Century falls behind early and drops CIF Division 5 playoff opener against Highland

Players from Century have a pre-game meeting before Thursday’s CIF playoff game. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Highland’s baseball squad jumped out to an early lead and went on to defeat Century 3-0 in a CIF Division 5 playoff opener Thursday in a battle of two league champions.

Highland (18-9-1) moves on to face Citrus Hill Tuesday in the second round.

“A hit here and a hit there and it could have been a different ball game,” said Century Coach Theo Cortes.

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Highland’s Mateo Dominguez belted his first career high school home run with two outs in the second inning off Century starter Andy Santana and pitchers Jacob Aragon and Landon Manzano blanked the Centurions (21-8) on three hits.

“He hit it at the right time when the wind was blowing out, normally that ball doesn’t clear,” Cortes said. “We had our chances offensively too, we had plenty of runners on base, we just couldn’t get the hit at the right time, it’s as simple as that.”

Aragon, a sophomore, pitched into the fifth inning to earn the win before being relieved by Manzano.

Century had scoring chances, loading the bases in the third inning with two outs, but Aragaon got a strikeout to end the threat.

In the fifth inning, Century had the bases loaded with one out following a walk to Santana and hits by Miguel Ulloa and Ismael Valverde, but Highland turned a double play on a sinking pop fly in right center field doubling up the runner at second base to get out of the jam.

The Bulldogs added a run in the fifth inning when Jayden Carrillo, who singled to lead off, scored from third on a fielder’s choice. In the seventh inning, Colton Booterbaugh singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored the insurance run.

“Mateo hit a rocket out there, we hit a couple to the opposite field, he got us going 1-0 and I think that settled everyone’s nerves down,” said acting Highland Coach Matt Winck. “Jacob battled, he didn’t have his best stuff today. he’s been a bulldog all year for us on the mound and he wasn’t going to be denied today, even though his stuff wasn’t quite there. Landon comes in and shuts it down and pitched well too.”

Highland players were thrilled to get the win after losing in the first round last year.

“It’s a huge win, we do it for everybody back at home, everybody who has played here, it’s a legacy, it’s not just for us, it’s for everybody,” Aragon said. “We knew the arm we were going to see today, we came out here and competed like we were supposed to. We knew we had to get the job done and we got it done. All the boys hit good, everybody played defense, I always trust my defense, I love everybody here, it’s a nice team.”

Cortes, the Century coach, was also proud of his team.

“It was games like this all season long,” he said. “Most of our games were close to the most part and fortunately we were on the other side many of those times. It was quite a ride.”

He said the four seniors Santana, Valverde, Ulloa and Julian Arias teamed up to win about 85 games in the four years.

“Those guys have been starters with us since our freshman year,” Cortes said. “They had quite a run.”

“Overall, we were pretty excited going into this game,” said Ulloa. “I couldn’t sleep last night because I was too excited and confident we were going to do good. Unfortunately, we didn’t go to our full potential. It was a little bit of an upset, we had our innings, they had their’s but we couldn’t find that one little hit to get us back into the game.

“Overall, these past four years were pretty good, we had a winning record every single season, we made CIF the past four years, we were the first team to go back to back as league champs, it’s overall just a great program and I wish I could restart these four years.”

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com