LONG BEACH – If anyone says the Division 1 baseball championship is the most difficult team championship to win in the CIF-Southern Section, JSerra might agree.
The Lions’ quest for their first Division 1 championship game appearance ended Tuesday with a 2-0 loss to Harvard-Westlake of Studio City in a semifinal.
Harvard-Westlake (25-8) plays Murrieta Mesa (26-7) in the championship game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at San Manuel Stadium. Murrieta Mesa defeated West Ranch of Valencia, 6-3, in nine innings in the other semifinal.
It is the second time in three years JSerra was denied in the semifinals. The Lions lost to Foothill in the Division 1 semifinals in 2014. Last year, they were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Sophomore right-hander Jesse Bergin pitched a four-hitter for the Wolverines. JSerra had baserunners on second base in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings. Harvard-Westlake scored its runs in the fourth inning.
It was the first shutout loss of the season for JSerra (27-7).
“We picked a bad time to play our worst game of the season,” JSerra coach Brett Kay said. “We just didn’t get that big hit which we’ve done all year.”
This was a season of accomplishments for the Lions.
They won the Trinity League championship for the third year in a row, the first time JSerra has done that. The Lions tied the school single-season record for wins and equaled the school’s farthest advancement in the playoffs. They are No. 1 in the latest Orange County top 10 and went into the playoffs as the division’s top-seeded team.
Three Lions in the starting lineup Tuesday are non-seniors, including junior third baseman Royce Lewis who will be among Southern California’s top returnees in 2017.
Harvard-Westlake had to win a Division 1 wild card-round game, 6-4 win over Westlake, to get into the 32-team bracket. The Wolverines defeated two league champions, J.W. North of Riverside and fourth-seeded Cypress, and Vista Murrieta before playing JSerra in the semifinals.
The Wolverines’ two runs in the fourth inning were all Bergin required. Cameron Deere led off the inning with a single. He scored on Leo Kaplan’s triple off of the left-field wall. Kaplan scored on Casey Slattery’s slapped single through the right side of the infield to make it 2-0.
JSerra senior right-hander Collin Quinn went the distance in his first loss. He concluded with a 12-1 record.
The Lions had won 11 in a row going into Tuesday. They had won their final eight regular-season games, all Trinity League games, before winning three playoff games.
Over the past three seasons, JSerra is 8-3 in playoff games. The Lions got close to a CIF-SS baseball championship again, and again came just a couple of runs away from breaking through.
“It’s frustrating,” said Kay, who completed his 11th season coaching JSerra. “But it doesn’t take away from the season our guys had. It’s not like we beat ourselves in this game, because we lost to a team that’s a buzzsaw right now. Their pitcher got strong as the game went along so you’ve got to tip your cap to him.”
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
