Villa Park beat Huntington Beach in a dramatic game in the CIF Southern Section baseball playoffs last year.
The Spartans had no runs and one hit through six innings. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Villa Park’s Nathaniel Pone hit a fly ball over the head of Huntington Beach’s left fielder to drive in the winning run for a 2-1 victory.
The teams meet again Tuesday. Same round, same place, same division.
Huntington Beach (21-8) plays at Villa Park(18-11) in a Division 1 second-round game at Villa Park High.
Pone graduated last spring, and so did his teammate who scored the winning run, Jake Starr.
Villa Park right-hander Justin Tims, shown pitching against JSerra in 2022, has not allowed a run this season. (Photo by Alex Gallardo, Contributing Photographer)
But plenty of players who were in last season’s game are still around, including Villa Park senior pitcher/infielder Justin Tims who was All-Crestview League last year.
Tims pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts in a playoff win Friday over Bishop Amat.
Huntington Beach senior pitcher Nathan Aceves and senior designated hitter Linkin Garcia were All-Surf League first team last season.
So these teams have some recent playoff history. Huntington Beach hopes history is not repeated Tuesday.
ANOTHER REMATCH
There is a more recent rematch than Huntington Beach-Villa Park that will take place in the Division 1 playoffs Tuesday.
Mater Dei (17-12) is home against Corona (26-3) in a second-round game.
The Monarchs beat Corona 5-3 in the championship game of the Boras Classic South tournament last month.
Corona is the No. 1 seed in Division 1and is ranked No. 1 in the state by Prep Baseball California and No. 2 in the nation by MaxPreps.
CRESTVIEW LEAGUE
Three of the Crestview League’s four teams won their first-round playoff games.
Villa Park, which shared the league championship with El Modena and Foothill, beat Bishop Amat 6-1 in Division 1. Foothill won its Division 1 first-found game, 7-5 over South Hills. El Modena advanced in Division 3 with a 9-3 win over Dana Hills.
The Crestview team that did not get past the first round was El Dorado, the league’s fourth-place team. El Dorado played Corona to a scoreless tie through six innings. Corona’s Billy Carlson hit a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat the Golden Hawks 1-0.
Foothill (21-8) plays at home in the second round Tuesday against La Mirada (22-6). El Modena (19-8-1) is at South Torrance (16-13) for a second-round game Tuesday.
NOTES
• Second–round playoff games start at 3:15 p.m. The date or times of playoff games can be changed if both teams agree to the change and if the change is then approved by the CIF-SS office. …
• All five Sunset Conference teams in the playoffs won their first-round games: Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos of the conference’s Surf League and Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor of the Wave League. …
• The playoffs continue with quarterfinals Friday, semifinals May 14 and championship games May 17 and 18. The finals are at Lake Elsinore Diamond. …
• JSerra’s attempt to become the first Orange County baseball team to win three straight CIF-SS championships ended in the Division 1 first round with a 15-2 loss to Bonita. Only five O.C. baseball teams have won back-to-back CIF-SS baseball titles: Fullerton in 1926-27, Fountain Valley in 1994-95, Canyon in 1996-97, Capistrano Valley 2000-01, Oxford Academy 2009-10 and JSerra 2022-23. …
• The baseball season continues after the CIF-SS finals with CIF Southern California Regional competition. (There are no California state championships in CIF baseball.) First-round regional games are May 28. The CIF Southern Section will be represented by 20 teams in five CIF Southern California Regional divisions. …
• The 56th Orange County All-Star Baseball Game is May 29 at Great Park in Irvine. Head coaches are Jake Haney of Crean Lutheran for the South team, El Modena’s Josh Kliner for the North. Rosters will be announced this week.
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