The Dos Pueblos High baseball team is playing its best at the right time.
A two-run homer by Alexander Hadja in the bottom of the first inning set the tone and Dos Pueblos pulled away late with seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to claim an 11-1 victory over Trinity Classical Academy in the CIF-SS Division 4 Quarterfinals on Friday afternoon.
“Playing in the Channel League prepares you for the playoffs flat out,” said Dos Pueblos coach George Hedricks. “Ventura has two or three guys throwing that hard. Santa Barbara has great pitching. We used that as preparation for this.”
Trinity Classical Academy came into the game with a 22-2 overall record, including a perfect 10-0 record in the Heritage League. However, the two teams had two common opponents in Castaic and Valencia, which accounted for both of the Knights losses. The Chargers also lost to Castaic, but defeated Valencia 5-4 in the second round of the playoffs.
The Knights were led by senior starting pitcher John Carlson, a Cal Baptist commit, who has a fastball that can reach the low 90s. He came into the game allowing six earned runs all season, but the Chargers were able to push across seven earned runs against him.
“We knew coming in that we were going to see a very good pitcher, a guy that’s going to play in college, who has good {velocity},” Hedricks said. “We worked hard on hitting {velocity} the last couple of days and it showed today.”
On the mound, Dos Pueblos senior Seth Tedeschi delivered a brilliant performance, pitching five shutout innings. His ability to throw breaking balls for strikes at any time in the count kept the Knights off balance.
Tedeschi got off to a fast start striking out the side in the top of the first inning and he remained locked in throughout his appearance.
“The big thing for Seth, he has started three straight playoff games for us and he’s done well in the other two games, but it was sharp early,” Hedricks said. “In the other two games he got in trouble early and then fixed it and got us where we needed to be.”
Sophomore Taylor Young got things started for the Dos Pueblos offense in the bottom of the first inning with a one-out single to left field. With two outs in the inning, Alexander Hadja blasted the second pitch of his at bat over the left field fence for a two-run homer.
The Knights opened the top of the second inning with back-to-back singles. With one out and a runner on third base John Carlson sent a flyball to left field that was caught by Charlie Potter, who sent a perfect throw home to catcher Zach Gesswein who was able to tag out the runner at the plate preserving the Chargers’ 2-0 lead.
Dos Pueblos tacked on one run in the bottom of the third ona sac fly by Gesswein that scored Stone Saunders from third. A two-out single by Shane Grant in the bottom of the fourth inning drove in Potter, which increased the Dos Pueblos lead to 4-0.
The Chargers broke the game open in the bottom of the sixth inning. Gesswein delivered the big hit in the inning with a double to center field that Saunders and Evan Bean.
Dos Pueblos will host Thousand Oaks in the CIF-SS Division 4 Semifinals on Tuesday beginning at 3:15 p.m
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