San Marcos scored two first-inning runs and that was enough for ace Cole Schoenwetter and Darren Orlando as they pitched the Royals into program history with a combined one-hit, 11-strikeout shutout performance at Redlands East Valley on Friday in a CIF-SS Division 3 quarterfinal game.
The 2-0 victory sends San Marcos (21-6) to its first-ever CIF baseball semifinal. The Royals will play Westlake at home on Tuesday. Westlake beat South Torrance, 3-2, in game that went 19 innings and was concluded on Saturday morning.
San Marcos jumped out to a 2-0 lead against East Valley ace and Cal State Northridge signee Ryan Halamicek, who recorded nine strikeouts in a complete-game outing. Caden Hodina started the game by ripping the ball into the right-field corner for a triple.
Halamicek retired the next two hitters before Owen Estabrook drew a walk. Brad Cekada followed with a single up the middle to score Hodina and Patrick Kelly singled to left for a RBI, as Estabrook dashed home from second base.
Schoenwetter protected the lead with a big-time performance. The only hit the right-hander allowed came in the fourth inning by Halamicek, who had a terrific at-bat as he fouled away several pitches. The single followed a one-out walk.
Schoenwetter thwarted the East Valley threat by striking out the next two hitters. He fanned five of the next six batters he faced over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
He did a nice job mixing up his pitches to keep the East Valley batters off balance.
“Cole really dominated,” said San Marcos coach Wes Ghan Gibson. “He started to spin (his pitches) a little bit. He’s really worked hard to be able to throw three pitches. I thought today he had them all working.”
Schoenwetter finished with 10 strikeouts and four walks.
The UCSB signee was relieved by Orlando in the seventh.
He gave up a lead-off walk to Halamicek in the seventh before retiring the next three batters on a pop out to second base, a strikeout and a fly out to center.
Once center fielder Brendon Cekada caught the ball, an ecstatic Orlando slammed his glove to the ground and started celebrating with catcher Estabrook and the rest of his teammates.
Friday was the Royals’ second straight long road trip in the playoffs. On Tuesday, they won in Hemet.
“These boys really love the game,” Ghan Gibson said.