Vasquez slides into CIF quarters with 6-2 win
Kyle Johnson helps pitch Vasquez into CIF quarterfinals
ACTON — The Vasquez baseball team felt they played one of their best games of the season on Tuesday and it helped the Mustangs make their deepest playoff run in 13 years.
The Mustangs had a solid start by senior pitcher Kyle Johnson, who had an almost flawless defense behind him, and the offense capitalized on its eight hits and one of the two errors by Santa Rosa Academy.
It all culminated to a 6-2 Vasquez victory in a CIF-Southern Section Division 7 second-round game at Vasquez High.
The Mustangs (18-3) advance to the quarterfinals and will play at Western Christian, a 12-2 winner over Verbum Dei, on Friday.
“I feel that we played great,” said Johnson, a four-year varsity player. “I feel that everyone did what they were supposed to do. I think this is one of the best games we’ve played this year. Everyone hit the ball. Everyone fielded the ball. I think it’s the best we’ve every played and I’m proud of my team.
“Our coach always tells us we’re the first team to win a first-round playoff game in the past 10 years, so I think we kind of want to make history in winning a second one. We’re all such a young team two years ago and why not finish it out our senior year. I think we all want to win it for the six seniors we have this year.”
Johnson gave up two runs on four hits and two walks in seven innings, striking out 11.
“I felt good,” Johnson said. “The first five, six innings I felt good. The last inning I was a little tired. I worked through it. I knew I had to get it done for my team and I wanted to finish it out. I felt good all seven innings.”
Johnson struck out the side once, in the second inning, the first two batters in the seventh and the final batter in the fourth, when the Rangers (7-7) had runners on the corners.
“Personally, I thought we played great, all around,” said Vasquez senior Luke Ochoa, a three-year varsity player. “Our pitcher was throwing strikes.
“Everyone is a team player here. It was a really good game.
“Everyone had energy. Energy is a huge part of our baseball and how we play. We all did good.”
Vasquez had runners in scoring position the first two innings, but didn’t score until the third.
Johnson started the inning by drawing a walk, stole second and scored on a single by junior Randy Sanchez, who then scored on a double by Ochoa.
Ochoa beat a throw home on a single by senior Van Johnson to give the Mustangs an early 3-0 lead.
“We played with good focus today,” Vasquez baseball coach Sheldon Sparks said. “We start off slow. Today we didn’t. We came out from the first inning. We were in the game. We were engaged. We had good energy, good positive energy.
“That’s a good team. That’s a wellcoached team too. So I can’t be anymore proud of my guys. I don’t know how long this season is going to last, but we’ve achieved a lot of goals this year and this is a good group of kids. I’m so proud of them.”
Santa Rosa Academy scored two runs in the top of the fifth inning.
Santa Rosa Academy sophomore Tyler Kaewpalug led off the inning with a walk, reached second on a sacrifice bunt by freshman Lucas Alberoni and scored on a single by freshman Kyzer Metz, who took second on the throw, reached third on a balk and scored on a fly ball to center field by junior Joseph Gomez.
Although the Rangers cut the Mustangs lead to 3-2, Vasquez was able to answer immediately and pad its lead.
Vasquez junior Alex Soberanis led off the inning with a single, Ochoa singled with one out and Van Johnson loaded the bases with one out with a bunt single.
Soberanis scored on a groundout by sophomore Mason McConnell, Ochoa scored on a dropped infield pop fly and Van Johnson scored on a single by junior
Jacob Van Ornum.
“I think that’s the maturity,” Sparks said. “A lot of the kids have been in the program for four years. That’s the thing about Vasquez, as a freshman you can come in and get meaningful minutes. A lot of these kids played when they were a freshman, so they’ve been through the battles. When we got down, leadership stepped up, captains stepped up and said ‘We’ve got this’ and they did. They led by example today. The three captains really stepped up today.”
Seniors Kyle Johnson and Ochoa and junior Soberanis are the team captains.
“Luke had two hits. Alex played great defense and Kyle, you saw what he did on the mound,” Sparks said. “He was fantastic.”
Sanchez and Ochoa were both 2-for-4 and Van Johnson was 2-for-2.
“I think the key was relying on our team,” Kyle Johnson said. “I think we know what our team can do and we
thought ‘All right, we know we have to get a few more runs.’ I think we hyped our team up a little bit more.”
Vasquez won a first-round playoff game two years ago, Sparks’ third season as coach. Vasquez played only five games last season before the season was canceled due to the pandemic.
“Last year, we were a better team than this year,” Sparks
said. “I had high hopes for last year’s team. This year we’re league champs.”
Vasquez won the Heritage League title this season, on a tiebreaker after a threeway tie for first with Desert Christian and Trinity Classical Academy.
“As a senior, that was our goal too, wanting to win the league championship,” Ochoa said.