St. Bernard falls to Baldwin Park in CIF-SS Division 7 semifinal
BALDWIN PARK >> Baldwin Park junior pitcher Jordan Davis delivered in every way imaginable for the Braves during a CIF Southern Section Division 7 baseball semifinal Tuesday against visiting St. Bernard.
Davis pitched a complete game with eight strikeouts, hit a double that drove in two runs, and finished with three RBIs to lead Baldwin Park to a 6-0 victory.
The Braves will be making their first appearance in a CIF-SS championship baseball game since 1986.
Baldwin Park will play Hueneme, an 8-4 winner over Garden Grove Santiago in the other semifinal, on Friday or Saturday at Cal State Fullerton. The finals schedule will be released this morning.
Baldwin Park coach Jake Barendregt was not surprised by Davis' performance.
“Jordan is the heart and soul of this team,” Barendregt said. “He's the guy that you can build the team around. He can swing it, he can throw the ball. And in a game like this, you love a guy who can step it up.”
There was a big crowd, including plenty of longtime Baldwin Park baseball fans, at the game Tuesday, and players like Davis noticed. Baldwin Park played in four championships in the 1980s and won their only title in 1982.
“It means a lot,” Davis said. “You see how everybody reacted. It's a big game and big win. It's a big thing for this town to get baseball back in it. It's always football, football, football. But now we got baseball back in it.”
Baldwin Park won just three games last year, but it will head to the finals with an 18-11 record this season.
“It's crazy,” Davis said, “we never thought we would be here after the season we had last year.”
Barendregt echoed that thought.
“It's pretty beautiful, knowing what the kids have been through the past couple years and what we went through last year as a team,” Barendregt said. “To turn it around this quick is not normal, it's not what happens. But I have to give it to the kids, hopefully we just carry it on.”
One of St. Bernard's players dropped a line drive in the third inning that likely would have resulted in an inning-ending double play. Baldwin Park took advantage with back-to-back doubles. Jason Martinez doubled in a run and Davis doubled home two more for a 3-0 lead.
Baldwin Park added to its lead in the fourth inning. Ricardo Rodriguez singled home Damian Andrade to go up 4-0.
Two errors by St. Bernard helped the Braves to go up 5-0 in the fifth inning, and Davis drove in another run in the sixth inning to stretch the lead to six.
It was a game of errors and missed opportunities for St. Bernard (18-6), which committed five errors.
“Every time we made an error in all those innings were the innings they scored runs and capitalized,” St. Bernard coach Jason McLaughlin said. “I feel like our pitcher (Lawrence Bonner) pitched well enough to win a game, but errors just kicked us in the tail.”
One concern for Baldwin Park as it heads to the finals is the status of junior Tommy Villanueva, who is the Braves' other starting pitcher. Villanueva, who played right field Tuesday, appeared to injure his arm on a hurried throw in the fifth inning and he required a trainer to tend to him. Villanueva remained in the game, and Barendregt is hopeful he will be fine for the championship game.