Estancia baseball team eliminated by Ridgeview in CIF So Cal Division IV semifinals

Estancia High School’s baseball team, which about a week ago celebrated a CIF Division 6 championship, put up a battle on the road Friday but lost to Ridgeview 7-5 in the semifinals of the CIF So Cal Division IV playoffs.

The game was moved to Friday because of Estancia’s graduation ceremony on Thursday.

The third-seeded Eagles (21-14) were trying to advance into Saturday’s regional championship at top-seeded Banning. Estancia, coached by Nate Goellrich, was the only Orange County baseball team still in the regionals going into Friday’s game.

Vaughn McRea (3-6) started for Estancia. He allowed six earned runs and six hits and struck out four in 4 1/3 innings.

Offensively, Nico Viramontes was 3 for 4 with a run scored and a double, Jake Humphries was 1 for 3 with a run scored and two RBI and Sean Sweeney was 1 for 4 with a run scored, two RBI and a triple.

After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, Estancia took the lead in the fourth inning by scoring three runs. The highlight was a two-run triple by Sweeney.

Ridgeview then pushed across five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 7-3 lead.

However, the Eagles made one more push in the top of the seventh inning with two outs.

Estancia scored two runs to cut the lead to 7-5. Humphries was on second and Viramontes on third. But Sweeney’s fly ball was caught by the center fielder who made a diving catch to help Ridgeview advance, according to Goellrich.

Estancia won its opening game in the regional defeating Mary Star of the Sea 2-1 in a game that was carried over into Wednesday due to the rain and lightning storm in Orange County Tuesday.

The Eagles season culminated with a 4-3 walk-off victory over Marshall in the CIF Division 6 finals last Saturday at Cal State Fullerton. Humphries had a bases loaded walk-off triple to lead the Eagles to their second CIF title.