Four Non-Top 8 Seeds Advance In Baseball Super Regionals

The Super Regionals featured the fall of Home Run 30 state #1-ranked Fresno City College and the rise of some underdogs as the Regional Final Eight field is set with four teams each squeezing through from the South and the North.

The North is comprised of #2 Ohlone, #5 Feather River, #9 West Valley, and #11 Santa Rosa while the South final four is made up of #1 Palomar, #2 Santa Ana, #13 Santa Barbara City, and #14 Fullerton. 

The brackets for the Regional Finals scheduled for May 15-17 are set below:

Here are brief recaps of the 8 tourneys:

NORTH SUPER REGIONALS
May 7-9

Super Regional #1
9-West Valley (32-13-1) swept 1-Fresno City (40-5), 2-0

The NorCal #1 seed Rams had just three losses going into their Super Regional series v. North #9 West Valley. Two days later, Fresno had five defeats and the Vikings stormed on with a shocking sweep.

Game 1: WVC 9, FCC 6: West Valley scored three runs in the fifth and three more in the seventh to pull away in the opening win. Eric Altmark (3-for-6) and Max Ghiglieri launched back-to-back homers to lead off the fifth, erasing a 3-2 Fresno lead. The power show continued in the seventh when Kenji Colston went big fly for a 3-run HR. Parker Kristall was 3-for-5 with two doubles and pitched 1.2 innings and three Ks for the save. For the Rams, both Drake Davis and Gilbert Acosta slugged homers and had three hits each.

Game 2: WVC 8, FCC 7: The Vikings clinched the sweep as they scored three in the third to jump ahead 5-2 and never looked back. Fresno tried one last rally as Acosta homered in the ninth and an error cut it to one. With runners on second and third, Kristall again closed it out with a strikeout for his second save of the series. He had a 4-for-5 game at the plate and WVC was aided by Joey Damelio going 4-for-4 and two RBI. Noble Ortega hit 3-for-5 and a triple for the Rams. Fresno had not lost two in a row all season until this series.

Super Regional #2
2-Ohlone win series v. 10-Folsom Lake, 2-1

The Renegades are the only one of the top North seeds to make it through to the Regional Finals, but need three games to get past a tough Falcons squad. 

Game 1: Ohlone 7, FLC 1: Matthew Anderson hurled a brilliant, 2-hit, complete-game while striking out 10 batters (one walk) as the Renegades won the opener. Ninth batter Teo Thompson went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI, Julian Cambra homered and Joaquin Stuart added a 2-RBI double to key the Ohlone offense.

Game 2: FLC 3, Ohlone 1: The pitching duo of Jake McKowen (6 IP, 11 K) and Andrew Balentine (3 IP, no hits, 6 K) combined to strike out 17 Ohlone batters as the Falcons evened the series. All four runs came via the long ball as Folsom Lake's Asa Martinez hit a 2-run bomb in the second and Connor Barth a solo shot in the eighth. The Renegades scored on Stuart's HR in the sixth.

Game 3: Ohlone 8, FLC 7: Ohlone led 7-1 only to see Folsom Lake tie it in the eighth at 7-7 on a 3-run blast from Martinez. In the bottom of the frame, Cam Hegamin dropped a squeeze bunt to score the game-winning run as Ohlone advances. Bryce Monte preserved the 1-run lead with a scoreless ninth for the save. Derek Bain hit a 2-run, ground rule double that gave Ohlone an early 2-0 lead.

Super Regional #3
11-Santa Rosa win series v. 3-Modesto, 2-1

In the conference season final series a few weeks ago, the Big 8 champion Pirates took 2-of-3 v. the third-place Bear Cubs, but Santa Rosa paid them back and came back from an opening game defeat to win two straight and advance to the Regional Finals.

Game 1: MJC 7, SRJC 3: The Pirates scored four runs in the seventh thanks in part to three wild pitches and two passed balls by the Bear Cubs and Ayden Tinsley (5 IP) and Braden Giardina (4 IP) combined for a 4-hitter for the opening win. 

