California-Southern Section roundup: Perfect ending for Hahn, Mater Dei

Cory Hahn combines on perfect game and drills home run as Monarchs win third section crown; Glendora, Ocean View, Palm Desert, Woodcrest Christian, Oxford Academy and Cornerstone Christian all win titles.

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Jun 6, 2010, 12:00am
LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. – Few times are there truly perfect endings in sports, but for Mater Dei (Santa Ana) and Cory Hahn, it couldn't have gone much better than it did Saturday night in the Southern Section Division I championship game at The Diamond in Lake Elsinore.

Hahn pitched the first five innings of a combined perfect game, and iced a 2-0 victory over Dana Hills (Dana Point) with a monstrous home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to give the Monarchs their third championship. They had been to the finals five times previously, and won titles in 1980 and 2005.

“It was an amazing game,” Mater Dei coach Burt Call said. “He's the best I've ever coached.

Mater Dei (21-10), which finished second in the Trinity League, had been turned away in the semifinals the past three seasons.

According to Bob Ickes, who coached the Monarchs to the 1980 title, it was the first perfect game ever involving Mater Dei. Southern Section officials were unaware of another perfect game in a championship.

Hahn (14-1) said the only other perfect game he had thrown came as an 11-year old in Pony League. “When I was warming up I felt it was going to be good, but not perfectly good,” he said. But once he got on the mound when it counted, “I felt unhittable.”

After giving his best for five innings, he gave way to sophomore Ty Moore, who retired the final six batters and got one strikeout. Coincidentally, the final out – a grounder to second base – was against Dana Hill's ace pitcher, Peter Tago.

Hahn threw only 48 pitches in his five innings in which he struck out seven. He and Moore each faced a three-ball count only once, each time going 3-2 on Peter Maris.

Because pitchers are allowed 30 outs per week, and Hahn had thrown five innings already in a 10-0 semifinal victory over Royal-Simi Valley, he had to give way after five innings in the final. Only one ball was hit out of the infield, a fly to center field by No. 9 hitter Mike Battaglia to end the third inning.

Moore, a hard-throwing right-hander, gave up a deep fly to center field that required an over-the-should catch – by Hahn.

A 5-foot-10 senior who has signed with Arizona State, Hahn had two of Mater Dei's five hits.

Dana Hills (20-12) was superb in defeat.

The Dolphins, the fourth-place team from the South Coast League, had to win a play-in game just to get into the first round. Eric Hsieh, the pitcher who beat fourth-seeded Edison-Huntington Beach and its hard-throwing left-hander, Henry Owens, was the same one tasked with trying to outduel Hahn.

A junk-balling left-hander, Hsieh (5-7) kept the Monarchs off balance most of the night. He gave up a run in the second inning when he issued a two-out walk to Konnor Armijo, and then Jacob Medina's fly to left field was never picked up by Nick Hsieh – Eric's brother – and it went over his head for an RBI triple.

He also gave up the homer to Hahn in the sixth on a one-strike pitch. He struck out six and walked one, and left the game after giving up a single to Moore following Hahn's homer, a sky-high shot that was about 400 feet to right-center field, clearing the scoreboard.

“I left it over the middle and he got all of it,” Hsieh said.

“When I hit it,” Hahn said, “it was like, 'Ohmygod.' It was well hit.”

Tago came on in relief for the first time this season to retire the last two batters.

Perhaps what made Mater Dei's victory so impressive is that Dana Hills proved the perfect foil. Mater Dei had outscored its playoff opponents 34-3 leading up to the final, and the huge underdog gave them all it could handle. It nearly required a perfect game to beat them.

“I knew it was going to be a tight ballgame and I just wanted to keep my team in it,” Hsieh said of his performance, which was lauded by Call and Hahn.

Call spoke for a lot of people. “That was just incredible. I've never seen anything like that.”

Division II
The highly anticipated pitching duel between Glendora's Adam Plutko and Yucaipa's Taijuan Walker didn't develop according to plan. Plutko was solid, but Walker was undone by the bottom of the Glendora batting order.

In the end, top-seeded Glendora scored a 10-3 victory Saturday at The Diamond, home of the minor league Lake Elsinore Storm.

