Rancho Alamitos earns first trip to CIF finals with home victory over Oxford Academy

Rancho Alamitos coaches and players celebrate a CIF Division 8 semifinal victory. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Rancho Alamitos High School’s baseball team is headed to the CIF finals for the first time in school history.

Despite the recent Garden Grove tank incident, helicopters hovering overhead in the skies and fire sirens blasting throughout the neighborhood, the CIF Division 8 semifinal game took place at Rancho Alamitos Tuesday afternoon. 

Rancho Alamitos senior right-hander Henry Garcia tossed a one-hit shutout, propelling his team to a 3-0 victory over Oxford Academy of Cypress sending the Vaqueros to their first ever CIF final.

Rancho Alamitos (15-11) will face Schurr which defeated Duarte 4-2 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

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Garcia dominated striking out six and walking only one to lead the Vaqueros.   

“I told my guys, all I need is one run,” said Garcia, who yielded only a lead off single to Logan Lavoie in the fourth inning. “I threw my fastball about 80 percent of the time and my change-up the rest. It’s especially great to be going to the finals as a senior. We’re making Rancho history.”

The game was originally moved to Los Amigos High School because of the tank incident that occurred in Garden Grove last week that caused city schools to be closed and thousands of residents to be evacuated.

However, on Monday night, authorities lifted the evacuation for many residents, allowing them to return to their homes. In addition, Rancho Alamitos High School was opened on Tuesday and the game’s location was moved back to Rancho Alamitos.

In the bottom of the first inning, the Vaqueros pushed across a run.

Carson Lamb reached first on an infield error. He moved to third base on Ethan Shepherd’s double. One out later, Aiden Martinez was intentionally walked to load the bases. Andrew Ballesta then knocked in the run on an infield ground out to give Rancho Alamitos a 1-0 lead.  

“All I was thinking about is bringing home a run,” said Ballesta, who reached base twice in the game. “The key for us is to keep playing solid in all facets of the game, our hitting, defense and pitching.”

The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning.

Andre Zeferino reached base on a throwing error and moved to second on Gerardo Avila’s single to center. Both runners moved up a base on an infield ground out. Zeferino scored on a wild pitch and Avila advanced to third base on the play.

One out later, Avila scored on Shepherd’s RBI squeeze bunt, upping the Vaqueros lead to 3-0.  

Despite only giving up one hit, Garcia had to pitch out a few jams. Garcia walked Oxford Academy’s leadoff batter, Elliott Chung, to start the game.

One out later, he hit Logan Lavoie with a pitch, giving Oxford Academy runners at first and second base with one out. However, Garcia retired the next two hitters on a ground out and a pop to end the rally. In the third inning, Lavoie singled to lead off.

He stole second and moved to third with two outs, but Gacia struck out Jayden Sun to end the inning. In the sixth inning, the Patriots got their first two batters on base following two Vaqueros miscues, but Garcia retired the next three batters in order to end the threat.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Oxford Academy (12-20) pulled off a triple play.

After Rancho Alamitos got its first two batters (Martinez and Ballesta) on first and second base, Jacob Neri struck out but the ball rolled away from the catcher in front of the plate following he third strike.

Neri was called out by the umpire but the two Vaqueros runners tried to advance. Martinez raced towards third but the Patriots infielder threw the ball to the third baseman. Martinez stopped and turned back and ran towards second.

The umpire ruled that Martinez was tagged out before he reached the second bag. In the meantime, Ballesta was standing on second base as Martinez reached second base. Ballesta then tried to return to first base but was tagged out completing the triple play. 

Garcia retired Oxford Academy’s batters in order in the top of the seventh inning to close out the victory.

“I think it’s one of his best games he pitched all season,” said Shepherd. “Henry was consistent and he never let up on the gas and our team’s energy was high.”

Vaqueros Coach Sammy Macias was all smiles following the game.

“Henry is our ace and he started off the season for us with 16 strikeouts and he’s pitched a no-hitter and a perfect game and he even pitched a game that went 10 innings this season, said Macias. “He’s given us every big win this year and this is the first time this season we’ve won four games in a row. I’ve been doing this for 16 years and I’ve never been to the finals; this is exciting.” 

Patriots Coach Cory Wiliams said his team was outplayed.

“We ran into hot team and this is the time of year when you want your team to be getting hot,” said Wiliams. “We started off slow and they outplayed us today. They took advantage of our mistakes (Oxford Academy committed four errors). They are a hot team right now and they have a strong middle of the lineup.”

Notes:

—-With the win, Rancho Alamitos qualified for the CIF So Cal regional tournament next week and Macias said his team would participate. 

—Oxford Academy, which finished second in the 605 League with an 8-2 record behind league champion Cerritos, also defeated Desert Christian, Rosemead and Cornerstone Christian in the playoffs.

—-Oxford Academy starting pitcher Aaron Villagomez pitched well. He struck out four, walked one and only yielded three hits before being relieved after five innings.