, when Capistrano Valley beat El Dorado, and 1981, when Westminster beat Edison.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
