GRAND RECEPTION: El Toro's Mike Barnhill is met by excited teammates after hitting a grand slam during the fourth inning. El Toro defeated Cypress, 11-1, to advance to the Division II title game. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |
Baseball Playoffs: Complete effort moves El Toro into final
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Check out how the county teams fared, the scores and the updated pairings.
El Toro went 3 for 3, the way Chargers coach Mike Gonzales saw it.
“Good pitching, good defense and timely hitting,” he said. “Fortunately, we got all three.”
Chad Thompson provided the good pitching with a one-hitter, Andrew Marian provided a spectacular catch to lead a steady defense, and Mike Barnhill walloped a grand slam as part of the timely hitting as El Toro beat Cypress, 11-1, Tuesday in a CIF-Southern Section Division II semifinal playoff baseball game at Cypress.
El Toro (24-7) will play Redlands East Valley (26-3) in the championship game at Dodger Stadium on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. It will be El Toro's second appearance in a CIF-SS championship baseball game. The Chargers lost to La Mirada in 1988 in the 3-A final.
Cypress finished 20-11. The Centurions started the playoffs in the wild-card round and won four playoff games before Tuesday.
Thompson gave up a double by Danny Pulfer that led off the first inning, Cypress' only hit. Thompson, a junior right-hander, improved to 12-3 and set the school's single-season victories record. He struck out nine to push his school single-season record to 121.
Marian made a diving catch in left field in the sixth inning as Thompson and the Chargers retired the final seven Cypress batters.
Barnhill's grand slam was part of a five-run fourth inning.
Andrew Wellman had driven in the first fourth-inning run with a single. With Grant Andersen on third base, Wellman on second and Nolan Arenado on first, Barnhill bashed a 2-2 pitch over the left-field fence.
“I had swung at a couple of changeups I shouldn't have swung at,” Barnhill said, “and then I saw a fastball letter high and I crushed it. I knew it was out as soon as I hit it.”
Barnhill's blast made it 8-1. The Chargers added three runs in the fifth, when Dillon Penprase drove in a run with a single and Arenado's second double drove in two.
Thompson has been the winning pitcher in all four El Toro playoff games. With the big lead and a CIF championship game only two days away, Gonzales thought about pulling Thompson in the later innings to save for Thompson as many of the 10-innings-per-week allowed for CIF pitchers as possible for Thursday.
“Yeah,” Gonzales said, “but we've got to get there first. Crazy things can happen in high school baseball.”
The craziness usually doesn't happen when a team goes 3 for 3.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
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