The surging Dos Pueblos High baseball team met its match against Ganesha in the CIF-SS Division 4 Championship game.
The Chargers fell behind early and never recovered on their way to an 8-2 loss at Blair Field in Long Beach. It was the first CIF Championship game appearance for the Dos Pueblos High baseball program since 1993 and despite the loss the historic success is a source of pride for the Goleta baseball community.
“This is what you want every year. You dream about winning the league and on to the CIF Championship,” said Dos Pueblos High coach George Hedricks. “It just shows you how incredibly hard it is to get this far. Not only to make it to the playoffs, which is hard enough , especially in a good league like ours but to win a playoff game.”
Dos Pueblos struggled to string hits together against Ganesha starting pitcher Gavin Moran, a UCSB baseball signee, who has been dominant throughout the season. According to the stats available on Maxpreps Moran had not allowed a run this season coming into the Championship game.
The Chargers managed to score two runs on four hits, but needed more to keep up with a stacked Ganesha lineup.
“He was just consistent with all three of his pitches,” said Dos Pueblos senior captain Zach Gesswein. “He had a good fastball that had some life through the zone. He also had a good curveball that dropped off and the changeup was just there to be the in-between pitch that kept us a little off balance.”
Seth Tedeschi started every single playoff game for Dos Pueblos, but ran into trouble early against Ganesha, surrendering four runs on four hits in the top of the first inning. Bryant Loo had the big hit in the inning, a single to right field that scored Thomas Giandomenica and Isaiah Ibarra.
Dos Pueblos cut its deficit to 4-1 in the bottom of the second inning on a double to the left field wall by Mateo Saldana that brought home Charlie Potter, but that’s as close as the Charger would come to taking the lead.
The Giants tacked on one run each in the third and fifth innings. In the top of the seventh inning Ibarra, who is committed to USC, blasted a towering home run to left field that put Ganesha ahead 8-1.
Dos Pueblos first baseman Alexander Hajda tripled in the bottom of the seventh inning and scored on a groundout by Broden Demourkas to create the final margin.
As a result of reaching the CIF Championship game Dos Pueblos will play in a state tournament game on Tuesday with the opponent and location to be determined.
