The Laguna Hills baseball team rallied in the seventh inning but came up short against Citrus Valley in the CIF-SS Division 5 semifinals on Tuesday at Citrus Valley High.
The Hawks scored three runs in the seventh on five hits but lost 14-13 to the Blackhawks, who will play Cajon for the Division 5 championship.
Laguna Hills (20-9) had 17 hits and scored in each of the last four innings. Travis Williams went 4 for 5 with three doubles and a run batted in to lead the offense. Andrew Pinette hit a double and drove in two runs.
The Hawks scored seven runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 7-3 lead. Pinette hit a two-run double with the bases loaded to cut the lead to 3-2 with no outs.
After a walk, Jordan Volk reached on a fielding error which scored a run to tie the game. Hawks pitcher Scotty Kato helped his cause with a two-run single to give Laguna Hills a 5-3 lead. Williams followed with a two-run double and Zach Ferranto hit a run-scoring single to put the Hawks ahead 7-3.
Citrus Valley responded with a seven-run inning of its own to regain the lead 10-7.
Volk hit a two-run double in the fifth to cut the Citrus Valley lead to one run.
The Blackhawks scored four runs in the fifth inning and Laguna Hills responded with two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth.
“We didn’t play well the first 2-3 innings and then we put up a big number in the fourth and got our groove back a little bit, but then we give up seven – talk about emotions being all over the place,” Laguna Hills coach Drew Hillman told the Southern California News Group.
Laguna Hills trailed 14-10 when it made its last rally in the seventh. Christian Sanchez, Billy Schellenberg and Tyler Eisenberg each hit run-scoring singles in the inning before Citrus Valley pitcher Jacob Jacome struck out the last two Hawks hitters to win the game.
The Hawks finished in third place in the Pacific Coast League this season and beat Citrus Hill, Walnut and Crean Lutheran to reach the semifinals.
