Dos Pueblos baseball punched its ticket to the CIF-SS Division 4 Championship with a 7-1 win over Thousand Oaks in front of a packed crowd in the Semifinals on Tuesday at Scott O’Leary Stadium.
The duo of Seth Tedeschi and Derek Brunet combined to allow zero earned runs, while Alexander Hajda drove in five runs to bring the Chargers to their first CIF title game since 1993, when they fell to Lompoc in Division 2.
“I’ve got 12 seniors. That’s a lot for a team, but those guys have also been here as their sophomore and junior years, kind of learning how we want to do things here,” Dos Pueblos head coach George Hedricks said. “We’ve been trying to learn how to win for a few years now, and what I mean by that is there’s days when you don’t have your best stuff, and you’ve got to find a way to win that game.
“It doesn’t matter what it is, you’ve got to learn how to win baseball games and I’ve been preaching that for a while, and I think this year is really seeing it come to fruition. Those seniors have bought in, that’s what they’ve done. It’s absolutely them buying in and putting in the work for two years.”
Dos Pueblos will take on Ganesha High on either Friday or Saturday at either Long Beach State or Cal State Fullerton. The time and location will be announced by CIF-SS on Wednesday.
“It’s wonderful because in the past few years, we haven’t had the best seasons,” Tedeschi said. “This group of guys have been playing together since we were eight years old. We knew that we were the team to do some damage in the playoffs and throughout the entire season.
“It’s some pressure, but pressure makes diamonds.”
Tedeschi and Brunet have been the dynamic duo on the bump for the Chargers throughout the postseason run, with Tedeschi starting all four games and Brunet pitching in relief in all four as well.
“We have the luxury of having that confidence in both of them… They’re both going to do what’s best for the team,” Hedricks said. “It’s not a lack of confidence in other guys. Nick Salcido, Shane Grant, Jameson Barth, like, we’ve got dudes that can throw for us.
“It’s almost unfortunate that they haven’t been able to pitch, but it’s also good that they haven’t. Those two seniors (Tedeschi and Brunet) have carried the rock for us, but those three guys are guys we can use at any time. Having them is a luxury that also allows us to use those other two the way we have.”
The Chargers started the day on a high note as catcher Zach Gesswein gunned down a potential base stealer to cap off a scoreless top of the first.
Dos Pueblos stayed hot in the bottom half as the first two baserunners reached on free passes. After a sac bunt by Gesswein, Hajda blasted a three-run homer to left-center field for a 3-0 lead.
The long ball was Hajda’s second first-inning homer in as many playoff games as he sent a two-run shot to left in the Quarterfinals.
“It immediately puts you on the board, immediately gives you a lead. It’s going to put the other team on their heels a little bit,” Hedricks said of the first-inning homer. “That’s a really good pitcher and he wasn’t expecting that… It also gets the guys in the dugout and on defense to relax a little bit and feel a little more confident about what they’re doing.”
Tedeschi and Thousand Oaks starter Jameson Berigan cruised through the next two frames as the 3-0 score held.
The Lancers threatened with runners on second and third with two outs in the fourth, but Tedeschi got the final batter of the frame to line out to third to preserve the shutout.
After a scoreless bottom half, Tedeschi ran into some more trouble in the fifth with the bases loaded and two outs.
He was lifted from the game in favor of Derek Brunet, who induced a ground ball to the first batter he faced. However, an errant throw allowed a run to score for the Lancers. Brunet shook it off and got the next batter to ground out and keep the lead at 3-1.
Tedeschi ended his day with 4 ⅔ innings pitched while allowing one unearned run on five hits while striking out one. He earned the victory.
“It’s all the [Coach Hedricks],” Tedeschi said of his success. “He gives me the fight to be able to go out there every single game and he sets me up for success, calling every pitch.”
The Dos Pueblos offense woke back up in the bottom of the fifth, kick-started by back-to-back walks from Evan Bean and Stone Saunders. After a strikeout for the second out, Gesswein came up clutch with an RBI single through the 5-6 hole to bring the lead back to three runs.
Hajda then stepped up to the plate and drove in his fourth and fifth RBIs of the day with a screamer of a double over the left fielder’s head to take a 6-1 lead into the sixth.
“Xander’s gone through stretches like that where you know what he can do,” Hedricks said. “Last year was kind of a weird year for him where he hit the ball really well but didn’t really hit for power. We got a bunch of playful jesting about that… Well, they’re all coming and they’re coming at the right time.”
After Brunet got through a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the sixth, the Chargers tacked on one more run in the bottom half on a Thousand Oaks error to make it 7-1.
Brunet went back out and worked around a leadoff single to finish off the victory and advance to the CIF Finals.
While Hajda’s two-hit, five-RBI performance led the way, Gesswein went 2-for-2 with one RBI and one run scored, while Saunders scored a pair of runs.