CIF baseball: Righetti wins on the road vs. Clovis West, advances to host semifinals

May 20—Righetti has the arms and head coach Kyle Tognazzini used 'em on Thursday.

Righetti left-hander Ricky Smith pitched six masterful innings for the Warriors before Omar Reynoso, another lefty, and senior righty Cooper Bagby combined on a stressful seventh inning as the Warriors beat Clovis West 4-3, advancing to the semifinals of the CIF Central Section Division 1 playoffs.

Righetti, the No. 5 seed, will host the semifinals on Tuesday after No. 8 Bakersfield Frontier stunned No. 1 Clovis Buchanan 17-11. Righetti beat Frontier 10-4 in an early-season game on March 14.

Smith, a junior, threw 91 pitches in his six innings of work, striking out six and walking four while working around five hits. He allowed one earned run.

With Smith nearing the 100-pitch mark, Tognazzini turned to Reynoso, who's been excellent all season long, to close out the game.

Reynoso needed 27 pitches to get two outs, allowing two runs on two hits while striking out two. Bagby was tasked with getting the final out and needed nine pitches and faced two batters.

Clovis West, the No. 4 seed, had two on with two out and facing a full count when Jacob Haros was caught stealing third, with Bagby throwing to Gavin Long and second at and Long firing to JJ Ughoc for the game's final out.

Righetti led 4-1 when the seventh inning started.

Clovis West opened the game's scoring with Nathan Baeza's RBI single in the third before Righetti scored once in the fourth and three more times in the fifth to take the 4-1 advantage.

Righetti tied the game at 1-1 with Brodie Miller's line drive single to center to score Adrian Santini, who reached with a one-out single.

All three of Righetti's runs in the fifth inning came with two outs. Ughoc started the inning with a fly out to left and Ben Munoz followed with a single. Matthew Rivas then struck out swinging. Aaron Vega hit a fly ball to right field that was mis-played, allowing Munoz to score from first.

Righetti went up 3-1 on Mason Schmid's RBI single that scored Vega. Long then hit a line drive to left to score Schmid and give the Warriors a 4-1 lead.

In Smith's final inning of work, he issued two walks and gave up a single as Clovis West loaded the bases. Smith got out of the jam with a fly out to Schmid in left field against Christian Badger.

Righetti then went down in order in the top of the seventh. Tognazzini opted to go with Reynoso in the seventh and, though it proved to be a stressful inning, the plan worked out.

Reynoso, a soft-throwing lefty who's been one of the top pitchers on the Central Coast this season, started the inning with a strikeout before giving up a single and a walk. Reynoso then struck out Baeza, but couldn't get the third out.

Jacob Haros singled in Nick Almanza to cut Righetti's lead to 4-2.

Bagby then came in to pitch and allowed Kaleb Latimer to single and bring home Cayden Munster to cut Righetti's lead to 4-3.

With two out, two on and a full count, the fateful final play occurred with Haros running into an out on the basepaths to end it.

Clovis West finished with eight hits to Righetti's seven. The Warriors did not commit an error while the Golden Eagles committed a pair.

Almanza went 3-for-4 with two runs for Clovis West.

No player on Righetti had multiple hits. Long, Santini, Smith, Miller, Munoz, Rivas and Schmid each had one hit.

Clovis West ends its season with a 21-9 record. The Warriors are now 24-5 on the season. They earned the No. 5 seed in the playoffs after winning the Mountain League with a 10-5 record.

No. 2 Stockdale will host No. 6 Bakersfield Liberty in the other Division 1 semifinal.

Division 2

No. 2 Arroyo Grande 6, No. 7 Clovis 1

The Eagles cruised past the Cougars and into the Div. 2 semifinals with a home win.

Leadoff batter Niko Ikenoyama went 4-for-4 with two RBIs to spark the Eagle offense. Senior Marc Byrum was 2-for-4 with a run as Josiah Cabreros drove in a pair of runs.

Carter Schuck went 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBIs from the No. 8 spot in the lineup.

The Eagles had 11 hits on the day as Clovis had seven.

Kaden Tynes went 6 2/3 innings on the mound, striking out eight and allowing one earned run. Ty Scrudato got the final out. The Eagles will play the Clovis North-Clovis East winner in the semifinals.

No. 9 Fresno Central 3, No. 16 St. Joseph 2

After upsetting the No. 1 seed and handing Kerman its only loss of the season in the first round Tuesday, the Knights' season ended with a loss at Fresno Central in the quarterfinals.

St. Joseph lost despite giving up just five hits against the Grizzlies. The Knights finished with six hits, though they committed two errors.

Sophomore Caden Cuccia went five innings on the mound, allowing five hits, three earned runs and striking out three. Jayden Cervantes pitched the final inning and didn't allow a hit.

Seniors Chris Miller and Jack Ferguson drove in the Knights' only runs, both of which came in the sixth inning.

Central scored all its runs in the second after a single, hit by pitch, a wild pitch, sacrifice bunt, a single and a triple.

Jeremy Camarena started the sixth with a single and AJ Simmons followed up with one of his own. Miller then hit a line drive to center to score Camarena and Ferguson hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Simmons.

The Knights went down in order in the seventh.

Senior Michael Klein threw a complete game for the Grizzlies, striking out three.

Softball

Pioneer Valley 9, Delano Chavez 9, (8 Inn., Wednesday)

Pioneer Valley had one of the day's more wild games. The Panthers won 9-8 at Delano Chavez in a first round CIF Central Section Division 3 playoff game.

This was after Chavez led 5-1 after two innings and Pioneer Valley went up 8-6 in the seventh. The Panthers were one out away from advancing when Delano struck for two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game. The Panthers then scored in the top of the eighth inning and Ciena Acosta struck out the side to the end the game in the bottom of the eighth.

The Panthers will play at Shafter on Friday in the quarterfinals. They won despite four seniors who attended Wednesday's grad night trip. The Panthers played with 10 freshmen, two sophomores and three juniors.

Kaylee Dolores went 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBIs from the leadoff spot.

Mila Dolores was 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs and Riana Dulay had three hits and an RBI. Freshman Adriana Padilla was 3-for-4 with two RBis and a run and Kahlia Melton had two hits, as did Jaylee Dolores.

Mila Dolores had two doubles, Padilla, Kaylee Dolores and Melton had one.

Jazmyn Molina went seven innings and struck out four. Acosta threw a perfect eighth inning with the three strikeouts.