HONORING ORANGE LUTHERAN: Baseball team was 8-0 and ranked No. 1 in CIF (video)

Orange Lutheran baseball seniors gathered for a picture earlier this season. (Photo courtesy Orange Lutheran High School)

It was a very promising start for the Orange Lutheran High School baseball team, coached by Eric Borba. The Lancers jumped out to an 8-0 start, but their season came to an end early when spring sports in the state were cancelled by the coronovirus pandemic.

However, Borba and his assistant coaches made sure the 12 seniors were honored in a virtual ceremony on social media Thursday, April 30.

That would have been the Lancers’ senior night against Servite. When spring sports were cancelled, Orange Lutheran was ranked No. 1 in the CIF Division 1 poll.

The team had five shutouts in eight games and had only given up nine runs in eight games, according to sports information manager Dave Cacciapuoti. Only four of the nine runs were earned and the team had an ERA of 0.143, said Coach Borba.

The players were part of a program that won back to back Trinity League titles. The Lancers were looking forward to competing in the National High School Invitational, which they won the last three years, and the Boras Classic.

Besides the social media ceremony, members of the coaching staff drove to each of the 12 houses of the seniors to drop off lawn signs on April 30 and at 7 p.m., in honor of the 12 seniors, the City of Orange allowed the lights at Hart Park to be turned on for 12 minutes.

The program put together a video of the seniors that was shared the next day announcing the 12 seniors with a message from Coach Borba. Public address announcer Dan Thome did the announcing of the lineup which included the 12 seniors.

Here’s the senior video tribute, courtesy of Orange Lutheran:

The baseball coaching also staff presented a video slide show on Twitter highlighting each players’ accomplishments.

Here are the seniors along with their college commitments:

Chad Born (University of Miami) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256021825705979910

Nathan Blocher (University of Puget Sound) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256023147624759296

Max Rajcic (UCLA) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256024334835109889

Drake Frize (University of San Diego) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256025635945951233

Tank Espalin (USC) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256026856140218370

Elijah Buries (Grand Canyon University) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256029242984468481

Christian Rodriguez (Cal State Fullerton) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256029342267846681

Cooper Gilmour (Boise State) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256030660726267904

Brett Pierson (Lewis & Clark University) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256031887275053056

Joseph Wiersma (UC Santa Barbara) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256034374711115779

Brandon Heidal (Undecided) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256034538523971584

Graysen Tarlow (Cal State Northridge) – https://twitter.com/olubaseball/status/1256035677554311169