Baseball St. John Bosco shuts out Birmingham in CIF regional semifinals – Press Telegram

VaselineMay 31, 2024

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Baseball St. John Bosco shuts out Birmingham in CIF regional semifinals – Press Telegram

Julian Garcia of St. John Bosco plays against Birmingham HS in the CIF Southern California Division III regional semifinal at Bellflower on Thursday, May 30, 2024. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

BELLFLOWER – The baseball team St. John Bosco heads into its first CIF Southern California Regional championship game after a dominant complete-game performance by sophomore pitcher Julian Garcia in a 5-0 victory over Birmingham in the Division III semifinals on Thursday.

Garcia allowed two hits, no runs, two walks and had 10 strikeouts in seven innings.

“It feels good. I was confident,” said Garcia, who struck out the side in the first inning. “I know we wanted this game to be played another Saturday and watch it again.”

No. 1 seed Bosco (22-11) will host No. 2 Bakersfield Christian (28-5) in the Division III regional championship game on Saturday.

“What can we say, I just told the guys right now that it’s a special season to go to a championship game twice, two weeks apart and have a chance to do something special again,” said coach St . John Bosco, Andy Rojo. “It’s a credit to these guys for staying focused all year, but especially the last two weeks after the tough loss a few weeks ago.”

The Braves are looking for postseason redemption after a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Beckman in extra innings in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 final on May 18.

Bakersfield Christian, which won the CIF Central Section Division 2 title, is riding a 19-game winning streak and hasn’t lost since March 27.

Bosco scored two runs in the first half. Junior catcher Micah Taguiam’s RBI single scored designated hitter Moises Razo, who reached base on a two-out walk. Senior first baseman Zach Woodson (Pepperdine signee) also drew a walk and put the Braves up 2-0 when he scored on an error by Birmingham.

Woodson and Taguiam hit back-to-back, one-out singles in the bottom of the third. Owen Tomich delivered an RBI double that scored Woodson for a 3-0 lead.

Birmingham senior first baseman Trevor Sostman hit a two-out double in the top of the fourth inning, the first hit allowed by Garcia. Patriots senior left fielder Ernesto Martinez reached base after being hit by a pitch.

Garcia came on in the fourth inning and stranded both Birmingham runners after Patriots sophomore catcher Nick Penaranda grounded out to end the fourth.

Birmingham had one more scoring opportunity in the fifth after junior shortstop Carlos Esparaza hit a one-out single and stole second. Esparaza reached third base on a passed ball with two outs. Martinez was struck out, which put runners on first and third with two outs for Patriots freshman Julius Truitt. Garcia got Truitt to pop out to end the inning and preserve Bosco’s 3-0 lead.

Garcia threw a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the sixth inning, which included his ninth strikeout of the game.

Bosco sophomore Noah Everly stepped to the plate with the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning. Everly delivered a two-RBI single that extended Bosco’s lead to 5-0.

“It felt pretty great to help my team,” Everly said. “I knew at some point in the game I was probably going to get an at bat. It felt pretty good to hit with the bases loaded … We put the ball in play, so that’s all that can happen.”

“Noah didn’t start at DH for the first time in about two months,” Rojo said. “He didn’t do anything, I just wanted to go with a left-handed bat. I prepared him before the game and I didn’t say anything personal, just be ready to go and he came in and was ready for it.”

Garcia secured the victory with a 1-2-3 seventh.

“They were submitting to me, so we had to get it done,” Garcia said. “We went out there and threw strikes, let the guys work and we were done.”

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