MONROVIA – The Monrovia baseball team took care of business and defended its home turf against visiting Capistrano Valley Christian in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs on Friday.
Riding the great effort from junior pitcher James Quesenbery, Monrovia came away with a 5-3 victory to advance to Tuesday’s second round, where it will be on the road against Oxnard Pacifica, an 8-0 winner over California.
Monrovia improved to 21-7 while Capistrano Valley Christian finished 16-13.
Quesenbery got the victory over 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run with three strikeouts. He wasn’t overpowering, using his defense to make several plays behind him.
Capistrano Valley Christian threatened with a one-out double in the first inning, but Quesenberry got a strikeout and ground out to escape.
That was key, because the Wildcats answered to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
With one out, Sully Zinn singled and Troy Grise walked. Isaias Hernandez doubled home Zinn and Grise later scored on a sacrafice fly.
Monrovia doubled its lead to 4-0 in the third inning.
Grise’s sacrifice bunt scored a run and Hernandez singled home his second RBI of the game.
Quesenbery was cruising until the fourth inning when he walked two consecutive batters. This forced a mound visit to buy Quesenbery time to gather himself, and he instantly replied with a strikeout.
“I just needed to lock in right there,” Quesenbery said. “I needed to minimize the contact, runs, all that stuff.”
Although Capistrano Valley Christian managed a run, Quesenbery limited the damage to keep Monrovia in front, 4-1.
Monrovia managed to take a 5-1 lead in the sixth inning when Lincoln Johnson took third and home on two passed balls.
Quesenbery gave up a walk to lead off the seventh and was replaced by junior Sutton Powers.
Capistrano Valley managed to give Monrovia a scare after Powers allowed a single and RBI double. Another ground-out scored a run to make it a two-run game.
But with the tying runner at the plate, Powers got a ground-out to end the game.
“It was a well pitched game,” said Monrovia coach Brad Blackmore. “We faced a really good hitting team. Quesenbery gave us a heart and soul effort and Powers came out here and did his job.”
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