Century High School’s baseball players and coaches celebrate after Tuesday’s win that clinched the outright league title. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Century High School’s baseball team clinched the outright inaugural Coast League title Tuesday with a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Estancia and making it extra special, the Centurions got to celebrate on their home field.
It was the first of two games between the two teams this week. Estancia (13-12, 7-4) needed to win Tuesday and again Thursday at Estancia to earn a share of the title.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Both teams had already qualified for the CIF playoffs.
Century (18-7, 9-1) was led by senior pitcher Ismael Valverde, who went the distance, scattering six hits and striking out four. He did not walk a batter. After falling behind 1-0, Century moved ahead 2-1 with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI single by sophomore catcher Alfredo Rivera.
“I think when we talked to the kids at the beginning of the year, their number one goal was to win league,” said Century Coach Theo Cortes, now in his 21st season. “Because we were going into a new league with some new teams, it’s really nice for them to accomplish what they set out to do.”
Cortes was relieved the Centurions could clinch the title Tuesday. Century won the Orange League title last year sharing it with Savanna.
“I don’t like playing at Estancia, it’s a bad place for us playing there,” Cortes joked. “The last two times we’ve been there it hasn’t been good.”
Valverde started pitching about a month ago after coming off an injury in the off-season.
“This, I think is his third complete game in a row, but he keeps his pitch counts really low,” Cortes said. “He doesn’t walk people, he just goes after people. Alfredo is our back-up catcher and he’s been thrown into that role since our primary catcher has had troubles throwing the ball, so he’s been DH and doing a really good job.”
Valverde started off the sixth inning with a single. Julian Arias reached on an error. The two advanced a bases on a wild pitch. Then, Rivera singled up the middle to drive in two runs. Valverde then retired the Eagles in order in the seventh.
Vaughn McCrea (2-5) pitched well for Estancia, allowing one earned run and four hits while striking out three.
“It was a well played game overall, I thought we competed well, we had some good opportunities on the bases, they did a good job minimizing that, Vaughn did a great job competing on the mound for us getting out of some jams early, and in the end it comes down to one mistake and unfortunately we made the mistake (error in the sixth) and they capitalized on it, so hats off to them winning the league,” said Estancia Coach Nate Goellrich.
“But I like the way we competed and we battled and will go after them on Thursday. We’re going to the playoffs, couldn’t be prouder of this group, we graduated so much of our team from last year, we didn’t know what to expect this year coming in. We’ve definitely had some high moments and definitely had some low, for us to qualify for playoffs is a huge accomplishment for these guys and a testament to the hard work they’ve put in for the whole year.”
Estancia threatened in the third inning but came away empty handed. In the fourth inning, Nico Viramontes singled with one out and Jacob Ramirez doubled. Sean Sweeney followed with an RBI double to put the Eagles ahead 1-0 but Valverde was able to retired the next two hitters.
Century threatened in the bottom of the fourth inning with runners on second and third with one out. But Arias was thrown out at home on a close play and the Centurions came away empty handed.
However, Century was able to push across the deciding runs later.
“It feels pretty good, back to back league champs, it’s a very good feeling,” said Rivera, the catcher, who had two hits on the day. “With runners on third and second, you just got to get the job done.”
“It’s a good feeling, I just came out here with the intention I was going to pound the zone, throw strikes and just get the job done for my team,” said Valverde, the winning pitcher. “It means a lot, if you go into our little clubhouse we had it on the whiteboard since October of last year that we were going to win {the championship} and we did, we’re the first Coast League champions.”
Century players celebrated by pouring a bucket of ice water on their head coach.
“It was everybody’s idea, we all pitched in, we all grabbed a bottle of water,” Valverde said.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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