Six of Glendora's runs were scored by batters sixth or lower in the order. Brennan Salgado scored twice and had an RBI triple in a three-run second inning.

“I was expecting a pitcher's duel with Walker, but I play for the best guys in the world,” said Plutko (10-1), who gave up five hits, walked two and struck out three. “When we need runs we get runs.”

Glendora (27-2-1) was nearly perfect on the season, and though runs had been hard to come by in the playoffs – the Tartans had consecutive victories of 4-1, 5-3, 2-1 and 2-1 – runs came in bunches against the hard-throwing Walker (10-4).

The Tartans scored three in the second, three in the fourth and four in the sixth. Although he deferred to media in the postgame interview as far as rankings are concerned, when the question of whether Glendora might be the best team in the Southern Section, he said, “I don't see why not.”

The Tartans went into the game ranked No. 7 in the section and No. 17 in the state by MaxPreps' Freeman Ratings. The only blemishes to their season were a 2-2 tie with Temple City, and losses to Diamond Bar, 1-0, and Damien-La Verne, 2-1.

Yucaipa, the third-place team from the Citrus Belt League, played a wild-card game just to get into the playoff bracket, where it defeated second-seeded Crespi-Encino. Glendora coach Dan Henley said he wasn't surprised to see Yucaipa reach the finals in a division that was outstanding in its depth.

At the outset it looked like another rare loss could be forthcoming. Yucaipa scored right away against Plutko. Leadoff batter Leonard Malfavon blooped the first pitch to right field, took second on a sacrifice, and scored when Wyatt Padgett tripled down the right field line. Plutko got out of the jam with grounders to third base and second.

Plutko and his catcher, Joe Winterburn, noticed something about the Yucaipa hitters. They were swinging at the first-pitch fastballs, so Plutko changed up his routine. Meanwhile, Glendora got the run back in the second inning, and then some.

No. 6 hitter Kyle Layton doubled down the right field line and, on Jacob Cage's single, scored ahead of right fielder Alec Morabito's throw. Cage took second on the play and scored on Brennan Salgado's triple to the right-center field alley. After a walk, Joseph Woodward lined a single to center field to make it 3-0. A pickoff, grounder and strikeout ended the inning.

Yucaipa battled, however. Grady Espinosa scored after his one-out triple on Morabito's grounder to second base. At 3-2 in the fourth inning, Yucaipa coach Jeff Stout “thought we were going to get back in it,” he said. “It seemed all year long, in a loss, the 7-8-9 hitters would get us. It's kind of a funny thing. I don't know if it's relaxation or what.”

Admittedly unfocused In the bottom of the fourth inning, Walker walked the first batter, Salgado, and then hit the No. 9 batter. He threw two balls to Joe Woodward and was replaced by Pedro Cota. Woodward reached on a throwing error on a swinging bunt that allowed Salgado to score. Clinton Harwick lined a two-run single to center field for a 6-2 lead.

Yucaipa scored its final run against Plutko on back-to-back singles by Matt Hardison and Grady Espinosa, and then a balk. But for every Yucaipa run, Glendora had an answer. John Alexander's RBI double in the bottom of the sixth sent Harwick home. After a walk, Kyle Layton's triple scored two more runs, and a wild pitch made it 10-3.

“They're an outstanding team,” Stout said. “For some reason we didn't bring our A game, and that happens sometimes.”

Division III
Using a tried and true pitching combination that got them through the playoffs, Ocean View (Huntington Beach) pitchers Blake Walker and Freddy Sepulveda took advantage of a spacious outfield and handcuffed Bonita (La Verne) for a 2-1 victory Saturday at The Diamond. Sepulveda, who had shoulder surgery in January and didn't begin pitching competitively until the second round of league play, hurled three shutout innings.

Bonita (24-5-1), which had scored 11 and 13 runs in its previous two playoff games, scored in the top of the first inning and had another opportunity in the third when runners reached second and third with one out, but a line drive to right fielder Blake Hitchcock and a strikeout ended the threat.

“This park contributed to our win because those guys can really hit,” said Ocean View Coach Shane Borowski. “We let our outfielders chase them down.”

