Local High School Teams Play for Divisional Final Berths, Faces Mixed Results

WALNUT – For the second time in three seasons, the Walnut High school baseball team once again punched it ticket to the CIF division 3 championship game with a 3-2 victory over Paso Robles Tuesday afternoon.

Jacob Garcia drove in all three of the Mustangs’ runs, but his RBI double in the bottom of the sixth to break a 2-2 tie proved to be the game winning run.

“Coach told me to go away with the pitch because (Paso Robles pitcher Nolan Binkele) was throwing everything outside,” he said. “I wanted todrive the runner in more than anything else. He gave me that perfect pitch to go away with it. It was in the perfect spot.”

Garcia smacked a line drive double that scored Andy Rodriguez to take a 3-2 lead.

Walnut (24-9) will play Righetti, a 1-0 winner over Parcalete Saturday 3:30 pm at UC Riverside.

Brandon Gadoy won his third playoff game, giving up two runs, six hits with seven strikeouts.

“He (Brandon) is our workhorse. We rode him the entire year,”Walnut head coach Paul Acosta said. “Today was all guts. He wasn’t the sharpest today but he’s apitcher…that just shows how incredible he is as a pitcher.”

Paso Robles scored first in the third as they hit Gadoy hard. A Mark Armstrong sharp single scored Binkele, then Dylan Lewis then singled to score Seth Matthysse to take a 2-0 lead. But that’s all the Bearcats will get as Gadoy retired nine of the final ten batters he faced.

“I didn’t have my best stuff today but I got the job done at the end,” he said. “There is a lot of pressure pitching in the semifinals, but I have a great defense behind me.”

On the other side of town, Nogales, who playing for its first trip to the championship game since 1974 was not as fortunate as they fell to top seeded Tahiquez of Hemet 5-3 to end its season at 27-3.

The Titans scored first when Caleb Farmer drove in Clayton Ellis to take a quick 1-0 lead. They then added two more in the third for a 3-0 lead.

Nogales came back in the bottom of the third to tie the game at 3-3. Bryce Patrick-Wills scored on a Jonathon Guardado sacrifice fly. Juan Guardado on a bloop single and Joe Robles each scored on a Titan throwing error.

Tahiquez took the lead for good in the sixth. With the bases loaded, a hit batsman made it 4-3 and then Kyle Weatherby scored Branden Castillo for an insurance run which proved to be the difference.

“Just wasn’t meant to be,” Nogales head coach Don Montanez said. “We battled like we always do. It just didn’t happen for us today, give them credit.”

The Titans face Grace Brethren 7:30 pm on Friday at UC Riverside.

Photo by: Leo Jarzomb San Gabriel Tribune