Game 2: SRJC 3, MJC 2: Two Modesto errors led to all three runs for Santa Rosa in the fifth and Myles Standish pitched seven innings of 5-hit relief (no earned runs) with eight Ks as the Bear Cubs evened the series. Caze Derammelaere was 3-for-4 with a double for SRJC.

Game 3: SRJC 12, MJC 11: Santa Rosa rallied from down 11-6 after five innings and won it in the ninth as J.T. Summers, who was 3-for-5 with four RBI, hit a run-scoring grounder to tie it and Brett Neidlinger knocked in the game-winning RBI single. Kessler Koch pitched four innings of 1-hit shutout relief for the win. Also for the Bear Cubs, Trevor Schlafer went 4-for-5 with three doubles and Justice Brinson batted 3-for-4. For Modesto, Troy Morrow hit 4-for-5 with a double. 

Super Regional #4
5-Feather River win series v. 21-Hartnell, 2-1

The Cinderella season for the #21 seeded Panthers came to an end as Feather River scored in double digits in all three games of a hard-fought series that sent the Golden Valley Conference champs to the Regional Finals.

Game 1: FRC 10, HART 5: The Golden Eagles led 4-0, the Panthers came back with five in the top of the fourth, but FRC stormed back with six in the bottom of the frame en route to the opening victory. Kory Chu was 3-for-5 and Jake Dahl added two RBI and two hits to pace Feather River as reliever Kani Thomas pitched 4.1 innings of 1-hit, shutout ball for the mound win.

Game 2: HART 15, FRC 11: The Panthers blew a 7-1 lead, fell behind 11-9, but scored four in the bottom of the sixth to recover and tie the series in this slugfest. Kaden Raymond (3-for-5, five RBI) led the Hartnell's 20-hit attack with two home runs and Emmet Desmond went 4-for-5 with a HR. Jackson Phillips was 2-for-3 with a HR and three RBI for FRC.

Game 3: FRC 11, HART 6: Feather River jumped out a 4-1 lead on a 2-run double by Noah Carrington and a 2-run single from Carter Reilly, but two FRC errors led to four runs in the fifth as Hartnell took a 5-4 lead. In the bottom of the frame, Walker DesRosier delivered a 2-run single and Chu had a RBI infield single as two more runs scored for an 8-5 FRC lead. Josh Davies added an insurance 2-RBI double in the eighth as the Golden Eagles clinched the finale. 

SOUTH SUPER REGIONALS 

Super Regional #1
1-Palomar (39-5) swept 9-Saddleback (27-19), 2-0

The top-seeded Comets used a rout and then outlasted the opponent in extra innings to sweep the feisty Bobcats and move on to the Regional Finals. Palomar has scored 12 runs four times and 14 once in going 5-0 so far in the postseason.

Game 1: PAL 12, SAD 1: Michael Rodda (3-for-5) rocked a grand slam and Adrian Macias ripped a 3-run blast in a 7-run, first that carried Palomar to the opening win. Starter and winning pitcher Elijah Stephens (5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 6 Ks) and four relievers combined for a 4-hitter.

Game 2: PAL 12, SAD 11 (13 inn): The Comets trailed 6-0 after one, then tied it in the top of the ninth on a Rodda RBI single that sent it to extra innings at 9-9. In the 10th, a Stephens' basehit gave Palomar a lead only to see Saddleback stay alive on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Luce that scored Dmitri Susidko (4-for-6), who had tripled. Finally in the 13th, Rodda was clutch again on a RBI double and Preston Conklin hit a sac fly.

Saddleback didn't quit as Matthew Henning's RBI single (3-for-4) sliced it the lead to one. But with runners on second and third, winning reliever Joey Halter retired the last two batters on fly outs to close out the sweep. In the Comets' 22-hit barrage, Stephens was 4-for-6 with a HR and Macias also 4-for-6. For the Bobcats, Joey Doskosil batted 4-for-5 with a double.

