Carpinteria Shutout by Rio Hondo Prep in Quarterfinals

Carpinteria's Noah Nuno fields a bunt by Dylan Davis and throws high to first base.

A complete game shutout by Rio Hondo Prep ace Evan Foor doomed the Carpinteria baseball team in the quarterfinals of the CIF-SS Division 6 playoffs.

The Warriors were limited to three hits and were eliminated following a 5-0 loss on Friday afternoon.

“We knew that he was their guy. He’s the center of their team. He’s the quarterback on their football team. He’s the shortstop when he’s not the pitcher. He’s the No. 3 batter and all those things,” said Carpinteria coach Pat Cooney of Foor. “We knew we were going to have to battle with him.”

Rio Hondo Prep gained the upper hand in the first inning on a one-out single by Andrew Vazquez that brought home Jake Lang and Anderson Lang, giving the Kares a 2-0 lead.

Carpinteria starting pitcher Miles Souza went on to settle down after the rocky first inning, holding Rio Hondo Prep without another run until the top of the fifth inning.

However, the Carpinteria offense could not string together hits and failed to close the 2-0 deficit.

“It hurt that they got ahead. They got two in the first and so right away you’re reeling and it changes your game plan a little bit,” Cooney said. “I thought we responded OK and our pitcher settled down and our guys were kind of battling, but we weren’t able to get those openings.”

The Warriors got hits from Jacob Macias and Diego Hernandez in the bottom of the second inning, but Macias was thrown out after slipping while rounding third base erasing Carpinteria’s best scoring chance.

Rio Hondo Prep broke open the game in the top of the fifth inning. Foor doubled to bring home Anderson Lang and Bryan Flores singled to left field to score Foor, increasing the Kares’ lead to 4-0.

Noah Nuno came on to pitch in relief of Souza and struck out the side in the top of the sixth inning.

The Kares tacked on an unearned run in the top of the seventh inning extending their lead to 5-0. A groundout to shortstop by Hernandez ended the game with Macias on third base.

“I think the guys feel proud of each other and they’re a real cohesive unit all of a sudden,” Cooney said. “That didn’t happen by itself, about a month back they were actually pretty individual and we could see that wasn’t working. We urged them to try a little harder to mend their relationships and they bought in to it.”

Carpinteria finished the season with a 14-8 record.