JSerra, La Mirada Advance To Boras South Championship

SANTA ANA, Calif.—The Boras South Championship game is set.

JSerra (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) High took down Harvard-Westlake (Studio City, Calif.) High on its home field, 3-1, on Thursday, while La Mirada (Calif.) High beat South Hills (West Covina, Calif.) High 4-1 at Mater Dei.

The two teams will square off Friday at Mater Dei High at 6:00 p.m. ET to determine the Boras South Champion, before then squaring off with the Boras North Champion on May 5 to determine the Boras Classic Champion—the de-facto California state baseball champion.

You can find recaps of both games below. 

JSerra 3, Harvard-Westlake 1

JSerra jumped on the board early against Harvard-Westlake, scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning after 2018 prospects Preston Miller—committed to San Diego—and Nick Lopez—an Abilene Christian commit—led off the inning with a one-out walk and single, respectively.

After a second out, Nino Vultaggio stepped to the plate and drove a clutch, two-out triple to center field, scoring both Miller and Lopez and giving the Lions all the runs they would need to hold off the Wolverines. Vultaggio is a member of the 2019 class and is currently uncommitted.

JSerra got its third run in the bottom of the third inning, taking advantage of a Harvard-Westlake fake pickoff attempt to third, allowing 2019 shortstop Michael Curialle to score while 2019 prospect Blake Klassen was caught up in a rundown between first and second. 

On the mound for JSerra it was a two-man game, with 2020 San Diego State commit Tim Scarlett throwing 3.2 innings and 2019 righthander Ryan Farmer getting the final 10 outs. Scarlett struck out four batters and walked a pair, allowing two hits and one run on a Calvin Koo RBI groundout, while Farmer surrendered just one hit and struck out five batters.

2019 lefthander Bryant Reese and Corrigan, a 2019 righthander, kept the Wolverines in the game with a combined three innings of shutout relief pitching, but JSerra’s tandem pitching duo proved to much to overcome.  

 

La Mirada 4, South Hills 1 

The Matadors got an exceptional start out of 2020 righthander Emilio Morales, who threw six shutout innings against the Huskies, surrendering just three hits while striking out eight batters and walking two. Morales, who is committed to Southern California and also catches, threw 72 of his 107 pitches for strikes and threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 27 batters he faced.

The most impressive inning for Morales came in the top of the fifth, when he struck out the side (two batters swinging, one looking) on 15 pitches. 

Offensively, La Mirada took advantage of a few defensive miscues from South Hills, as just one of the four runs the Matadors scored were of of the earned variety. The team also benefited from a patient approach at the plate, walking a total of 11 times compared to seven strikeouts. 

2020 leadoff hitter Eugene Jeon—currently uncommitted—went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks and a run out of the top spot in the order, while Morales, batting second, helped himself by walking three times, scoring a run and recording an RBI.

For South Hills, 2018 Stanford commit Brandon Dieter continued his hot hitting in the tournament, going 2-for-3 with a walk and scoring the only run that the Huskies would plate.