Estancia baseball team defeats Saddleback and captures outright league championship

Estancia players get together after winning the league championship Friday night. (Photo courtesy Estancia Baseball).

Estancia High School’s baseball team captured the Orange Coast League title Friday night, defeating Saddleback 6-1 at TeWinkle Park.

It’s the first league title for the program since 2019. Orange won the crown last year.

“Winning the league championship was a goal of our’s from the beginning of the season,”
said Coach Nate Goellrich. “It is nice to accomplish one of our team goals. For our team to overcome a couple of injuries and navigate an unusual schedule due to the weather and win the league championship says a lot of their determination and focus to not be satisfied by the success of last season.

“We have continued to improve each week and it has been fun to watch the growth of this years team.

Estancia (18-5, 10-2) was led by winning pitcher Andrew Mits. Mits (8-3) pitched four innings, allowing one earned run and three hits while striking out eight.

Cole Lefebvre was 1 for 4 with a run scored and two RBI, including a two-run home run in the second inning. Miles Moyer was 2 for 2 with a run scored, James De La O was 1 for 3 with a run scored and a double and Mits was 1 for 2 with two RBI.

Estancia plays Pioneer in Whittier Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in a non-league game.

Send baseball news, league championship photos to timburt@ocsportszone.com.