Castaic baseball takes CIF crown 

In just its second season of varsity play, Castaic Coyotes baseball has reached the top.  

Castaic defeated the Hesperia Christian Patriots, 7-0, on Friday to become CIF Southern Section Division 6 CIF champions at Blair Field at Long Beach State University.  

Coyotes pitcher Tyler Hawn threw a gem against the Patriots to notch the championship, tossing a complete-game shutout. Hawn allowed just four hits and struck out six Patriots with no walks. The Castaic pitcher retired 13 straight Patriot batters and didn’t allow a ball to hit the outfield grass until the fifth inning.  

“That’s one of the best games I’ve thrown this year,” Hawn said. “But every time I come out here, I expect a complete game shutout and I’ve been lucky this year to have multiple of them. So to me, this was just another day. I definitely could have been better still.” 

Castaic (24-7-1) was able to score in nearly every inning, and pulled away in the fifth with four runs. 

Hesperia (18-3) starting pitcher Kyle Day struggled to find the strike zone in the inning and the Coyotes took full advantage. Castaic loaded the bases with just one out before a walk and a hit by pitch scored two Coyote runs. David Cailotto hit one of his two RBI singles in the inning to pile on the runs.  

Cailatto and third baseman Aaron Gonzalez led all batters with two hits apiece. 

“From the get-go, we all said that we were going to go for this one because we had a chance at it,” Gonzalez said on the championship. “Our coaches and our city believed in us, so we just had to pay the price and just win to get the job done.” 

Hawn’s streak ended off the bat of Hesperia’s Ayden Ortega, who blasted a double to deep left. The pitcher then faced Day with runners on the corners and sparked the play to escape unscathed with a 2-0 lead. Hawn forced a ground ball and zipped the ball to second to set up the 1-5-3 double play.  

Day was pulled in the fifth inning after loading the bases due to some trouble hitting the zone. The pitcher was replaced by twin brother Logan Day, a lefty with a big hooking curve ball.  

Castaic had too much momentum to be slowed down with the bases loaded, but Logan forced two consecutive outs to limit the damage.  

Castaic added one more insurance run in the sixth inning and took a 7-0 lead thanks to an infield RBI single from Brody Lusk.  

Hawn went into the seventh smelling blood with victory so close. The pitcher gave up a leadoff hit but forced a groundout that led to the Coyotes’ second double play of the day before Hawn struck out his final batter. 

“I’ve been dreaming of that moment,” Hawn said. “I was able to throw my glove and celebrate with Jack behind the plate. It was just amazing.” 

Head coach Darrell Davis has seen his team show up to hit in countless big games this year and now has a ring to show for it. 

“We played our game,” Davis said. “We pitched well, played great defense, we probably could have hit a little bit better, but we hit today. It all worked out for us, and to walk away with a 7-0 win, I’m excited.” 

Davis has led Castaic since the program’s birth in 2019. The coach has seen his players work thousands of hours on their craft to become a CIF championship-caliber team. 

“I’m just so happy for our boys, our parents, our community,” Davis said. “We’ve worked so hard. We’ve had to go through a tough league, but I think that’s what helped us to get to this point. Our league was tough. You know, we had to grind every game and I think it helped us.” 

The Coyotes are the first local team of the millennium to win a CIF title and the most recent since Hart won in 1999, back when there were only four local public schools. Now, in just second year of varsity, Castaic is a Section champion. 

The team will get to celebrate and enjoy the moment for over a week before the CIF regional tournament. Castaic returns to the field on Tuesday, May 30, with an opponent and location yet to be determined.