Bonita opens Division 1 baseball playoffs with 11-2 win over Arcadia

Storm clouds were forming in the bottom of the sixth inning of Wednesday’s Southern Section Division 1 baseball playoff game at Arcadia High as the Apaches and Bonita decided to move up their scheduled game from Thursday to beat the rain.

Arcadia had the bases loaded with two out, trailing 5-2. Catcher Garrett Patterson, the No. 2 pitcher for Bonita, was told to take off his mask, switch gloves and move to the mound. It was the third time Arcadia had the bases loaded. Avery Truesdale hit a fly ball to left field. It looked as if it would drop for a hit, but Austin Owens raced in and made a diving catch for the third out.

Bonita (18-4) would go on to score six runs in the top of the seventh to come away with an 11-2 victory. It was a true team win with many contributors and means the Bearcats get almost a week off before playing a second-round game Tuesday. The opponent will be top-seeded seeded Sherman Oaks Notre Dame if the Knights defeat Hart in their opener Thursday. Notre Dame coach Tom Dill was scouting Bonita on Wednesday.

Arcadia (20-5), the Pacific League champion, committed three errors and could not disrupt ace pitcher Justin Santiago (9-0), who threw 109 pitches and struck out nine in 5 1/3 innings. Diego Vazquez had three hits and Patterson, Diego Villa, Jared Brunk and Tyler Holley each had two RBIs. Patterson was magnificent defensively playing catcher and then recorded two strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings of relief.

Huntington Beach 3, Warren 2: Sophomore pitcher Angel Cervantes shut out the Oilers for five innings and limited them to one hit. But with Cervantes’ pitch count reaching 107, the Oilers scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull out the Division 1 victory. Dean Carpentier had an RBI double to tie the score in the seventh at 2-2 and Brian Trujillo drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly. Sophomore Brandon Ibarra had three hits, including a home run, for Warren.

Orange Lutheran 8, Arlington 3: Casey Borba homered and Derek Curiel had three hits to lead the Lancers to a Division 1 win.

San Dimas 3, El Dorado 2: Jude Favela threw a complete game for San Dimas.

La Serna 6, Long Beach Wilson 0: Nick Williams won his ninth game of the season with five scoreless inning in the Division 3 opener.

Castaic 3, Excelsior 2: Kyler Kreude threw 6 1/3 innings to lead Castaic, which won its first ever playoff game in any sport.

Birmingham 7, Chatsworth 2: Gavin Taylor hit a home run for the Patriots.

Granada Hills 4, Cleveland 1: Ethan Hawk struck out eight in 5 1/3 innings for Granada Hills.

El Camino Real 1, Taft 0: Oscar Lopez threw a two-hit shutout with four strikeouts for El Camino Real.

Softball

California 7, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 3: Pricilla Ramirez struck out 14 and Shirley Acevedo hit a three-home run to lead California in a Division 2 opener.

Granada Hills 14, El Camino Real 2: The Highlanders continue on a path to being the No. 1 seed for the City Section playoffs. Jocelyn Jimenez and Malia Plourde each had three hits in the five-inning win.

Diving

Jonah Fourmy of San Pedro won the City Section boys’ diving championship and Elle Crisostomo of Harbor Teacher won the girls’ diving championship.