Super Regional #2
2-Santa Ana (38-6-1) swept 7-Citrus (33-13), 2-0

The #2 seed Dons rallied in the opener and held the hot-hitting Owls lineup down in the second contest to sweep its way to the Regional Finals. 

Game 1: SAC 7, CIT 6: Santa Ana came back from down 6-2 with four runs in the seventh keyed by a 2-run HR by Barrett Ronson, then walked it off on Evan Reiter's fielder's choice RBI for the exciting opening win. Michael Solorzano twirled 3.1 scoreless innings of relief for the victory. For Citrus, Dustin Yela went 3-for-3 with a double and three RBI and both Cole West and Dominic Torrez hit homers in the fifth.

Game 2: SAC 6, CIT 2: Ken Tomitaka gave Santa Ana the early offense with three RBI, including a 2-run double in the third and Nikko Paoletto was 3-for-4 with a solo HR as the Dons completed the sweep. Citrus had hit 13 HRs in its first five playoff games but did not go deep in the finale. SAC's two relievers Colin Galvin and Bruno Banuelos combined for four innings of 3-hit shutout ball.

Super Regional #3
13-Santa Barbara City (28-16) swept 5-Allan Hancock (34-12), 2-0

The top two teams from the Western State Conference North Division were 2-2 v. each other in the regular season, but the Vaqueros proved to be better than the champion Bulldogs here as the 13th seed advances to the Regional Finals. 

Game 1: SBCC 10, AHC 9 (10 inn): Santa Barbara scored four in the sixth to erase a 5-1 Hancock lead, AHC twice regained the lead at 7-5, then 9-8 after seven. But SBCC tied it on Wylan Nelson's RBI single in the eighth and won it in the 10th on Cole Ide's game-winning single. Max Collins pitched a 1-2-3 final inning for the save. Ide and Bradley Cekada each had three hits. Leading AHC was Chase Wise in going 3-for-5 with a double and four RBI and Matt Kovach, who roped a 3-run HR in the first. 

Game 2: SBCC 8, AHC 3: Nelson hurled eight strong innings (8 H, 10 Ks) and Parker Hellekson had two doubles and three RBI to give the Vaqueros the sweep. Kovach had hit a 2-run HR that tied it at 3-3 in the third, but SBCC responded with sac flies by Damos Deworken in the bottom of the inning and Lucas Carlisle in the fourth to take back the momentum. Parker Schwake went 4-for-4 for the Bulldogs.

Super Regional #4
14-Fullerton win series v. 19-LA Pierce, 2-1

Two lower seeds hooked up in this series with No. 14 seed Fullerton coming back from a first game loss to advance in three games. 

Game 1: LAP 12, FUL 10: The Brahmas jumped out to a 9-1 lead by the fourth and withstood a Hornets rally for the opening win. Ethan Granillo hit a grand slam in a 6-run, third and Braden Seliz (3-for-5, double) launched a 3-run shot in the fourth for the big blows. Fullerton's Jake Starr (3-for-6) hit a 2-run bomb in the ninth that made it close while Sean Green went 4-for-5 with a double.

Game 2: FUL 15, LAP 4: Vinny Hudson went 3-for-6 with a triple and four ribbies, Carlos Barrios was 3-for-3 and a HR, and Kai Hopfel also went 3-for-3 with two doubles and three RBI as the Hornets routed Pierce to even the series. Christian Santiago and Jeremy Jones both had three hits for the Brahmas, who also got a solo HR from Juan Tirado.

Game 3: FUL 7, LAP 3: Tied 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth, Diego Vazquez lined a bases-clearing, 3-run triple as the Hornets win the finale to reach the Regional Finals as a 14th seed. Barrios, who 9-for-11 in the series, batted 4-for-4 with a double and Fullerton's fifth pitcher Murdoch Taylor threw two scoreless innnings for the mound triumph. For Pierce, JJ Fagfoomsintu was 3-for-4 and he momentarily had tied it for the Brahmas at 3-3 with a RBI single in the top of the eighth. 

Recaps by Robert Lewis, CCCBCA Publicist