The best season in Dos Pueblos baseball history came to a close on Thursday with a 9-1 loss to University City in the SoCal Regional Semifinals at Scott O’Leary Field.
The Chargers fell behind 4-0 in the opening frame and never recovered to cap off a season that featured their first CIF-SS Finals appearance since 1993 and the program’s first-ever appearance and win in the State Regional Tournament.
“For the program, it’s absolutely huge. A CIF run has only happened once in 50 years, so to be able to do that shows you how hard it is and how special it is,” Dos Pueblos head coach George Hedricks said.
“I understand as a coach that may never happen again. You hope so. That’s your goal every year. So to go to accomplish that means a lot to me, it means a lot to the program and to the boys.”
While Dos Pueblos is graduating 12 seniors from this year’s historic squad, there were also 13 non-seniors on the roster who gained plenty of valuable experience throughout the playoff run.
“It’s weird to be that young and that old at the same time,” Hedricks said. “It allowed those sophomores and juniors to get just a ridiculous amount of experience. I just talked to the young guys right now and said ‘You’ve got more playoff games under your belt than probably any player that graduated from the program and you’re still going to be in it next year.’
“It has to be something that they put in their back pocket and use as an advantage, and they had a great senior class kind of mentoring them and leading them along the way. I am excited for that group, but it’s hard, right now you’re thinking about those 12 seniors and it’s hard to think about a team without them because they were just a really special group.”
The Chargers received immense support throughout the playoff run, with parents, alumni, students and local baseball fans packing the stands for all four of the team’s postseason games.
“I think you saw the crowd speaks for itself a little bit, right?” Hedricks said. “We are the thing going in Goleta right now for baseball and in the community, and we didn’t have a bad home crowd the entire year.
“Playing at home, the atmosphere is special. The players, the parents. It’s a special place to be. I’m proud of DP baseball, I’m proud to be a part of DP baseball, and I hope these young kids just keep it rolling.”
University City, the CIF-San Diego Section Division 3 champions, will face off against Mt. Carmel in the SoCal Regional Championship game on Saturday.
The Centurions started the game with a bang, pouring on four runs in the top of the first thanks to two runs on an error off the bat of Nolan Nunes, an Ethan Antenore RBI groundout and an RBI single off the bat of Thiago Quillin.
Dos Pueblos starter Seth Tedeschi settled in from there, firing three scoreless innings after the four-run first. He ended his outing with six strikeouts in four innings of work.
“Giving up four runs in the first is never easy,” Hedricks said. “Seth absolutely rebounded and just shoved for the next three innings, and that was huge, because it still gave us a shot to be four runs down and trying to chip away.”
However, Nunes was cruising from the start for University City, firing four shutout frames to keep his team’s lead at 4-0.
The Centurions added on in the top of the fifth as Josh Kaplan roped an RBI double and two runners came around to score on wild pitches to make it a 7-0 lead.
After another scoreless frame by Nunes, University City extended its lead to 8-0 when Quillin came in to score on a wild pitch.
Dos Pueblos was kept off balance by Nunes all day, who got the starting nod over teammate and University of Tennessee commit AJ Curry, who was one of the top pitchers in the San Diego area all season. Nunes struck out five and scattered five hits in his six innings.
“[Nunes] shoved on us. I’ve got no negativity at all towards him, but we’ve seen so many plus plus velo (during the playoffs),” Hedricks said. “We prepared for [Curry], but that’s no excuse. Our boys are good enough to do better, and it just didn’t happen today.
“I don’t know if it was just our mindset that wasn’t ready for that… that’s on the coaching staff. That’s on me.”
The Chargers got into the scoring column in the bottom of the sixth courtesy of a two-out, pinch-hit single by Nick Salcido to bring the score to 8-1.
“I’m still proud of our boys. They stayed in the game. There was no give up,” Hedricks said. “I didn’t see guys pouting, hanging it up. They were still there for each other. They still had each other’s backs.
“Guys were still coming off the bench and getting stuff done. and finding ways to keep as much energy as they could, considering we were down by a bunch.”
However, the Centurions got that run right back in the top of the seventh to make it 9-1 on an RBI double from Antenore.
Dos Pueblos loaded the bases in the bottom half but couldn’t push a run across, resulting in the season-ending defeat.
Charlie Potter led the Charger offense by reaching base three times, including a pair of base hits.
