Not many second year head coaches can do what Murrieta Mesa’s Bryn Wade has done with a team that was considered to be the best sixth place team around last season. Garnishing an even overall 14-14 record, going 4-11 in league in 2015, Wade, along with assistant coach, Mark Barbee, began preparing this years Southwestern League championship team when they kept Chaparral out of the playoffs last year with an 8-1 season ending win.
Fast forward a year and the Southwestern League’s newest school, Murrieta Mesa (established in 2009), is sending its first team ever on to play in the CIF-SS Division 1 baseball championship game, which is a first for the school in any team sport.
“This is a special group of boys with a work ethic that outweighs any other team around. I keep telling them that they have prepared for this next game their whole lives,” Wade said. “The adversity that they have faced along the way and overcoming it is what we talk about everyday. With almost an entire new coaching staff from the lower levels and up, we have all done our parts to prepare them in practice. They accept the adversity. They play for the guy next to them. They do this for their boys.”
Playing for the guy next to them is exactly what prompted the Rams to pull out the 6-3 win in extra innings during their CIF-SS semifinal game against the West Ranch Wildcats (24-9, 11-4) Tuesday, May 31, at Blair Field in Long Beach, the home of the Dirtbags.
After a scoreless stalemate, due to dominate outings by starters Tony Carreon (Murrieta Mesa) and Jackson Cunningham (West Ranch), the Rams finally got on the board in the fourth inning as they small balled their way to a 1-0 lead over the Wildcats. Mesa shortstop Brad Prebay would get on after being hit by a pitch and three consecutive bunts later by seniors Kevin Palm, Austin Salcedo and Hunter Woodruff, Rams fans erupted as Prebay crossed the plate.
In a game plan they have not strayed from, Wade kept all his pitchers on a short leash, as he done all postseason, at the first sign of energy from the opposing team. Carreon, Nate Stillinovich, Kevin Palm and Zac Filos, who threw five innings in last Friday’s quarterfinal win over Orange Lutheran, all teamed up to keep West Ranch at bay.
Command on the hill was there and speed in the outfield was the clutch element as the game progressed. Left fielder Caiden Matkins made two great plays in the outfield, his biggest was an inning saving diving catch in left field that would keep West Ranch from scoring with 2 runners on base in the bottom of the fourth.
The very next inning, another ray of Wildcat hope came quickly to an end, with one out, when center fielder Austen Salcedo tracked down a deep hit ball to the gap by Wildcat shortstop Blake Baumgartner.
Salcedo, also one of Mesa’s strongest Track and Field runners, used his 4×100 relay speed that the CIF-SS Athlete of the Year has turned many a head with in the post season, to make the catch. To drive the dagger deeper, Austen then fired the ball to first base, doubling up an unaware Sam Gray, who had advanced past second base thinking the ball would find a gap.
Murrieta Mesa’s second run came on an RBI single by senior Justin Randle in the seventh inning, plating Filos (bunt for a base hit), when third base coach Mark Barbee gave him the go ahead wave to take home, testing the left fielders arm.
“I had been watching him since warm ups, he was a good left fielder, no doubt, but I knew we could test him with a well hit ball his to his right side, and that’s how it played out,” says Barbee.
West Ranch answered with two runs in the seventh as a defensive miscue allowed the Wildcats back in the game. Second baseman Kiel Palm thought he was being called off of a pop fly from the outfield, letting the ball fall to the ground, which scored Alex Lee, sending the game to extra innings tied at 2 runs apiece.
The battle continued as Wildcat head coach, Casey Burrill, took a page out of Wade’s book, pitting four West Ranch pitchers against the Rams over the next two innings. Rams catcher, Andy Thomas, then ignited the visitors dugout when he doubled to get on base in the ninth. Matkins and Filos followed suite, loading the bases for Kiel Palm, who would get not one, but two shots at redemption as the game played on.
The lefty dominate switch-hitter took the right side of the plate against West Ranch’s Devin Judge and racked up two RBIs drilling a double to bring in the winning runs, sparking a four-run ninth inning.
The Rams took a 6-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth, and Palm again would be tested. Filos, after striking out Nico Valdez, gave up three consecutive singles to the Wildcats to load the bases. Baumgartner, who earlier had laced a foul ball almost out of the park, took the bait on an inside pitch and hit into a sacrifice fly. With two outs, cleanup hitter Cade Spurlin, popped up the ball behind second base in a play similar to the seventh inning, but this time, Palm raced over and made the catch, sending the Rams dugout onto the field in celebration.
“My teammates never let me get down on myself after that play in the outfield. That’s what we do for each other, and when my brother Kevin said it was my time to shine, I felt so much confidence about going from the right side. I saw a great first pitch and put a good bat on it. Then that last play seemed unreal. Brad was calling me off at first, but I could tell he wanted me to make the play, so I took it. We are going to the championships now, this is crazy,” exclaimed the younger Palm.
Zac Filos got the win for Murrieta Mesa (26-7, 12-3), allowing one run over two innings. He struck out two, walked none and surrendered four hits. The Rams will now face the Harvard-Westlake Wolverines in the CIF-SS Division 1 Championships at San Manuel Stadium in San Bernardino Saturday, June 4, at 7 p.m.
Harvard-Westlake (25-8, 11-7) took out the JSerra Eagles after the Mesa/West Ranch game Tuesday, May 31, winning 2-0. The Wolverines are also responsible for ousting the Vista Murrieta Broncos in round 2 action early last week.
The schedule for all the CIF-SS Championship games being played at UC Irvine and San Manuel Stadium Friday and Saturday, June 4 and June 5, can be found online at www.cifss.org.
*Schedules, standings and stats provided by MaxPreps and GameChanger.
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