RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA >> The Tesoro baseball team continued its trend of dominant pitching performances in a 7-2 win over Moreno Valley in the CIF Southern California Regional Division IV semifinal Friday at Tesoro High.
Ryan Rios pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowed just two runs and scattered eight hits with three strikeouts.
The Titans’ pitching staff had 21 consecutive scoreless innings prior to allowing two runs in the seventh inning Friday.
“He did a great job of mixing all three of his pitches,” Tesoro coach Tony Nieto said of Rios. “Ryan did a phenomenal job. I wish he could have finished it but he got us through and saved us a couple of arms for tomorrow.”
Tesoro (27-8) will host Fullerton in the regional championship game Saturday at 4 p.m. The Titans beat Fullerton 3-0 in the CIF Southern Section championship game May 21.
The Titans got off to a hot start Friday with three runs in the first inning. Justin Simard hit a run-scoring single and Kevin McCaffery hit a two-run single to put the Titans in front 3-0.
Moreno Valley (28-5) loaded the bases in the third inning but the Titans turned a double play to escape the inning with no damage.
Tesoro’s defense turned three double plays Friday and Moreno Valley had nine runners left on base.
“We got a lot of ground balls and those double plays were huge for us,” Nieto said. “That’s been the script all year, pitching and defense.”
Tesoro catcher Dylan Miner hit a run-scoring single in the third to extend the lead to four.
Jackson Freeman led off the fourth inning with a double and advanced to third base on an error. Simard then executed a perfect bunt down the first base line to score Freeman to give Tesoro a 5-0 lead.
The Titans added a pair of runs in the seventh inning on a squeeze bunt by Simard and a RBI single by Nate Molinari.
Johnny Silva had two hits to lead the Moreno Valley offense. Aidan Magana had a RBI single for the Vikings in the seventh inning.
UC Santa Barbara signee Frank Camarillo pitched three innings of relief for the Vikings and had three strikeouts. He had 122 strikeouts in 75 innings this season.
When Tesoro beat Fullerton in the section championship game, Coleton Dahl pitched a shutout and had 11 strikeouts. Nieto said the coaching staff is undecided on how much Dahl will pitch Saturday given that he threw 83 pitches in a win against Mission Bay on Tuesday.
“It’s going to be a great challenge to face them again,” Nieto said. “The two best teams are playing each other again so that’s going to be fun.”
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