Destiny was on the Wildcats’ side on Saturday at Goodwin Field at Cal State Fullerton.
The whole West Ranch baseball team knew, going into the CIF Southern Section Division 2 championship game, that it was the final game for most of the coaching staff, including head coach Ryan Lindgreen and assistant coach Casey Burrill, the only two coaches to ever lead the program in its 20-year history.
Senior Hunter Manning made sure to send them off with the program’s first CIF title — and cement himself as the greatest pitcher in the history of the program, West Ranch pitching coach Jim Wagner said.
“With the coaches’ last years, that’s been in the back of our mind the whole year,” Manning said. “First, we started with league champions, and now, you know, as we got in the playoffs, it’s been a Division 2 title. That’s been the goal the whole year, and it does feel like we’re destined to be in this position.”
Manning allowed just four hits and one unearned run while striking out six as the Wildcats took down the Mater Dei Monarchs, 2-1. The UC Irvine commit caught the final out, calling off catcher Nolan Stoll on a pop fly to finish off what he started.
Stoll said he’s being catching Manning — who sits atop many of the program’s all-time pitching leaderboards — since the two were young kids, and what makes Manning special is his commitment to pitching with confidence.
“That’s my favorite part, is that I get to work with him on pitch calling,” Stoll said. “And he knows what he wants to throw, and he throws it with confidence … He’s probably the most focused guy I’ve ever played baseball with in my whole career. He takes everything seriously, and he wants to be perfect with everything. He messes something up, a bad pitch, he loses his mind on the mound, and then he’s just laser-focused on the next pitch.”
As the West Ranch players dogpiled outside their dugout, the coaches were celebrating together and enjoying their final moments together as a staff.
“Nothing has sunk in yet,” Lindgreen said. “Tomorrow, I think, yeah, I might be a little bit more emotional about that this is over. But right now, I’m just nothing but excited.”
Stoll drove in the first run of the game on a ground-out in the top of the first inning. West Ranch extended its lead to 2-0 in the fourth when senior Ryan Oh delivered an RBI single.
That lead held until the bottom of the seventh when the Monarchs put together a late rally. With his pitch count creeping up toward 100, Manning allowed a couple of one-out singles after an error allowed the first baserunner of the inning to reach. He induced a fly out that allowed the potential tying run to reach third base before getting the final out himself.
Lindgreen said the only way Manning would be taken out would have been due to pitch-count rules, and that it was his game to win or lose.
“Other than that, it was his game,” Lindgreen said. “It was his time. He was gonna be the guy that had the ball in the biggest moments, and we were gonna ride him ’til we couldn’t ride him anymore.”
The Wildcats accomplished all of their goals for the season in capturing their first league title since 2016, and fourth overall, and earning the program’s first Southern Section title — in the first title game in program history, no less.
With a senior-laden group that Lindgreen said lives for the day-to-day stuff as much as the games, he knew those goals were all achievable.
“They’re such a day-to-day group, and that’s what’s so amazing about them,” Lindgreen said. “I think that no game is too big, no practice is too long. They are ready to kind of compete each day, and we know what we’re going to get out of them. And I think that the fact that they’ve been kind of so even-keeled this year has really shown that that’s why they were able to accomplish what they accomplished.”
The Wildcats were eligible to compete in the CIF SoCal Regional but have elected to forgo the opportunity to continue their season.
