Maranatha wins Division 3 title

Max Blessinger put Maranatha in an early hole with his arm, then dug the Minutemen out with his bat in Saturday’s Southern Section Division 3 baseball final at Cal State Fullerton.

Blessinger recorded only one out on the mound but had two hits, including a bases-clearing double that gave the Minutemen (27-4) the lead in the fourth inning and they went on to win their 20th consecutive game and city bragging rights with a 4-2 triumph over La Salle in the first title matchup between Pasadena schools.

“Obviously, giving up two runs in the first inning wasn’t the start I wanted but I pride myself on mental toughness and I knew we had the whole game left to come back,” said Blessinger, who ended the season with 52 hits and 26 runs batted in.

A two-run double by Brennen Mace put La Salle (18-11) on top in the first inning. Will Downing replaced Blessinger six batters into the game and pitched 32⁄3 innings with four strikeouts to earn the win.

Dawson Netz struck out the side in the seventh and retired nine of the 11 batters he faced in three innings, the exclamation point on a junior campaign in which he was 12-0 with seven shutouts, two no-hitters and a section-record 591⁄3 consecutive scoreless innings.

Casey Popham’s single drove in Sal Tabullo to pull the Minutemen within 2-1 in the fourth inning and Ethan Firestone and Dante Campione followed with singles to

Division 2

Yucaipa sent 13 batters to the plate and had seven runs and six hits in the fifth inning to beat Irvine Beckman 8-1 at Fullerton.

Senior Tyson Heaton pitched a six-hitter with three strikeouts and had three hits, and Michael Carpentier had two hits and two RBIs for Yucaipa (28-5).

Beckman starter Justin Goldstein struck out four batters through four innings but it fell apart in the fifth inning for the Patriots (26-4-1).

Division 5

Temple City came from behind twice to beat Malibu 4-2 at Fullerton.

Eric Lewis singled to tie the score in the bottom of the fifth inning and Justin Bowman followed with a two-run single up the middle to give Temple City a lead. Sophomore reliever Nicco Day did not give up a hit in 2 2 ⁄3 innings.

Louie Thrall hit a runscoring single in the second, and William Tamkin pitched the first four innings and hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth to put the Sharks (14-13) ahead 2-1.

Division 6

Matt Queen gave up four hits and struck out five batters in six innings, and Cameron McFarlane had one hit and drove in three runs for Pasadena Poly (27-3), which scored four runs in the sixth inning for a 6-1 victory over Moreno Valley (22-8) at UC Riverside.