Instant classic! La Quinta baseball outlasts La Sierra in 10 innings to earn spot in CIF-SS championship game

Brandon Leon, the La Quinta baseball team’s talented leadoff hitter, was having one of those days Tuesday. He was 0-for-5 with a couple of strikeouts and felt like he wasn’t contributing in one of his team’s biggest games of the year.

Lucky for him, the Blackhawks and La Sierra (Riverside) were tangled in an epic Division 3 semifinal that went 10 innings. That allowed Leon to have one more crack at it in the top of the 10th.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Leon worked the count full and hit a screaming line drive into the right-field corner for a bases-clearing triple. It was the biggest moment in a moment-filled game and lifted La Quinta to a marathon 8-5 win and a trip to the Division 3 championship game.

“All game it was iffy for me, but that last at-bat I knew I had to pick a pitch that I could do damage on. I wanted to bring guys in, and I just wanted to do the job whether it was a walk or a base hit, anything,” Leon said. “He hung one and I found the barrel. It was major relief watching it go to the fence. All of my bad rest of the game went away and finally, I came through for my team.”

When ace Julian Cazares got the final out in the bottom of the 10th, the Blackhawks erupted into a celebratory jam pile on the first baseline. After a quick huddle and chat with the coach, they celebrated even more, including a signature move that happens after every win, a standing backflip by Leon. This time he did it with a bigger smile on his face than usual.

The Blackhawks, who won a CIF-SS title in 2018, will play for the school’s second CIF baseball championship Saturday against Oaks Christian. The game begins at 4 p.m., Saturday at Cal-State University in Fullerton.

Oaks Christian beat Newport Harbor 3-2 in the other semifinal. Desert fans may remember Oaks Christian as the team that beat Palm Desert 13-5 in the quarterfinal.

Leon’s 10th-inning heroics were the cherry on top of a tasty baseball dessert for the 150 or so fans in attendance, including a large group from La Quinta that made the trip to Riverside.

The game was tied 1-1 entering the fifth inning, and that’s when the fireworks really started.

The Blackhawks pushed across three runs on a bases-loaded walk by Alek Bautista and a two-run single by Ty Mello (on his birthday) all with two outs to give La Quinta a 4-1 lead.

La Sierra struck back with a bases-loaded walk of its own, and a lot of energy gained from what they believed to be a blown call. With the bases loaded and one out, Kai Chang hit a medium-length fly ball to right field. Defensive replacement Ryan Sarver caught it and threw the ball home. The Eagles runner slid headfirst and after a slight delay the umpire called him out. The call drew the ire of the La Sierra bench and supporters, while the Blackhawks celebrated the important play.

As it turned out, the controversy might have been a blessing for the Eagles, because they ramped up their energy level to 11 after that play. They rode that electricity to two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, sparked by stud senior Preston Anderson who was a man among boys in this game. Anderson had an RBI double in the two-run rally, part of an amazing five-hit day that included a solo homer, three doubles and a single. He knocked in three of the Eagles’ five runs and scored one.

With the score now tied at 4-4 in the bottom of the sixth and the La Sierra side going bonkers with runners at first and third with one out, La Quinta turned to its ace, senior pitcher Julian Cazares. And Cazares, nicknamed Toro, did what aces do. He struck out the final two batters of the sixth to keep the game tied at 4-4, then he put up zeroes in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning, all pressure innings in which any yielded run would’ve lost the game.

The game stayed 4-4 until the 10th when a single by Cazares, a walk to Bautista, a beautiful bunt single by Mello and a walk to Abe Calderon pushed across a run for the Blackhawks.

La Sierra, much like the Blackhawks, was getting a great late-game performance from its p Taer Rodriguez. Rodriguez was amazing in the later innings of the game, striking out seven straight La Quinta batters at one point. But the Calderon walk gave the Blackhawks the breakthrough they needed, and Calderon let out a roar as he walked to first base. Next up was Leon, who put the game on ice with his triple.

“I think I had like four or five heart attacks in the last six or so innings,” said La Quinta coach Brian Wisler, who’s leading a team to the finals for the second time in his five years as the team’s coach. “Two good teams, phenomenal baseball game, I’m just so happy. I told the guys this was a game they would remember for the rest of their lives.”

