SANTA ANA — Mater Dei’s roller coaster season came to an end Tuesday when the Monarchs fell to No. 1 seed Corona 3-1 in eight innings in the second round of the CIF-SS Division 1 baseball playoffs at Mater Dei High.
Corona (27-3) will play at Aquinas in the quarterfinals Friday. The Panthers beat Aquinas 8-0 in the second round of the Boras Classic on April 3.
Mater Dei (17-13) experienced high levels of success this season and struggled through other parts of the season. The Monarchs won the Boras Classic against the top teams in the state, but also finished in last place in the Trinity League standings.
“Every team has adversity and their own battles, but our guys fought through a lot this year,” Mater Dei coach Richard Mercado said. “These guys kept pushing forward and got themselves in a position to win that game. We just came up a little bit short.”
The two teams had met this season in the championship game of the Boras Classic South bracket. Mater Dei won that game 5-3.
Corona pitcher Seth Hernandez shined for the Panthers in Tuesday’s game. The junior, who is a Vanderbilt commit and MLB draft prospect, pitched 7 1/3 innings, allowed one run on five hits and tallied eight strikeouts. He threw 108 pitches before being lifted in the eighth inning.
“We had a lot of opportunities, we just didn’t execute our plan in situations where we really needed to be great,” Mercado said. “He (Hernandez) pitched himself out of some jams. We couldn’t cash in on those runs early and that hurt us.”
Mater Dei scored its lone run against Hernandez in the first inning when Antonio Ganem scored via a balk.
The Monarchs had other chances to score early against Hernandez. They had the bases loaded with nobody out in the second inning. Hernandez struck out a batter and then on an attempted squeeze play, he got a strikeout and caught the runner stealing home to escape the inning.
“First couple innings I struggled to find my release point,” he said. “After that, the fastball and slider got it done for me today. I don’t want to say it was revenge, but it felt good beating those guys for sure.”
Mater Dei had two runners in scoring position with one out in the third inning. Corona center fielder Anthony Murphy caught a pop fly and threw out the tagging runner at the plate.
Murphy was the position player of the game Tuesday. In the sixth inning he tied the game with a solo home run to left field. The sophomore also drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning with a single.
“He’s the best center fielder I’ve ever seen. He catches everything,” Hernandez said. “He’s a young fella but he comes through every time.”
Corona’s defense was excellent throughout the game. Left fielder Justin Sur made a leaping catch at the left field fence to take away at least a double from Johnny Elliot in the sixth inning.
Joshua Sur of Corona robs Johnny Elliot of extra bases with an outstanding leaping catch at the wall. SportsCenter top 10 worthy? @ocvarsity @SteveFryer @latsondheimer @CoronaPBaseball @Joshua21Sur @espn @notthefakeSVP @SportsCenter @LesLukach pic.twitter.com/PWUIlnz5yE
— Michael Huntley (@mikehuntley63) May 7, 2024
Brandon Thomas was very good on the mound for Mater Dei. He pitched six innings, allowed four hits, one run and struck out five before Ryan Iveson took over in the seventh inning.
Iveson had two outs with a runner on second base in the eighth inning and the score tied when Mercado made a pitching change to Landon Gordon.
Murphy promptly hit the run-scoring single and Hernandez helped his cause with a RBI single to give Corona a 3-1 lead.
“I thought it was a better matchup with Gordon against Murphy,” Mercado said. “He (Murphy) did a good job competing and stuck his bat out and blooped it away there. That was the kind of swing we were trying to get but unfortunately the ball found a hole. That’s the nature of the beast sometimes.”
Freshman Austin Gerken hit a single off Hernandez in the eighth before Billy Carlson came in to close the game. Old Dominion signee Brody Connors hit a single to put runners on the corners, but Carlson drew a fielder’s choice to end the game.
Corona last reached a CIF championship game in 2017 when it lost to El Toro for the Division 1 title. The Panthers last won a championship in 1998 when they beat Riverside Poly for the Division 2 championship.
Mater Dei last won a CIF championship in 2010 when it beat Dana Hills for the Division 1 championship.
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