GAME OF THE WEEK: CIF-SS D4 Championship
THE DETAILS:
Simi Valley Grace Brethren vs. Hemet Tahquitz
CIF-Southern Section Division 4 Championship Game
At The Sports Complex, Riverside (Calif.)
First pitch: 7:30 p.m. PT on Friday, June 2
SIMI VALLEY GRACE BRETHREN (24-4 overall, 11-1 Tri-Valley League) hasn’t lost a game since April 5, reeling off 15 consecutive wins all the way to the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 Championship Game. The Lancers have outscored their opponents 28-9 in the playoffs, and are yet to play a game decided by fewer than two runs. The top of Grace Brethren’s pitching rotation has been dominant, with Pierson Ohl and Jack Collis totaling nine wins with a combined ERA somewhere south of the equator as the entire staff combined for seven shutouts on the season.
HEAD COACH: Barry Tolli
HEMET TAHQUITZ (24-5 overall, 12-3 Mt. Pass League) has not lost a game in May despite playing in some tight contests. The Titans posted back-to-back one-run victories in their First and Second Round games while holding a relatively narrow Plus-7 run differential (16-9) in the playoffs. Head Coach Ron Savage’s team has allowed four-or-more runs just six times this season, and were 0-4 in those games until winning their last two, including a 5-4 win over Irvine Segerstrom in the quarterfinals.
HEAD COACH: Ron Savage
THE PROJECTED LINEUPS
GRACE BRETHREN: #16 Kai Tinker CF Soph.; #20 Nick Johnson SS Sr.; #4 Pierson Ohl P Jr.; #13 Gunnar Hellstrom C Sr.; #6 Jake Carroll 1B Sr.; #3 Josh Buckley 3B Soph.; #21 Cody Sprowl 2B Jr.; #51 Jordan Buckley RF Jr.; #23 Trevor Edwards LF Sr.
TAHQUITZ: #18 Clayton Ellis 3B Sr.; #20 Norman Power LF Sr.; #4 Kyle Weatherby C So.; #15 Caleb Farmer SS Sr.; #23 Andrew Shepard 1B Sr.; #26 Jahred Butler DH Jr.; #11 Brendon Dixon, P Sr.; #2 Garret Firth 2B So.; #7 Zach Schwartz CF So.; x-#9 Paul Vasquez RF Sr.
x-will not bat
THE DIFFERENCE:
Having seen Tahquitz baseball come up short on so many occasions, this seems like it could be the Titans’ moment to break through. Just how heavy is the weight of recent playoff shortcomings?
THE FINAL SCORE:
Hemet Tahquitz 4, Simi Valley Grace Brethren 3
THE FOLLOW:
On Twitter @InlandFieldhaus
INLAND FIELDHOUSE 