BCHS cruises into the D-II baseball title game with 5-1 victory over Lompoc

May 23—A pair of first-inning doubles was not the start Bakersfield Christian left-hander Mason Brassfield was hoping for in Tuesday's Central Section Division II semifinal.

Fortunately, the Eagles junior has a short memory.

Brassfield held visiting Lompoc scoreless the next four innings and teammate Chris Hernandez finished things off, leading BCHS to a 5-1 victory to advance to the section finals for the second time in the last three seasons.

"The last couple of weeks, we've really gelled as a team," Eagles coach Mark Ratekin said. "There was a lot of energy in the dugout, we're executing when we need to execute, so it's just overall a great team win."

Bakersfield Christian (24-7), which captured the Division IV title in 2021, will next face No. 3 Lompoc-Cabrillo at Valley Strong Ballpark in Visalia on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Cabrillo defeated No. 7 Santa Maria-St. Joseph 2-1 in 12 innings in the other D-II semifinal.

"One of our goals for the team this year was to win Valley," Ratekin said. "They've worked hard, they started in September, and here we are with a chance to fulfill their goals."

The No. 12 Braves (16-12), who had scored 27 runs in its previous two games, upset victories over No. 5 Atascadero and No. 4 Lemoore, wasted little time getting started against Brassfield.

Evan Chavez led off with a double in the right-center field gap that went to the fence, and two outs later, Trevor Jure sent on to the fence in left to give Lompoc an early 1-0 lead.

"I'm not the type of guy to get stressed out or nervous, so I was just able to calm down after that inning," Brassfield said. "I was able to wash it off and just get back out there and pound the zone like I normally do."

But Brassfield (8-1) induced Rudy Elizondo to fly out to end the inning and settled in for an efficient outing, allowing just one more hit and three walks, with eight strikeouts.

"That's a really good offensive hitting team so going into it I knew that I had to be efficient and be able to throw strikes and get some outs," Brassfield said. "So that was kind of what I was thinking ... That was my goal."

Brassfield struck out the side in his fifth, his final inning of work, and Hernandez pitched two scoreless innings of relief to close things out, striking out pinch-hitter Ben Wallace to end the game.

"He was a lot more efficient today," Ratekin said. "He was all around the strike zone and he just went out there and competed, and that's what he does."

Trailing 1-0 early, the Eagles countered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the first, and never trailed thereafter.

BCHS' Luke Mann was hit by a pitch, was balked to second, moved to third on a hard ground out by Toby Twist and scored on a bloop single by Logan Templeton to tie the game.

Templeton was balked to second and scored on a double down the right field line by Diego Sanchez, who finished with three of his team's six hits.

The Eagles added an unearned run in the third, thanks in part to a very unpopular safe call at first base following an errant throw by Lompoc third baseman Michael Gomez.

Twist built the lead to 4-1 with a home run to right field, his fifth of the year, with his team adding another unearned run later in the inning off hard-luck losing pitcher Jack Jones, who finished with nine strikeouts and gave up just two earned runs in five-plus innings.

"(Twist) has been swinging the bat really well the last few weeks," Ratekin said. "It's a good time to get hot."

Now the Eagles are hoping to continue their momentum on Friday in Visalia.

"I'm excited, I'm ready to go compete and win it," Brassfield said. "I feel like we have really good chemistry, we have a whole lot of heart and I just love how we're all coming together as a team. And that's how we've been all year."