Walnut Upsets Undefeated Saints 4-1, Advances to First Final since 1982

SAN DIMAS – Perfection. Very few have attained it. However, many more has fallen short. Just ask the Kentucky Wildcats men’s’ basketball team, who this year was trying to be the first ever team in Division I basketball to go 40-0. Unfortunately they ran into a hungry Wisconsin team who eventually lost to Duke in the NCAA finals.

The San Dimas boys’ baseball team met the same fate, falling to the visiting Walnut Mustangs 4-1 in one CIF Division 3 semifinal matchup Tuesday afternoon. The Mustangs were on an 18-game winning streak of its own, after starting 3-7-2.

San Dimas was looking to have a perfect season, the first in the area since 1991 when Ontario won the sectional championship going undefeated. Going into Tuesday’s CIF Division 3 semifinal game, the Saints were 31-0 and were ranked #1 by USA Today and had chance at a National Championship.

“The mood is excitement, our boys are determined, our boys are playing well and they plan on making the best of it,” Walnut coach Paul Acosta said of facing San Dimas. “We respect (San Dimas) to the highest degree. We understand all the USA Today stuff, the undefeated record, the incredible pitching staff, but we have a confident group of guys that look at San Dimas as just another team standing in the way of our ultimate goal. We’ve got to go through them, just like they have to go through us.”

And go through the Saints did the Mustangs. After a quiet first inning, the Mustangs struck first, with Quinn Cooper reaching on a hit batsman. Walnut then got back-to-back hits, with the first hit by Maxwell Masana to score Cooper. Jake Rodriguez then followed up with a single to score Michael Mora to take a 2-0 lead.

Although down, the Saints (31-1) were by no means out, as they got back one run in the fourth, with Andrew Avila’s double to drive in Logan Murratalla to cut the lead down to 2-1. That would be the Saints’ only offense as Walnut scored two more runs in the fifth to put the game away.

Saints co-head coach Mike Reagan praised the Mustangs for its effort.

“This is heart-wrenching. (Walnut) did a great job, they pounded us, they hit-and-run, they did everything you can possibly do against us to pressure us. That’s a good team, I didn’t envision this. I knew they were good but what they did against (Jacob) Castillo was pretty amazing.”

Walnut (21-7-2) faces Redondo Union (28-7), a 6-2 winner over Bishop Amat Saturday at San Manuel Field in San Bernardino. First pitch is at 1pm.

Photo: Walnut Players Celebrate Estatically after knocking off then-undefeated San Dimas -Keith Birmingham/San Gabriel Valley Tribune