West Ranch High School junior Ty Diaz saw the ball get past the infield, ran past first base, toward second, and just kept running to left field as his teammates chased him in jubilation.
Coming to bat in the bottom of the eighth inning on Tuesday at West Ranch High School with a chance to send the West Ranch Wildcats baseball team to its first-ever CIF Southern Section championship appearance, Diaz delivered the walk-off hit to take down the visiting Etiwanda Eagles, 8-7.
Diaz’s teammates showered him with the water cooler on his way to left field, but he said the chills were worth it.
“I’m really gassed right now,” Diaz said. “I’m wet, I have a cramp, I’m tired, but it’s worth it. Everything’s worth it, every second.”
It wasn’t as dominant a performance as West Ranch fans have been used to throughout the Wildcats’ postseason run, but they found a way to keep their season alive.
“’We know we’re gonna win.’ That was kind of what we said (before the final inning),” Diaz said. “We know we’re gonna get loud, we know we’re never out of the game, and we’re just gonna go out there and compete.”
Etiwanda took a 7-5 lead in the top of the eighth inning, and with the West Ranch offense suddenly cold after a hot start, it looked like it might be the end of the road.
Senior Ryan Oh started the bottom of the frame off with a single, followed by junior Connor Clayton’s walk to bring the winning run to the plate. Junior Caydin Wilson then laid down a perfect bunt to third base, giving the Etiwanda defense no play at any base.
Senior Landon Hu made it a one-run game with a sacrifice fly, leading the Eagles to intentionally walk the next two hitters to load the bases and set up a potential game-ending double play.
Diaz made sure that wouldn’t happen with his third hit of the game and second RBI.
“Etiwanda made the right decision,” said West Ranch head coach Ryan Lindgreen, referring to loading the bases in the bottom of the eighth. “I mean, that was the right thing to do. It wasn’t like they were doing something odd. They made the right baseball play, and we’re just fortunate that that we got the hit.”
Wildcats senior Mikey Murr was solid through three innings before running into trouble in the fourth inning. He’d allowed just two hits to that point and no runs, extending the Wildcats’ scoreless defense streak in the playoffs to 21 innings — including back-to-back no-hitters to get West Ranch to Tuesday’s semifinals.
“That’s bonkers,” Lindgreen said. “I mean, I can’t even describe that. That’s not something that’s normal. That’s just some really cool stuff that happened to us, and, you know, a testament to our guys competing on the mound and playing some good defense.”
The Eagles got to Murr in the fourth inning, who recorded just one out in the frame before being moved to left field. What was a 5-0 lead entering the frame became a 5-5 tie after the Eagles scored once on an error, once on a double and then three batters hit in a row, with the bases loaded each time.
There was little offensive output from either side through the rest of regulation. West Ranch senior standout Hunter Manning struck out three over the sixth and seventh innings five days after tossing a no-hitter.
Manning is likely to get the start in Saturday’s Division 2 championship game against the Mater Dei Monarchs. The first pitch is set for 7:30 p.m. at Goodwin Field at Cal State Fullerton.
“We had talked about how his energy was feeling and how his arm was feeling over the last few days,” Lindgreen said, “knowing that today is kind of like a bullpen day to get ready for the weekend. And so we chatted before the game and he said he felt good and his arm felt good and that he had a few pitches in him, and we had to use him when we used him, and he was fantastic.”
Etiwanda’s seven runs on Tuesday are the most the Wildcats have allowed since Saugus put up nine on March 28 — nearly two months to the date.
Diaz said the Wildcats are “hot at the right time” and feel like they can beat anybody, even with this being the first time a West Ranch team has ever even competed for a title. It would also send off Lindgreen in dramatic fashion, as he is set to step down at the end of the season after 15 years with the program and five as the head coach.
“It’s really exciting,” Diaz said. “It’s exciting for our coaching staff, too, because, you know, it’s their last year. They’ve never made it, so to get them there is awesome.”
