CVCS Is Eliminated From Baseball Playoffs

It wasn't the way Capistrano Valley Christian's baseball team wanted to go out.

It especially wasn't the way anyone imagined the Eagles might be eliminated from the CIF Southern Section Division 6 playoffs.

An Eagle team that had held opponents to three runs or fewer in 19 games this year en route to a San Joaquin League title and a 19-win season was slammed by Pasadena Poly, 11-7, in the quarterfinals Friday afternoon on the Panthers' campus field.

Poly's baseball field was on a stretch of grass that seemed better suited for a game of the over line instead of a CIF quarterfinal game. The right-field fence was only 240 feet from home plate and center field was mere 260, and both teams took advantage, combining to hit seven home runs.

“I would have liked to have played this game at our field, where you have normal baseball dimensions,” CVCS coach Clemente Bonilla said. “But they deserved the home game, and the fence situation was like that for both teams.”

Coming into the game neither side had relinquished a run in the playoffs, but all that changed on the third pitch of the game as the Eagles' leadoff batter, Jason Carpenter, drove a fastball served up by 6-foot-7 Jordan Kutzer onto the roof of the school. Carpenter was two for four on the  game with two home runs and three runs batted in.

“I was just thinking fastball,” Carpenter said of the at-bat. “When I got my shot, I just wanted to get it into the air and towards center field because the roof of the school looked so close.”

Kutzer returned the favor in the bottom of the first as he sent the second pitch he saw onto the roof and then, after getting the next batter out, the Panthers' clean-up batter belted a home-run over the right-field fence.

“It’s not really about the speed of your pitch as to how they are going to hit it,” Eagle pitcher Sam Eichler said. “It’s about the location of the pitch, and we just got way too many balls up above the waist instead of down low by the knees, where we should have been working.”

Senior Derrick Carter hit his first home run of the season and had two RBIs, and freshman Parker Cross had three singles and scored twice for the Eagles.“Those guys played really well,” said Bonilla, who has led his team to the quarterfinals in four of his first five years at the school. “I was proud of all of our guys and the effort they gave, not only tonight but all season. This has been a good group to coach.”

Pasadena Poly (23-2), seeded No. 2 in the playoffs, has been unbeatable at home this season and has won 12 of 14 games there by four runs or more. Despite those numbers, the Panthers were trailing, 5-2, in the bottom of the fourth before scoring nine runs in the final three innings to put the game out of reach.

“Anytime you give up four home runs, you are probably going to lose,” Bonilla said. “No matter what the size of the field is that you’re playing on."