Zion Beats Boca Christian To Reach Regional Final

Zion Lutheran and Boca Christian are quite familiar with one another. They’ve faced off two times in the regular season, once in the district championship and finally Tuesday in the regional semifinal.

The Lions came out on the winning side in the first three meetings and stayed dominant Tuesday to win that fourth meeting 13-3 to advance to a regional final May 13th.

Zion starting pitcher Blayne Baker took the mound for the Lions after he no-hit Boca Christian in the district championship and picked up right where he left off. He struck out the side in both the first and the second, allowing just one hit to Boca Christian third baseman Austin Smith.

Zion, which has tallied 46 runs in three meetings with Boca Christian, also kept their run production going. Jouseph Renovales lead the Lions with his bat today starting the bottom of the first with a lead-off single and tallying a 3-for-4 day. He reached base on five plate appearances, scoring on four while the fifth was his game-clinching and winning hit. He stole four bases and leads the county with 55 on the year. He was followed by teammate Jose Rodriguez, who drove in a run in the third.

The Lions led 3-0 heading into the third. Boca Christian’s Zach Gray lead off with a walk and reached second on a passed ball. Zion’s Blayne Baker struck out the next batter but walked the leadoff man, Adrial Martinez. Starting pitcher Logan Rataiczak came up and drove a double to left that scored Gray. Tommy Havelka followed and single on an infield hit scoring Martinez. Grant Gardiner stepped up with a runner in scoring position and one out. He grounded out to short, but scored Rataiczak as the Lions came up in the bottom of the third.

The bottom of the third was the big inning for the Lions, who went up 8-3. They tallied six runs on base hits by Jordan Pacifico and Tito Calderon, a bunt base hit by Baker and a two-run double by Renovales. They also walked five times in the inning, keeping base runners in scoring position.

Baker set back into his groove and allowed only four base runners for the remainder of his five-inning complete game. He struck-out nine batters on the day. The Lions tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth, bringing the score to 11-3 into the fifth.

Zion scored its last two runs in the bottom of the fifth with Renovales driving in the final run, his fourth RBI of the day.

Despite the win, Lions Manager Ray Ayala knows improvement can be made.

“We need to sharpen on some little things,” said Ayala. “We need to just focus on the little things that’ll make a difference. We’re going to take our same approach we’ve had all year moving forward and get back to business tomorrow.”

Boca Christian looks to return 10 varsity players next season and improve on an optimistic season.

“I’m proud of my boys, they fought hard,” Boca Christian Manager Clint Erickson said. “We had some mental things that plagued us this season, but with a young team with only 13 players, we accomplished a lot. I wouldn’t trade these guys for anything, and we’ll definitely miss our three graduating seniors. We have all our pitching returning last year, and we’re going to continue to improve and work.”

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