The pitchers

The Blackhawks used four pitchers in the game and each of them came up with important pitches when they needed them.

Starter Jordan Watson pitched the first three innings and showed an ability to bear down after getting himself in trouble. In the first inning, the Eagles had runners on second and third with two outs, but he got out of the jam when shortstop Jayvin Baxa caught a line drive to end the inning. In the second, Watson walked the bases loaded with one out, but came up with a huge early pitch in this game by inducing a pop up to second from the Eagles leadoff hitter and then getting out of the inning unscathed with a flyout.

Freshman Max Mora came in to start the fourth inning, and he yielded two singles and a walk in the inning, but he also had a huge pickoff play. Senior Markus Lafayette relieved Mora with one out and the bases loaded in the fifth inning and induced that controversial double play to get out of the inning.

When La Sierra looks back at this game, it will see a lot of missed opportunities as they had multiple runners on base in the first six innings. In fact, they were only retired 1-2-3 once in 10 innings, that was the ninth.

But coming up with the right play at the right time has been a hallmark of these Blackhawks.

"That's what this team has always been about," Leon said. "Stay in ballgames. Get out of jams. Never give up. Make the right play at the right time. Today was a perfect example."

Finally, it was Cazares who got the final two outs of the sixth inning and then pitched the rest of the game. Cazares wound up recording 14 outs. That's an important number to note because a pitcher is allowed to pitch 30 outs in a week. That means Cazares can only record 16 outs (5.1 innings) in the championship game.

For La Sierra, Jesse Espinoza started and went 4.2 innings. He pitched well and allowed three hits, but wasn't helped by his defense as the four runs he allowed were unearned. Rodriguez relieved him and had an amazing run. In the sixth, seventh and eighth, Rodriguez pitched to just 10 batters, striking out seven.

La Quinta is the No. 1-ranked team in Division 3. Their record is now 25-6 and they went 15-0 in Desert Empire League play.

The runs

Top of the second: La Quinta scored in the second when Bautista hit a single, Mello reached on an error and Calderon brought in Bautista with a single. Noah Zamudio then hit the hardest ball of the inning, but it was turned into a lineout double play by the La Sierra third baseman.

Bottom of the third: La Sierra tied it 1-1 in the third when Anderson golfed a tough pitch from Watson over the left-field fence.

Top of the fifth: La Quinta scored three in the top of the fifth. Baxa was hit by a pitch, Aiden Arriaga reached on an error after a force play, Lafayette walked and Bautista followed with a bases-loaded walk to score Baxa. Mello then blooped a single between two diving La Sierra defenders, allowing pinch runner Tommy Ansley and Lafayette to score. That made it 4-1.

Bottom of the fifth: A bases-loaded walk by Evan Corona scored Nick Velazquez to make it 4-2.

Bottom of the sixth: A double by Anderson scored Rodriguez and a single by Velazquez scored Alex Gamez, who had reached on an error. That tied the game at 4-4.

Top of the 10th: The bases-loaded walk by Calderon scored Cazares and then the bases-loaded triple by Leon scored Bautista, Mello and Calderon to make it 8-4.

Bottom of the 10th: Anderson doubled to score Rodriguez who had reached on an error to make it 8-5.

Desert CIF baseball finalists

This will mark the 11th time a team from the desert has played for a CIF-SS title (winners in bold):

1952: Citrus 9, Coachella Valley 2

1978: Norwalk 2, Coachella Valley 1

2010: Palm Desert 9, Torrance 0 (D4)

2011: Bishop Amat 7, Palm Desert 0 (D4)

2012: Palm Desert 4, Temple City 0 (D4)

2013: Desert Christian Academy 10, Capistrano Valley Christian 0 (D6)

2014: Bishop Amat 4, Palm Desert 3 (D3)

2017: Etiwanda 2, Palm Desert 1 (D2)

2018: La Quinta 6, Monrovia 5 (D4)

2019: Xavier Prep 3, Poly Pasadena 0 (D5)

2022: La Quinta vs. Oaks Christian (D3)

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: CIF-SS baseball: La Quinta outlasts La Sierra in 10 innings to earn spot in title game