CIF baseball: Stockdale's bats come to life to beat Righetti 10-1 in Division 1 championship game

Joe Bailey, Santa Maria Times, Calif.
·4 min read

May 28—Stockdale lives off the home run.

In Friday night's CIF championship game against Righetti, the Mustangs were livin'.

Righetti grabbed an early lead with a run in the first inning, Bakersfield Stockdale tied it in the fourth, blew the game open with four runs in the fifth, including a three-run homer from Ruben Rodriguez, and Austin Charles smacked a grand slam to left field to extend the Mustangs' lead in the sixth.

Stockdale rolled from there, winning 10-1 to capture the CIF Central Section Division 1 baseball championship at Visalia's Valley Strong Stadium.

Righetti made the title game as the No. 5 seed. The Warriors beat No. 4 Clovis West on the road 4-3 in the first round on May 19. They then hosted No. 8 Bakersfield Frontier 4-1 on Tuesday.

Stockdale came into the game as the No. 2 seed in the division with a 24-5 overall record. The Mustangs won the Southwest Yosemite League title with a 14-1 record. They scored 308 runs in their first 29 games of the season, smacking an astounding 35 home runs as a team.

Righetti has hit just five home runs this season.

Righetti got going early, with the first three batters singling off the star right-hander Charles, a UCSB commit that now has 13 home runs this season. Gavin Long singled from the lead-off spot, followed by Adrian Santini and Mountain League MVP Ricky Smith, who brought Long home with a hit to give Righetti a 1-0 lead in the first. Charles then struck out Brodie Miller and JJ Ughoc before handling a sharp comebacker to end the inning.

Omar Reynoso, a junior left-hander, started for Righetti and breezed through the first two innings. Reynoso struck out Matt Torres, the first batter he faced, then induced a flyout to center and got Charles to ground out to third baseman JJ Ughoc.

Charles then found his groove on the mound, striking out Aaron Vega and Mason Schmid in the second.

Nick Brown got Stockdale's first hit with a double in the bottom of the second, but Reynoso got a flyout to left to end the inning.

Charles then struck out Santini and Smith to get through the third inning. Hayden Elchlepp started the third with a single for Stockdale, but Reynoso struck out two batters and Ughoc deftly handled a slow roller to end the third.

Charles put the Warriors down in order in the fourth. Then Stockdale got going.

After Ughoc made another nice play to get Charles out, Adam Enyart singled and Owen Bolich followed up with a game-tying hit to the outfield. Reynoso was able to strike out Ryan Featherston to get through the fourth.

Then came the bottom of the fifth. Shane Heriford started the inning with a ground ball that resulted in a Righetti error. Matt Torres, who is hitting over .500 this season, then singled to bring up Rodriguez.

The junior kept showing bunt in a drawn-out at bat against Reynoso. He showed bunt, pulled his bat back and smashed a pitch to deep left field that went over the fence for a three-run home run and a 4-1 Stockdale lead.

Cooper Bagby, a senior righty, came on to pitch and Stockdale was able to extend its lead after another Righetti error on a possible double play ball to second base. Brown singled home Enyart to put the Mustangs up by four.

Charles pitched around a leadoff walk to get through the top of the sixth unscathed. Once Stockdale got two batters on in the bottom of the sixth, Righetti coach Kyle Tognazzini pulled Bagby and inserted Smith.

Rodriguez singled and then Charles drilled the first pitch he saw from Smith to straight left field for a game-sealing grand slam. Hayden Elchlepp singled in the final run of the game for the Mustangs.

Charles struck out Ben Munoz, Matthew Rivas grounded out and Charles struck out Aaron Vega to end the game and give the Mustangs their first Division 1 title since 2018.

Righetti's top pitchers just ran out of gas Friday. Smith threw four innings in the semifinals on Tuesday after throwing six innings in the first round last week. Reynoso threw three innings on Tuesday after also pitching against Clovis West last week. Bagby, who's been dealing with a back injury most of the season, hadn't pitched this week.

After the first three Righetti batters singled off Charles, he didn't allow another base hit until Brodie Miller singled with one out in the sixth.

Both teams could see their seasons continue by playing in the CIF State SoCal Regionals. Those brackets will be released Sunday.