Crean Lutheran baseball players meet with Coach Jake Haney during a playoff game. (Photo courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs / Ted Rigoni).
It’s going to be a busy weekend for the 14 seniors on the Crean Lutheran High School baseball team.
Friday, June 2, the No. 2-seeded Saints take on top-seeded Canyon at 4 p.m. at Canyon in the CIF SoCal Division IV championship game which will end the season for both teams. There is no state final for baseball.
Canyon, which won a non-league game over Crean Lutheran, defeated the Saints 3-0 in the CIF Division 4 finals at Blair Field on Saturday, May 20.
The regional final was scheduled for Saturday, but Crean Lutheran officials asked that the game be moved to Friday because Crean Lutheran has graduation ceremonies Saturday morning.
Canyon, including Coach Jason Smith, agreed to the change.
“Me and their coach Jason Smith are really good friends,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Jake Haney.
Smith told Haney he owed him a favor because the CIF finals game was changed from 7:30 p.m. to 10 a.m. due to Canyon’s prom night.
“I didn’t necessarily mind, but if kind of allows the guys to focus on baseball (Friday) and graduation with their families on Saturday,” Haney said.
Haney has said the CIF Southern Section final and regional final are different, downplaying a rematch with Canyon. He’s emphasized he’s excited that his players get to compete in one more game against a team they have shown great respect for.
“I don’t care who we play,” said Haney. “I wanted to play Fallbrook because I wanted to play here (at home) but I don’t care who we play in terms of opponent. But it is nice we just go down the road, we’re super comfortable, we’ve played them there this year and last year and we played in the fall and winter there.”
The players are excited for the final too and have showed respect for Canyon. The Comanches won their first two regional games and had shutouts in both games. Canyon (22-12) defeated Sylmar 3-0 and Fallbrook 5-0. The Comanches are 11-4 at home this season; Crean Lutheran is 11-6 on the road.
Crean Lutheran, behind the hitting of Jack Sand and Mark Fedro and the pitching of Wyatt Nichol, defeated Sage Creek 8-1 Thursday. The Saints (26-9) opened the regional defeating Calexico 12-2 on Tuesday. Both games were at home.
“We just have to come out and keep doing what we’re doing,” said Fedro after Thursday’s win over Sage Creek. “We’ve played Canyon in the CIF final, unfortunately we got the loss, but we’re going to come out tomorrow (Friday) confident and ready to hit and field and trust our pitcher, I’m pretty sure it’s Alex (Iida) pitching and come out and just keep doing what we’re doing.”
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—-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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