RANCHO CUCAMONGA — As crazy as the Baseline League baseball race was this season, it just made sense that the title race and the final automatic playoff berths came down to Wednesday’s final day.
While there was a chance at even later drama, host Los Osos clinched its first league title since 2013 with a 5-2 victory over Etiwanda in the opening game of a doubleheader.
“This has been a two-year grind,” Los Osos coach Travis Kelly said. “The boys really came out last year and made everybody aware that we’re a different program. I really believed in our program this year and what we’re about and how we were going to go about it. They competed from the time we got in August to now and they bought into what we’re about. It (winning league) means the world to me.”
Wednesday was the last day of the regular season, per CIF Southern Section rules. The teams had originally been scheduled to play Monday and Wednesday at Los Osos and Tuesday at Etiwanda.
Monday’s game was postponed because of rain that made Los Osos’ field unplayable, requiring Wednesday’s doubleheader. The other two Baseline League games scheduled for Monday were played as scheduled.
Etiwanda won Tuesday’s series opener, setting up an exciting final day in which Los Osos needed one win and Etiwanda needed two wins for the league title.
Etiwanda (14-12-1 overall, 9-6 league) came back with a 8-6 win the second game over Los Osos (19-8, 10-5) and finished in a tie for second with Rancho Cucamonga, which defeated Damien Wednesday.
Los Osos, Etiwanda and Rancho Cucamonga secured the three automatic berths for the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Damien and Chino Hills, which finished tied for fourth, have to hope for at-large berths.
The Grizzlies seized control of Game 1, scoring once in the first inning and twice in the second against Etiwanda starter Jack Holguin. The first inning run came on a throwing error, and the runs in the second came on a sacrifice fly by Wyatt Mohler and an RBI single by Hunter Meyer.
Those runs were enough for Grizzlies starter Jordan Mejico.
“Jordan’s a guy (who says), ‘give me the ball, I’m going all six innings, all seven innings,’” said Meyer, who was 2 for 2 with two walks. “With him on the bump it’s a good feeling.”
Los Osos extended the lead to 5-0 with two more runs in the fourth inning on RBIs by Meyer and Evan Jones.
Etiwanda battled, scoring a run in the fifth on a Luke Mendoza RBI single, and another in the seventh when Justin Jackson’s leadoff double led to a run that made it 5-2. But the Eagles never got the tying run to the plate.
Mejico allowed seven hits and two runs in 6 ⅔ innings, while striking out four, walking three and hitting one. Zenen Pena came in for one batter, striking out Mendoza to earn the save.
“Our mindset was to come in and win the first game, ideally, and give ourselves a chance to win league,” Etiwanda coach Don Furnald said. “Their pitcher did a really good job, threw a lot of strikes. They made plays. They were the better team in the first game.
“I think the key to the game was those opportunities we had with the bases loaded (in second and third innings) and didn’t push any runs across.”
The league title is especially important to Kelly, a Los Osos graduate, but he knows it was far from a solo coaching effort.
“I have one of the best (coaching) staffs in the country,” Kelly said. ‘They’re locked in, every pitch. I couldn’t have done it without that staff.”
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