Baseball:
Ayala sure picked a great time to play their best baseball of the season.
The Bulldogs hovered around or under the .500 mark for most of the season.
But thanks to nine consecutive wins, AHS had earned a spot in the semifinal round of the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs.
Ayala has now defeated La Serna (6-1), Maranatha (11-0) and Canyon (7-4) by a combined margin of 24-5.
Austin Duarte got the loss after going 1 2/3 innings and allowing four runs on five hits.
Duarte walked a pair of Ayala batters and struck out one.
Brody Gomez had a two-run single in the second and an RBI double in the third inning.
Gomez also scored once on Friday.
Codey Brown singled twice and scored a pair of runs.
Aidan Erlandsen drew a pair of walks, had an RBI single and scored.
Jaden Valenzuela walked, had an RBI triple and scored.
Elijah Duarte singled home Valenzuela in the fourth to give Ayala a 7-1 advantage.
Dylan Wood doubled in a run and scored twice.
Jeremy Byers went five innings to earn the win, and he allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits.
Byers issued three walks and struck out six Canyon batters.
Isaac Huver was charged with two unearned runs on two hits over two innings, and he earned the save.
Huver punched the Bulldogs ticket for Tuesday by getting Jonathon Sandoval swinging to end the game.
Johnny Lopez walked, scored two runs and had an RBI triple in the top of the fifth.
Sandoval went 2-for-3 with an RBI double.
Austin Duarte walked, doubled and scored.
Camden Goetz walked and had an RBI single in the seventh.
Cohen Gomez walked and scored.
Up next: The Bulldogs travel to Moorpark on Tuesday with a spot in the D-2 final at stake.
The Musketeers (18-10-1) edged Crean Lutheran, 2-1, on Friday.
Quotable:
Ayala coach, Brad McGuire: “Today was a huge team win for the guys. They have been preaching “family” for the last five weeks or so and focusing on team at-bats, not personal stats. Today, they did just that. We had some big hits from the bottom of our order, executed on the small-ball side of things, and Jeremy battled through five innings to pass it on to Huver to secure the win. It kind of comes full circle with this win over Canyon today. Everything started to change after our loss to them earlier in the year, and I’m just really proud of the guys for the way they’ve handled this run we’ve been on. The moment hasn’t gotten too big, and they’ve been playing together as a group.”
Box Score:
C: 0-1-0-0-1-0-2-(4)
A: 0-4-2-1-0-0-X-(7)
Win: Jeremy Byers
Loss: Austin Duarte
Save: Isaac Huver
3B: Johnny Lopez (C); Jaden Valenzuela (A)
2B: Blake Helsper (C), Austin Duarte (C), Christian Tapia (C), Jonathon Sandoval (C); Dylan Wood (A), Brody Gomez (A)
Records: Canyon (16-14-1); Ayala (15-11-1)
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