Antonio Lujan (16) of Cypress celebrates after hitting a double against Pacifica in an Empire League baseball game at Cypress High School in Cypress on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
CYPRESS – Empire League baseball won’t have co-champions this year.
Cypress beat Pacifica 4-0 in a league game Tuesday at Cypress High to create a tie for first first place.
Cypress and Pacifica are 8-1 in league. They play each other Thursday, the final day of their regular season, at Pacifica at 3:15 p.m.
Cypress has been Empire League champion every season since 2013 (there was no league champion in the COVID-truncated 2020 season). Pacifica usually is the Centurions’ chief competition in the six-team league.
The Mariners and Centurions were league co-champions last season with 9-1 league records.
Cypress junior left-hander Wyatt Rosales pitched 6⅓ scoreless innings Tuesday. He gave up four hits and two walks with three strikeouts.
Rosales lowered his ERA to 0.60 and moved his record to 4-1-1. He has walked only 10 batters in 50 innings.
Centurions senior catcher Nick Montgomery hit a two-run home run, his third homer of the season. Sophomore left fielder Noah Johnson had two hits with an RBI. Senior right fielder Antonio Lujan hit two doubles.
Rosales, who was assisted by two Cypress double plays Tuesday, slid many a strike along the outside edge of the plate to Pacifica’s right-handed batters.
“I was painting it,” Rosales said. “The splitter was working well today.”
Cypress coach John Weber said Rosales is not the most overpowering pitcher but simply throws strikes and gets batters out.
“He’s not throwing 93, 95 (miles per hour) with the dirty hammer and the filthy change-up,” Weber said. “But he competes his butt off and makes pitches when he needs to.”
Cypress took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning.
Justin Tillar led off the third with a single that just got past Pacifica second baseman Spencer Groff’s diving effort. Tillar went to second on John Short’s deep fly that bounced over the left-field fence for a double. Johnson’s hard-hit ground ball got through the middle for a hit to drive in Tillar.
Centurions sophomore Jake DeLaquil led off the fourth inning with a single and after an errant pickoff throw moved DeLaquil to second base and Jackson Pohl’s sacrifice bunt advanced hin to third. Montgomery, who struck out on three pitches, including a called third strike, followed with a high-arc shot over the left-field fence, just a few feet inside of the foul pole, for his third home run of the season.
“I got a little hanging curve ball that I got in front of and I was able to keep it fair,” said Montgomery who signed with Arizona State.
Garrett Rodriguez scored Cypress’ third run of the inning, the game’s final run, on a wild pitch.
Pacifica had Jacob Zanaboni, who patrols center field very well for the Mariners, on third base in the fourth inning with one out. Rosales got a strikeout and a fly out to end that inning.
Another Rosales strikeout in the fifth inning stranded Pacifia’s Jayson Juarez on third. The Mariners had runners on first and second with one out in the top of the seventh inning when Rodriguez replaced Morales and got a strikeout and a ground out to end the game.
Cypress-Pacifica is one of the better rivalries in Orange County baseball. Rosales and Montgomery said they have known several players on the Pacifica roster for a long time.
“It’s awesome,” Montgomery said. “The parents got a rivalry going, the teams, the coaches. It’s fun every time we get to come out to the field to play.”
Weber got his 400th career coaching win and Pacifica’s Mike Caira got his 300th career coaching win.
Short, who leads Cypress in RBIs with 27, pulled a hamstring while swinging at a pitch in the fourth inning. Weber said Shorts might be unavailable Thursday.
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