Clutch hitting and strong pitching has led Redondo’s baseball team back to the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 championship game where the top-seeded Sea Hawks will face Woodbridge in a 1 p.m. contest Saturday at San Manuel Stadium in San Bernardino.
Redondo (30-2) will seek its second consecutive CIF title against a Woodbridge (23-7) team that upset second-seeded Palm Desert 1-0 on Tuesday.
After scoring nine runs with two outs in the second inning in its 9-2 quarterfinal win against visiting Culver City last Friday, Redondo capitalize on another two-out rally driving across three runs with two outs in the top of the seventh inning Tuesday to eliminate Beckman 5-2.
Pitchers Danny Zimmerman and Sean Reynolds combined for a four-hitter and Jason Dicochea’s double scored Matt Hanniff in the top of the seventh inning for what was the eventual winning run.
Reynolds followed with a two-run home run to right field to give the Sea Hawks a 5-2 cushion.
Redondo coach Jeff Baumback is proud of his senior-laden team that is deep with talent but does not take anything for granted.
The Sea Hawks have hit a school-record 29 home runs this season while batting. 319 as a team. The pitching staff has a combined 1.33 Era and is led by Reynolds (10-0, 1.09 ERA), Zimmerman (6-1, 1.67 ERA) and Connor Riley (6-1, 1.91 ERA).
“This is a tough division and anything can happen in a one-game playoff system,” Baumback said. “We can’t afford to take anyone lightly. A couple of bad bounces or seeing-eye singles can change the outcome of the game. I hope someday the CIF will go to a double-elimination format which will show who the better team is because you figure every team in the playoffs has one really good starting pitcher.”
Woodbridge has a team batting average of .299 and a combined 1.30 ERA.
Redondo reached the semifinals defeating highly-recruited Culver City pitcher Nolan Martinez on Friday. Jacob Springman led the Sea Hawk offense going 2 for 4 with three RBI and Marco Valenzuela went 2 for 3 with two RBI.
Brackets and results are available at cifss.org.
