It was only a few days before that West Ranch High School senior Hunter Manning watched a couple of his teammates combine for a postseason no-hitter.
On Friday, the senior did it himself to send the Wildcats baseball team to the CIF Southern Section Division 2 semifinals.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Manning said. “They have, like, a little record thing coach (Casey) Burrill puts on the West Ranch website, and I go back and it’s like no recent no-hitters. And we just throw one on Tuesday, and to think that I threw one today, it’s pretty special.”
Manning cut through the visiting Sultana Sultans lineup with ease, striking out eight and rarely allowing hard-hit balls. The only blemishes on his record were a couple of walks, and he needed just 81 pitches in the 10-0 win.
One of those walks came with two outs in the seventh inning as Manning said he was trying to do too much to finish off his nearly perfect day and the fourth no-hitter in program history.
Senior Mikey Murr, who threw five innings in the Wildcats’ no-hitter in the second round, and senior Nolan Stoll each hit a home run and scored twice. Seven Wildcats picked up a hit, led by two from senior Ryan Oh, including a double.
West Ranch ran out to a quick 4-0 lead after the first inning, attacking a Sultana pitching staff that has had to work in its last two playoff games, going to extra inning in both. The game opened up with three more West Ranch runs in the third and two in the sixth.
It’s the second consecutive playoff game that the Wildcats have put up double-digit runs.
“The offensive approach has been really good, and we’ve been able to kind of execute that,” said West Ranch head coach Ryan Lindgreen. “It’s been really impressive, not only our guys in batting practice, with the way they go about, you know, working and preparing for games, but the way they’ve been able to execute in games.”
The offense may be firing on all cylinders, but the key to the Wildcats’ run in the playoffs has been pitching. They’ve allowed just three runs in three games, all coming in their 4-3 first-round victory on the road at Palm Desert.
And leading the way, as he has all season, is Manning. His 0.84 ERA on the season would give him the lowest single-season ERA in program history, while his 103 strikeouts is tops for a single season. He also ranks tied for second in program history with nine wins this season and would be lined up to go for the record should the Wildcats advance to the championship game.
“His work ethic is tremendous, and what he does behind the scenes allows him to perform well consistently,” Lindgreen said. “He earns that each day with the way he goes about handling his business. He is a leader by example that everyone can see and know that he puts all the time and effort in to be able to go execute.”
Standing in the way of the Wildcats’ first-ever appearance in the finals are the Etiwanda Eagles. West Ranch is set to host Tuesday’s semifinal matchup, with the first pitch slated for 3:15 p.m. It’s the third playoff game in a row that West Ranch will be hosting.
“There’s nothing better than getting a home game, you know,” Lindgreen said. “And you can’t explain the coin flips and how those things work out, or whatever, but it feels really great to get a home game and know that we have one more chance to play at our yard.”
Castaic, Saugus, Trinity all go down
The other three Santa Clarita Valley baseball teams still in the playoffs were all knocked out on Friday.
The Castaic Coyotes lost to Temecula Valley on the road, the Saugus Centurions lost to Ganesha on the road, and the Trinity Classical Academy Knights lost to Dos Pueblos on the road.
Saugus fell 1-0 on a walk-off. Senior Kaleb Haag had gotten one out in the bottom of the seventh after allowing a leadoff single. Two intentional walks loaded the bases to set up the walk-off hit.
