Shadow Hills baseball falls one run short of championship game

The faces on the Shadow Hills High baseball players after Tuesday's CIF-SS Division 5 semifinal told the story.

It's the same tear-streaked eye-black, heavy-hearted look that befalls every team but one during the baseball postseason.

A historic year for the Knights ended at home Tuesday in a taut 2-1 loss to Peninsula High, an L.A. County school near Palos Verdes. It was the final game in a season that saw Shadow Hills earn a share of the Desert Empire League title and make the deepest playoff run in school history.

"That was a good baseball team we just faced up against. A few mistakes hurt us, but you know, we're brothers for life," said assistant coach Alex Lopez. "Baseball is now ended for the year and these kids understand that we're a family. Moving forward next year, 10 years from now, any kid that's played on this team, we got you. That's just what it's about. This has been a long journey and that's what hurts so much."

The game

It was clear early on that runs were going to be hard to come by in this one. Both starting pitchers were disciplined and the defenses were sound, which makes sense, because these were the No. 2 (Shadow Hills) and No. 3 (Peninsula) ranked teams in the division.

It was the Knights who were first to break through, scoring in the third inning with a two-out rally. Back-to-back singles by Jason Alvarez and Caleb Ortiz put runners on first and second. And with Alvarez breaking toward third, Carlos Guzman hit a ground ball up the middle. The Peninsula shortstop made a diving attempt, knocked the ball down, but because Alvarez was attempting to steal third, he was able to just keep flying home to score from second on Guzman's infield single.

Ortiz started the game for the Blackhawks and pitched a gem. Through the first five innings, he allowed just three singles and Peninsula never had a runner reach second base. But some sixth-inning sloppiness undid the Knights.

Peninsula leadoff batter Jack Gold hit a tailing liner that was hit harder than the Knights' left-fielder expected as it had him all twisted up tracking it down only to see it get over his head for a leadoff double. Gold advanced to third on a wild pitch and the next batter, Kaleb Woodward, was hit by a pitch. Woodward took second by catcher's indifference to put runners at second and third with no outs.

With Jett Lim batting, a pitch by Ortiz got past catcher Gabe Alba, allowing Gold to score and Woodward to advance to third. Lim then hit a long sacrifice fly to left to score Woodward and make it 2-1.

That was it.

Shadow Hills had a base runner in the sixth inning with a one out walk to Jermiah Peffers, but nothing came of it thanks to a nice play Gold made at shortstop to turn a potential seeing-eye single into a fielder's choice out at second base. The Knights then got a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh. A one-out walk put Ernesto Ibarra on first, and with two outs, he stole second. But Julian Garcia hit a chopper back to the pitcher who easily made the play at first.

It was celebration time in the Panthers dugout and dejection on the Knights' side.

"I told them since day one. I said we would be here. It's just a great group of guys that fought hard and I'm so proud of them," said head coach Lupe Lopez. "They bought in from day one. And that's why we're here deep in the playoffs."

The stars

Jack Gold, Peninsula: Gold did a lot of damage from his leadoff position. He had a single, a double, a walk and scored a run.

Jett Lim, Peninsula: The Panthers' starter pitched four strong innings, allowing just the one run, while striking out seven. He also had the game-winning RBI with a sacrifice fly.

Caleb Ortiz, Shadow Hills: Garcia pitched six strong innings, allowing just five hits and two runs, while striking out six. He also had a productive single as part of the run-scoring inning for the Knights and had a walk.

Jason Alvarez, Shadow Hills: Alvarez had a single and scored the lone run for the Knights.

Ernesto Ibarra, Shadow Hills: Ibarra was on base all three times with two walks and a single, and added a stolen base.

Reed Woodland, Peninsula: Woodland had two singles for the Panthers and threw out a pair of would-be base stealers from his catcher position.

What's next

Shadow Hills finishes its historic season with a 16-10 overall mark, including 11-4 in earning a share of the Desert Empire League title. It was the final action in a Knights' uniform for senior starters like Alvarez, Alba and Ty Vela. But the Knights return the bulk of their squad, including all their main pitchers, so expect Shadow Hills to be a tough out next season as well. No Knights baseball team has ever made it this far.

"Amazing year and that's the goal that they set out," Alex Lopez said. "We asked them what goals they had, and they didn't say make the playoffs, they said DEL championship, CIF championship. And with the goals being set by them, we were able to push them toward that. They did all the hard work."

Peninsula (19-10) moves on to the CIF-SS championship game against Apple Valley to be played at a neutral site on either Friday or Saturday. Apple Valley upset the No. 1-ranked team in the division Bishop Montgomery 11-8 on Tuesday.

Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: CIF-SS baseball playoffs: Shadow Hills falls one run short of title game