Saints’ Baseball Takes a Heartbreaking Loss to End Their Season

On Tuesday, May 9, 2023, San Dimas High School baseball squared off against Corona High School in the second round of the D1 CIF Baseball Playoffs. The winner of this game would go on to play either Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks or Bonita on Friday. In the first round, San Dimas defeated El Dorado 3-2 and Corona defeated Rancho Cucamonga 7-0. According to MaxPreps, Corona is 14th in the state and San Dimas is 24th. There are no upsets in the D1 playoffs, so it was expected to be a great game.

Corona started the game off hot with a walk and a double. Those two runners would score to make the game 2-0 in the first inning. The score would stay the same until the third inning. Junior, John Nauertz singled through the left side of the infield to make the game 2-1 Corona. San Dimas would later catch fire in the fifth inning. Sophomore, Vaughn Coleman would single up the middle, and Junior, Ryan Castro hit a mammoth three-run home run. When asked how the home run felt, Castro said “The feeling was like no other, it was electric and one of the most exciting things I’ve been a part of in a while. It felt amazing knowing I just gave my team the lead in a big game, also was more exciting for me because it was the first home run of my high school career”.

The Saints were now up 5-2. Corona would answer back in the sixth inning with two runs. They would hit an RBI double and a sacrifice fly. The score was 5-4 San Dimas entering the last inning.

The first batter of the inning would reach second base on an error and the next batter would bunt the runner over to third base. A ball was hit to center field and the Panthers would tie the game up with a sacrifice fly. This game went into extra innings. The eighth inning was scoreless, but Corona would get a run in the ninth. Down to the Saints’ last out, Junior, Landon White would hit a deep fly ball and that ball would get caught at the very top of the fence.

San Dimas’s season would come to an end by one foot. When asked how he thought the season went, Junior, Rocco Regan said “The season went pretty well. We had our ups and downs. It’s one of the more family-like teams that I’ve been on and it was a great time. It definitely didn’t end how we wanted, but we’ll return most of our guys and we know what to work on to make a run next year”.