NORWALK — The Orange Lutheran baseball relied on game-changing momentum from junior first baseman Josiah Hartshorn’s three-run home run in the third inning to rally past La Mirada 9-4 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinals at Glenn High Friday.
Hartshorn’s big game was also highlighted by a two-RBI single in the sixth, which gave him a game-high five RBIs.
“It felt pretty good,” Hartshorn said. “I kind of knew it (was a home run) the second it left and the boys got hyped and that got us going.”
Orange Lutheran senior pitcher Ross Clark picked up the win after throwing 2 2/3 innings in relief and allowing two hits, one run and three strikeouts.
The Lancers improved to 25-6 overall and will host Harvard-Westlake in the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals Tuesday.
“It took a lot of grit,” Orange Lutheran coach Eric Borba said postgame. “It took our guys really digging deep. We dug ourselves a little hole early. They came out swinging and came out on all cylinders and we just weathered the storm. I think when you get to this time of the playoffs, it’s like a heavyweight fight every round. You’re going to take some punches and you have to be able to deliver some back. I’m just extremely proud of our guys, to see the grit out of them. That’s what it really took.”
La Mirada (23-7) was led by junior third baseman Maverek Russell (UCLA commit) who went 3-4 with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the first inning. Matadores sophomore catcher Justin Torres’ sacrifice-fly RBI put La Mirada up 2-0 in the bottom of the second inning.
“I felt like we had them on the ropes and had a chance to put the foot down on the gas pedal,” La Mirada coach Zurn said. “I could feel it when I was over there (on the third base line) and we didn’t do the final knockout punch is a good way to put it and in and inning where we were ready to tack on another one to go up 3-0 nothing turned into only putting up one and now we’re only up two.”
However, the Lancers battled back and scored nine runs between the third and sixth innings.
“We’ve done it all year,” Hartshorn continued. “We’ve had a lot of adversity and we’ve been able to fight back so we knew what we were capable of and so we were confident in what we could do and as a team we got behind our offense and we started putting runs together.”
La Mirada senior starting pitcher Walker Calvo went three innings and allowed four hits, three runs and had four strikeouts.
Meanwhile, the Matadores cut Orange Lutheran’s lead to 6-3 in the fourth inning on an RBI single by freshman second baseman Bear Calvo and 7-4 on an RBI single by junior first baseman Jason Rodriguez.
“We hit really well (Friday),” Zurn continued. “I’m proud of the way our kids fought. We weren’t as sharp on the mound as we’ve been but if there’s one thing that I can take away and I told these guys, you can go toe to toe with anybody in the country.”
Related Articles
CIF-SS baseball playoffs: Updated schedule for Friday’s quarterfinals
Previews of Friday’s CIF Southern Section baseball quarterfinals
Orange Lutheran baseball team rolls past Vista Murrieta in Division 1 playoff game
CIF-SS baseball playoffs: Tuesday’s scores, updated schedule for the Orange County teams
Baseball playoffs roundup: Orange Lutheran wins big; Santa Margarita, Canyon advance
Leave a Reply