Boy was it a game! Families and supporters came out in droves in a show of support for the 21-8 El Segundo High School Varsity baseball team in a showdown for the ages against #1 seed Arcadia on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at Stevenson Field in El Segundo.
Coming off a 6-4 win on May 3, 2019, against Santa Fe, the El Segundo Eagles showed impressive defense and aggressive pitching.
ESHS Coach Ricky Clark Game Summary
El Segundo High School Junior, and right-hander pitcher, Aiden McRoberts, pitched a solid 6 1/3 innings holding top-seeded Arcadia to one run through five innings.
In the bottom of the 6th inning, El Segundo rallied to take a 2-1 lead when Matt Romero (center fielder) hit a triple that scored shortstop Benny Casillas to tie the game 1-1. Dylan Marque-Wassan then singled home the go-ahead run and the packed bleachers erupted in a “Gundo” cheer.
But, the game wasn’t over…In the top of the 7th inning, Arcadia put together a rally – tying the game 2-2.
El Segundo called in right-handed pitcher Ethan Burner to take over pitching duties and shut Arcadia down. Burner threw 4 2/3 innings allowing only one hit and striking out five.
Cooler heads prevailed in a tense moment when a left-handed Arcadia player crowded the plate in an attempt to throw off Burner. The Arcadia player seemingly placed his front leg in front of a steaming, on-point pitch from Burner and quickly ran to 1st base to take his base on a “hit-by-pitch” advance – the CIF umpires called time and brought the Arcadia player back to finish his at-bat. The Eagles coaching staff and players held their cool and Burner shut down the Arcadia player on the next pitch – a swing and a miss! See the video below & judge for yourself – did he intentionally crowd the plate to get hit?
Home-field Advantage Creates Opportunity
In CIF games, the location of the field is determined by a coin toss – “lady luck” gave El Segundo home-field advantage in their first two games both being played at Stevenson Field.
In the 11th inning with the Eagles at bat, Benny Casillas showed discipline at the plate advancing to 1st base on a walk. The next batter laid down a bunt being thrown out at 1st but advanced Casillas to 2nd base. In the next at-bat for the Eagles, an infield hit advanced Casillas to 3rd base. With two outs, catcher Julian Rodriguez swung on the 1st pitch sending a blooper over the first baseman’s head, scoring Casillas from 3rd base.
The crowd went wild with the Eagles jumping and falling in celebration on the field.
The Eagles will play Santa Margarita Catholic High School (also the Eagles) on Friday, May 10, 2019, to play in the quarterfinals. Santa Margarita is ranked 17th in CA with a 23-11 record having won their last three games.
El Segundo is playing in the 2019 CIF Southern Section Baseball Championships – Division 2 tournament.
