Freshman Julius Truitt comes in to help send Birmingham to Dodger Stadium

Julius Truitt, a 15-year-old freshman at Birmingham High, spent his junior baseball season even though it was known how good of a player he could be after hitting .406 with four triples while playing shortstop.

Birmingham coach Matt Mowry didn’t hesitate to use Truitt as a pinch-hitter in the second inning of Tuesday’s City Section Open Division semifinal against Carson.

“He’s an amazing player,” Mowry said. “He doesn’t panic in those situations.”

Truitt delivered a two-run triple, then scored when a hidden-ball trick went awry, and Birmingham held on for a 3-0 victory behind pitchers Allen Olmos and Michael Figueroa to earn a trip to the championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Dodger Stadium. against Bell, a 1-0 winner over Granada Hills.

“He said, ‘Be ready,'” Truitt said of his pregame chat with Mowry. “It’s really exciting, especially being a freshman with all these juniors and seniors.”

Two years ago, Mowry pulled off the same strategy in the semifinals against El Camino Real, when junior JB Dalumpines hit an RBI triple in a 2-1 win. It was Truitt’s first hit in college baseball.

Birmingham are the defending city champions and will be looking for their sixth city title under Mowry. Incredibly, the Patriots never won a West Valley League title in his 18 years as coach. They lost their last three games of the regular season, but as usual they made the playoffs and will now have their ace, Figueroa, ready to throw.

He threw two innings of relief in support of Olmos, who struck out five, walked two and gave up seven hits in five innings.

Birmingham’s defense was the key to the win. Second baseman Cris Martinez fanned all three runs in the seventh and added another hit in the sixth to leave the Colts frustrated.

“I hugged him, ‘You did your job,'” Olmos said of Martinez.

Sergio Padilla pitched well in the loss, striking out four, while teammate Noah Gomez had a single and double.

Birmingham’s Nick Penaranda walked three times.

Sign up for the LA Times SoCal high school sports newsletter for scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.

This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.