Bishop Amat wins third Hard 9 National Classic

While most teams were scrambling to find pitching on the final day of the Hard 9 National Classic, Bishop Amat (La Puente, Calif.) coach Andy Nieto had his best player ready to go if the situation called for it.

While Rio Ruiz has rarely pitched for the Lancers this year, he came on in the fourth inning to shut down the heavy-hitting Esperanza (Anaheim, Calif.) Aztecs and claim the 12-1 win in the championship game Thursday at Cal-State Fullerton.

"That was the plan, assuming we made the championship game," said Nieto, whose team won its third National Classic in school history. "We started Daniel Zamora, who throws more of a breaking ball and offspeed pitch and then we were going to bring in Rio and see how well they handled the harder stuff."

Nieto's plan worked to perfection. One day after belting five triples in a semifinal game against IMG Academies, Esperanza managed four hits against Bishop Amat and only one off of Ruiz. The junior righthander faced only one batter over the minimum, giving up one hit and striking out seven in four innings pitched.

The win is the 20th in a row for Bishop Amat, which last lost on March 5, to Esperanza. The Lancers lost their first two games of the season, but they have not lost since in posting a 20-2 record.

"We were hot. In this kind of tournament, you just want to survive and advance," said Nieto. "I told the guys that I don't want to be eating my hot dog from the stands watching the championship game. I want to eat it after we win."

While Ruiz's pitching shut down the Esperanza offense, the entire Bishop Amat lineup was lighting up the scoreboard. The Lancers had a three-run rally in the first, a two-run rally in the fourth and a five-run outburst in the fifth. They concluded the game with two runs in the sixth.

Errors hurt the Aztecs in the first inning as two miscues accounted for two of three runs in the frame. Bernardo Zavala had an RBI single in the inning while Jay Anderson brought home another run with a groundout.

Esperanza narrowed the gap to 3-1 with an RBI single by Mitchell Mosman in the top of the second, but it was all Bishop Amat from that point.

Adam Alcantara stretched the Lancers' lead to 5-1 with a two-run homer in the fourth. Bishop Amat then sent nine batters to the plate and scored five runs in the inning. Zavala walked to lead off the inning and Ryan Serrato followed with a single. Anderson tripled to score two runs and he scored on Dominique Davis' bunt single. Tournament MVP Wallace Gonzalez had an infield single and Brandon Castaneda had a two-run single to cap the scoring.

Anderson was at it again sixth as he hit another triple to score Serrato, who had reached on a single. Anderson later scored on Gonzalez's infield single.

Gonzalez finished with seven hits in his last three games in winning the MVP award. Teammate Jordan McCraney was named the tournament's Most Valuable Pitcher while Esperanza's Nick Catalano, who was hampered by a bruised foot, earned the tournament Most Valuable Offensive Player honor.

Serrato was 3-for-4 in the final game while Anderson was 2-for-4 with two triples. Ruiz and Gonzalez also had a pair of singles while Alcantara had a single and the home run.

Esperanza falls to 14-8 with the loss. The Aztecs were looking to become the first team to win four National Classic championships. Instead, they are now tied with Bishop Amat for the most titles with three. The loss also ended a seven-game winning streak for Esperanza.

In other trophy games played Thursday, El Capitan (Lakeside, Calif.) edged IMG Academies (Bradenton, Fla.) 9-7 for third place while Alemany outlasted Chatsworth in a slugfest, 11-8.

Tripp Whatley had a grand slam in the first inning for IMG Academies for the early 4-2 lead, but El Capitan (14-5) gradually climbed back into the game, regaining the lead on a Tyrone Wiggins two-run homer in the top of the sixth.

While IMG Academies (19-6) tied the game at 7-7 in the bottom of the sixth when Tanner Pollack scored on Dan Kennon's base hit, El Capitan broke the tie with an RBI double by Wiggins in the top of the seventh and a balk with a runner at third base that put the Vaqueros up by two runs.

Alemany (Mission Hills, Calif.) and Chatsworth (Calif.) took turns rallying from behind with Alemany finally adding single runs in each of the final three innings to pull out the win.

Alemany (16-8) broke a 1-1 tie in the second inning with a three-run rally highlighted by Corey Sims' two-run triple.

Chatsworth rebounded with a five-run rally in the bottom of the third to take a 6-4 lead. Steven Karkenny and Ricky Obando each doubled in the inning and Aaron Brown had a triple to spark the rally.

However, Alemany went ahead 8-6 on a three-run double by Cody Sulflow. He scored the fourth run of the inning on Anthony Esparza's base hit.

The Chancellors (13-4) tied the game in the bottom of the fourth when Brown singled home Karkenny, who had doubled, and then scored on a passed ball.

The Warriors added a run on an RBI single by Sims in the fifth, an RBI groundout by Sean O'Brien in the sixth and a steal of home by Edgar Montes in the seventh.