Dana Hills will face Mater Dei for Division 1 title.
In high school baseball, pitching wins championships, and Dana Point Dana Hills sent out its ace, Peter Tago, in Tuesday’s Southern Section Division 1 semifinals against Placentia El Dorado, and Tago came through with a 13-strikeout performance in a 5-3 victory at Blair Field in Long Beach.
“That’s an unbelievable performance for him,” Dana Hills Coach Tom Faris said. “He really showed his competitiveness. He did one heck of a job on the mound.”
Tago (10-3), who has committed to Cal State Fullerton and is expected to be taken in next week’s amateur draft, gave up seven hits and walked two in helping unseeded Dana Hills (20-12) advance to Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. championship game against Santa Ana Mater Dei at The Diamond at Lake Elsinore.
Mark Wilson’s third hit of the day, an RBI single in the sixth inning, broke a 3-3 tie and kept the Dolphins on the most unlikely of paths.
They finished fourth in the South Coast League, petitioned for an at-large berth, got in as a wild-card team and have now rolled off five consecutive playoff victories, three with Tago on the mound.
“It’s a team effort,” Tago said. “It doesn’t take one person. It takes a team.”
Said Faris: “We don’t think we’re a wild-card team. We believe we can play with anybody.”
El Dorado (19-12) made four errors and couldn’t maintain leads of 1-0 and 3-2.
Hahn leads Mater Dei
After losing in the Division 1 semifinals the last three years, Cory Hahn hit and pitched the Monarchs to a 10-0 victory over Simi Valley Royal.
Hahn (13-1), a left-hander who signed with Arizona State, gave up two hits in five innings. He also had a double and triple.
Mater Dei scored three runs in the third inning thanks to Royal fielders having trouble picking up the ball in the lights. A popup in the infield was dropped, allowing one run to score. And left fielder Justin Greco couldn’t pick up a fly ball in the lights before it fell, allowing two more runs to score. Royal finished with five errors.
A four-run fifth featured a Hahn triple, an RBI double from Jeremy Martinez, a two-run double from Jacob Medina and an RBI double from A.J. Roth.
Division 2 drama
Walk-off home runs in the seventh inning enabled Glendora and Yucaipa to pull out dramatic semifinal victories in Division 2.
Matt Hardison’s two-out, two-run home run off ace T.J. Kendzora helped Yucaipa defeat Lake Forest El Toro, 7-5, and Jacob Smigelski’s home run lifted Glendora over Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, 2-1.
Hardison hadn’t hit a home run all season.
“I’m still replaying it in my mind to make sure I actually did it,” Hardison said. “It’s just that kind of experience for me.”
He leaped gleefully into the air before landing on home plate, too exuberant to worry about suffering a serious injury like the Angels’ Kendry Morales did while celebrating a walk-off homer Saturday.
“I took notes from Kendry and what he did wrong,” Hardison quipped.
It sets up a 4:30 p.m. Saturday final in Lake Elsinore that will bring out pro scouts. Glendora will have UCLA signee Adam Plutko on the mound to oppose Yucaipa’s hard-throwing Taijuan Walker. Both are expected to be high picks in next week’s draft.
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
