Close Menu
Demo

Grand Terrace baseball team holds off Chino in Division 4 playoff opener – San Bernardino Sun

adminBy Sports No Comments7 Mins Read


CHINO — Left-hander Colton Caldwell gave Friday’s game everything he had.

He just needed a little help finishing it off.

1 of 18

Grand Terrace’s Ray Roybal #23 celebrates after striking out Chino’s Grant Kuhns Vasquez #1 to win the CIF Southern Section Division 4 baseball first-round playoff game in Chino on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Expand

Caldwell struck out a career-high 13 batters n 6 ⅔ innings before Ray Roybal came in to get the final out, and the Grand Terrace baseball team held off Chino 4-3 in a CIF Southern Section Division 4 first-round playoff game.

Grand Terrace (15-11) advances to host Trinity Classic Academy in the second round Tuesday.

“When I saw our draw, I was confident with it,” Grand Terrace coach Ryan Pacheco said. “At the beginning of the season if you asked me where I thought we should be, I thought we belonged in Division 4.”

Grand Terrace built a 4-1 lead, then had to hold off the Cowboys. Chino scored twice in the sixth to make it 4-3.

Caldwell was nearing his pitch limit but convinced Pacheco to let him go out for the seventh.

“Colton’s our main guy. He’s been there all year long,” Pacheco said. “He’s a senior, he’s got leadership. He’s got composure, accuracy, confidence. He’s got all those things. We pitched him Game 1 for a reason.”

He retired the first two batters in the seventh, then hit Xiovany Ochoa with a pitch and Caleb Carrillo singled Ochoa to second.

At that point, Caldwell was over the pitch limit of 110 and Pacheco brought in Roybal, who battled back from a 3-0 count to strike out No. 3 hitter Grant Kuhns-Vasquez to end the game.

“We knew they weren’t a normal third-place team from talking to other coaches who have played them this year,” Chino coach Mike St. Esteben said about Grand Terrace.

Chino got on the board first in the first inning when Ochoa reached base on a strikeout after the third strike got past catcher Brady Pope and scored on a double by Carrillo.

The Titans battled back to take the lead for good in the fourth against Chino starter Nathan Sena. Jesse Medina singled, Lucas Palos doubled and Vasili Kazaltzes singled home two to make it 2-1. Kazaltzes scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.

“This (pitcher) was slower than our regular pace. .. It took us one time through the lineup to make the adjustment,” Pacheco said. “We knew once we were able to make those adjustments, it would be no problem. The second guy was more of what we were used to seeing so we felt more comfortable.”

Grand Terrace added to the lead in the sixth against Kuhns-Vasquez when Roybal led off with a triple and scored on a single by Ezekiel Jahen, making it 4-1.

After the first inning, Caldwell really got into a groove. After Carrillo’s double in the first, he didn’t allow another hit until Kuhns-Vasquez singled with two outs in the sixth.

“At first it was the off-speed (working), changeup, slider, curveball,” Caldwell said. “In the fifth, sixth inning, they started catching on to the off-speed a lot, so I started going to the fastball more.”

Kuhns-Vasquez’s hit was one of four straight. Matthew Gomez’s double followed made it 4-2 and two batters later, Joseph Granados singled to make it 4-3, But Caldwell struck out Pablo Valdez to end the threat.

“He was a good pitcher,” St. Esteben said of Caldwell. “Hats off to him. He did what he had to do. We let him get into a groove and once he got in it, he was in it for a while.”

Caldwell walked only one to go along with the 13 strikeouts. He also allowed six hits and hit one batter.



Source link

Keep Reading

Add A Comment
Leave A Reply