Ocean View started Walker in each of its five playoff games, and each time Sepulveda came in to finish the job. Both are juniors who helped the Seahawks (22-9) win their third title.

“I look back to the 2005 team, and it had more than 200 strikeouts. We don't have a strikeout type of team, had like 50 or 60 coming in, and we knew we were going to have to play defense in this tournament,” Borowski said. “These two fellas, they pitch,they compete. Same type of thing with Gahr, they had 12 runs in their quarterfinal game they had 12 runs and we held them to 1 run through five.

These guys know how to pitch, our guys know how to play defense, and that's a good combination

Walker and Nick Schulenburg drove in runs for Ocean View, in the second and third innings.

Division IV
Nick Baker pitched a four-hitter and got the offensive support he needed from Ryan Garvey and Austin Sylvester as second-seeded Palm Desert scored a 9-0 victory over Torrance on Saturday at The Diamond.

Garvey, son of former Padres and Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey, scored three runs and drove in another from this third spot in the batting order. Right behind him, Sylvester scored a run and had three RBIs. Baker (12-2) had only one strikeout, but Palm Desert (26-5) did not commit an error behind him. He hit one batter.

The Aztecs scored twice in the top of the first inning against Josh Mingura (8-2). Scotty Burcham, who reached on an error to open the game, took third on Garvey's double and scored on a wild pitch. Garvey scored on Sylvester's grounder. The score remained 2-0 until the sixth inning. Palm Desert scored three in the sixth and four in the seventh.

Marvin Flores had two of the four hits by Torrance (24-10).

Division V
Matt Chabot pitched a three-hitter and got more than enough offensive support as top-seeded Woodcrest Christian (Riverside) scored a 14-0 victory over Linfield Christian (Temecula) on Friday at UC Riverside. Chabot (11-1) struck out 10 and walked two as the Royals – runners-up last season – won their first title since 2000.

Woodcrest Christian (27-1) pounded out 14 hits, and although it scored the only run it needed in the first inning on Michael Davis' double and Chabot's single, it did most of the damage with a four-run second inning and a five-run fifth inning. Sean Matthews (two runs) and Davis (three runs) – who also homered – drove in three runs apiece.

Losing pitcher Kyle Zimmerman (11-6) gave up 10 hits and eight earned runs in four innings for Linfield (17-12).

Division VI
Third-seeded Oxford Academy (Cypress) managed only four hits, but made the most of them as the Patriots (23-5) won their second consecutive title with a 2-0 victory over top-seeded Desert Christian (Lancaster) (28-2) on Friday at UC Riverside. Oxford scored one in the second inning and another in the sixth to provide enough offense for winner Daniel Lucak, who pitched five innings, gave up four hits, struck out two and walked two.

Desert Christian loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh inning but reliever Patrick Zajac – who relieved Steve Criss – induced a grounder to second base for the final out. It ended a 21-game winning streak.

Harvey Higger reached base on an error and scored on a passed ball in the second inning for one run. That was the only scoring until the bottom of the sixth when Steve Criss walked and scored on Lucas Sardo's double. Three Oxford pitchers scattered seven hits. Losing pitcher Tyler Shyrock gave up all four hits, walked one and struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings.

Division VII
Cornerstone Christian (Camarillo) broke open a one-run game in the bottom of the sixth inning to defeat Milken Community (Los Angeles, Calif.), 5-1, on Friday at UC Riverside. The Eagles (25-3) were led offensively by cleanup hitter Mark Stover, who had two hits, a run and a first-inning RBI on a sacrifice fly. Nick Alpers also had a single, a run and an RBI.

It was the first time in the finals for Milken (19-5), which scored in the top of the sixth inning to pull to within 2-1. Consecutive one-out doubles by Greg Kahan and Mitch Mayer scored one run, but reliever Aaron Roth got a couple of ground outs that ended the inning.

Winner Nathan Roth struck out five in 5 1/3 innings for Cornerstone; Aaron Roth got the save.

Ben Ludewig (7-1) pitched a five-hitter, struck out four and walked three in a losing effort.

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