Dos Pueblos baseball grabbed an early lead and never gave it up on the way to an 11-1 win over Trinity Classical Academy in the CIF-SS Division 4 Quarterfinals on Friday at Scott O’Leary Field.
Seth Tedeschi fired five scoreless innings and the Chargers held the lead throughout the game, putting the cherry on top of the win with a seven-run outburst in the sixth.
Dos Pueblos will now play host to Thousand Oaks for the CIF-SS Division 4 Semifinals on Tuesday at Scott O’Leary Field.
“We’re playing the best baseball (we have) all year… It’s fun. Everyone’s not overthinking and we’re just doing our job,” Dos Pueblos senior Alexander Hajda said. “We know if something doesn’t go our way, our teammates have our backs and that’s a lot of fun.”
Tedeschi started his day on a high note, striking out the side in order in the top of the first.
The Charger offense kept the momentum in the bottom half as Taylor Young singled and Alexander Hajda launched a towering two-run homer to left to take a 2-0 lead.
“I was just sitting on a fastball all at-bat,” Hajda said. “We know he throws hard, obviously, and we’ve been practicing hitting velo all week with the machine, so it’s just being ready for the pitch and not missing it.”
The Knights responded by threatening with runners on the corners and no outs to begin the bottom of the second. However, Tedeschi forced a pop-up for the first out and the next batter launched a fly ball to Charlie Potter in left field.
Potter hauled in the catch and unleashed a perfect throw to Zach Gesswein at home plate to nail the runner and preserve the 2-0 advantage.
“Breaking the momentum there, getting them off the bases, finding a way to not let them score (was huge). It could have been 2-2 right there,” Dos Pueblos head coach George Hedricks said.
“So getting that big outfield play swung right back into our dugout… Our guys were pumped up off that, they fed off of it.
That lead held until the bottom of the third when Gesswein drove home Stone Saunders on an RBI sacrifice fly to left to make it 3-0.
While Tedeschi settled in and continued to hold the Knights at bay, the Chargers continued to add to their lead in the fourth.
After he was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, Charlie Potter made his way to third on back-to-back wild pitches. He then came in to score on a line-drive single off the bat of Shane Grant.
The Dos Pueblos offense was making solid contact all day against Trinity Classical starter John Carlson, who is committed to Cal Baptist and throws a fastball in the low 90s.
“You know, coming in, we know we’re going to see a very good pitcher,” Hedricks said. “A guy that’s going to play in college and have good velo, but we also felt like we’ve seen that in league a little bit. Playing in the channel League compares you for the playoffs, flat out.
“We use that as a preparation for this. We talked about it in practice this week. We knew we were going to see some velo. We worked hard on hitting velo the last couple of days, and it showed today.”
Trinity Classical got a rally going in the top of the fifth thanks to a pair of free passes and a single to load the bases with two outs. However, Tedeschi buckled down and got the next batter to ground out to cap off his outing and keep the Dos Pueblos lead at 4-0.
Tedeschi allowed just four hits and one walk while striking out six in his five scoreless innings of work.
“[Tedeschi] has started three straight playoff games for us… but in the other two he had gotten a little trouble early, then fixed it and got us where we needed to be,” Hedricks said. “Today, it was very important we talked about the game plan: ‘You’ve got to get ahead early,’ and he absolutely did.
“He worked his butt off to make sure he’s prepared for today and it showed… Going five shutout there was huge.”
The Knights finally broke through in the top of the sixth with an RBI double by Luke Backes to cut the deficit to 4-1. The next batter, however, grounded into a strong 5-3-6 double play from Young, Hajda and Grant to stop the momentum and help maintain the three-run lead into the bottom of the sixth.
The Chargers got that run back quickly in the sixth as Potter launched a leadoff double and came in to score on a stolen base and error from the Knight catcher on the throw down. They weren’t done there, as Dos Pueblos piled on six more runs to balloon the lead to 11-1.
In the sixth-inning outburst, Saunders was hit by a pitch and Taylor laid down a bunt single with the bases to score one run apiece.
Gesswein then blasted a two-run double into the left-centerfield gap, Hajda drove in a run on a groundout and Potter launched an RBI triple that bounced out of the center fielder’s glove to bring the score to 11-1.
After Derek Brunet pitched the fifth inning, Grant came in and slammed the door with a 1-2-3 top of the seventh to clinch the win.
Young led the Chargers with three hits, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Meanwhile, Potter ended the day 2-for-3 with two runs scored and both Gesswein and Hajda drove in three runs.
“You’re not going to [score] every inning, but we just made them work every inning,” Hedricks said. “The hitters grinded, you had to grind. The approach today was to grind, work the pitches, work the pitcher, get your opportunity to make a mistake. Up and down the lineup today, guys were finding ways to do that.”