Early games set up dramatic showdown between Golden Bears and Rams

— LAKE ELSINORE — The Diamond, aka “Storm Stadium,” welcomed back high school baseball games this year, after a three-year hiatus, where two of those years were trampled on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams from many of the local high school leagues have gotten to play where the local semi-pros from the Single-A affiliate of the Padres play, which included the six squads from the Southwestern League Thursday, April 21.

As much as the games are welcomed by coaches, players, family, and fans, where pictures flood social media pages for hours on end during the day, there also some setbacks that get in the way from the true competitive nature of the games. Teams have many restrictions when playing these games at the stadium. Players can’t go through their normal game-day warmup regimens or take infield/outfield. They are restricted to on-field boundaries set up by the stadium staff, the scoreboards and jumbotron are not operational and games have shorter time limits. But, none-the-less, it is a game, at a minor league professional baseball stadium, and it is memorable.

For the Southwestern League teams, all eyes were focused on the top of the standings this week. Temecula Valley and Vista Murrieta, who have already clinched playoff berths, and who both won their Tuesday matchups, came into the games at The Diamond tied at 10-2, with three games to go. Great Oak, with their early week 6-1 win over Chaparral, have locked down third place and also secured a trip to the post season. The rest of the teams are just trying to avoid coming in last place, which is only separated by 2 games.

Vista Murrieta vs. Murrieta Valley

In the early game of the triple-header at Storm Stadium, the Vista Murrieta Broncos, who beat the Nighthawks earlier in the week, 14-3, captured the lead in the second inning when Luke Bennett drew a walk scoring one a run. Murrieta Valley tied the game up at 3-3 in the bottom of the third, but Vista Murrieta (11-2) would put the game away for good thanks to a seven-run fourth inning.

Lucas Pirko started the game for the Broncos going three innings, allowing four runs on four hits, and striking out three. Colt Tucker picked up the win for Vista Murrieta surrendering zero runs on one hit and one walk over two innings. Hudson Castillo and Willis Lacey entered the game out of the bullpen and helped to close out the game in relief

Charlie McBride started on the bump for Murrieta Valley (4-9), allowing nine hits and eight runs, while striking out one. Ayden Tuascher and Lyndon Glidewell-Matrafailo entered the game as relief throwing two and two-thirds innings and one inning, respectively.

The Broncos racked up eighteen hits in the game as Jerrad Gonzalez, Luke Matthews, Castillo, Ryland Duson, Joe Guetterman, and D.C. Ruth all had multiple hits. Matthews and Gonzalez each managed three hits apiece to lead the Broncos to their eleventh league win of the season. Murrieta Valley tallied seven hits in the game with Jordan Treadwell and Glidewell-Matrafailo collecting multiple hits.

Great Oak vs. Chaparral

Game two of the day saw Chaparral (2-11) come out hot after dropping their Tuesday game. The Pumas plated three runs in the top of the first inning when Cody Stordahl, Kameron Brodeur and Grant Israel all knocked in runs. Great oak evened things up at 3-3 in the bottom of the third inning on a Christian Smith sacrifice fly, but the Wolfpack would pull away for some breathing room with three runs in the fourth inning on hits from Michael Rodda and Dylan Fien.

Rodda earned the win allowing five hits and three runs over four innings, striking out three and walking zero. Lucas Smith and Aiden Nett entered the game out of the bullpen and helped to close out the game in relief to secure the 8-3 victory. Pavlosky started the game for Chapparal allowing zero hits and 2 runs over 2 innings, striking out four and walking four.

Dakota Henson took the loss for the Pumas out of the bullpen. He went two and two thirds’ innings, giving up six runs with zero strikeouts and two walks. Damien Escobedo finished the game for Chaparral, throwing one and one-third innings with zero runs, four strikeouts and one walk. Fien and Ryan Lee led the way in hits for Great Oak with two apiece.

Murrieta Mesa vs. Temecula Valley

The final game of the triple header took place under the lights, which was a battle between defending Southwestern League champions, Murrieta Mesa (3-9-1), and Temecula Valley (10-2-1), who are on the verge of claiming this year’s title. Of course, that title needs quite a few outcomes to pan out now, including a CIF-SS protest decision that is still to come after what happened in the final inning of this series ending game against the Rams.

Cody Liscio started the game for the Golden Bears on the bump and escaped unscathed from an inning that saw two strike outs and a Zach Anderson (catcher) pick off of Murrieta Mesa SS, Carter Garate, who was hit by a pitch. In the bottom half of the inning, a single by Grant Yzermans would ignite the offense. Yzermans would then steal second, take third on a passed ball and score off a Darin Chapman RBI. Temecula Valley would plate 2 more runs in the inning. From there, it would take Murrieta Mesa 5 innings to put things in motion and take a 4-3 lead before an offensive interference call ended the top of the sixth inning.

Down by one-run in the bottom of the sixth inning, Liscio got a lead-off hit, stole second before Matt Tylman grounded out, then he stole third, prior to Darren Verdugo executing a well-placed bunt, scoring Liscio to tie the game at 4-4. Harrison Bodendorf would take the bump for the Golden Bears in the top of the seventh and pitched himself out of a jam after hitting Garate, who got pegged for the second time in the game. Two strike outs and fly out would end the inning and bring the home team to the plate.

A clutch double from Yzermans led off the inning and fired up the home team crowd. Temecula Valley Head Coach, Darric Merrell called for the bunt, and Chapman did his job, getting Yzermans to third. The move brought UCLA commit, Chris Paciolla to the plate, who was intentionally walked. That move brought up USC commit, Zach Anderson, who was also intentionally walked, which loaded the bases for Liscio with one out. Murrieta Mesa reliever, Daniel Gonzalez, would get Liscio to strike out, bringing up Tylman.

Here is where the fun kicks into high gear. Tylman gets hit by a pitch, an excited Temecula Valley team rushes the field, dog piles their teammate, the winning run scores, and when the dust settles, a game gets called a tie, and a formal protest comes in to play with the CIF Southern Section offices.

What’s the call? Why the protest? The umpire crew said because the player did not touch first base, before the team rushed the field, interfering with the play, Tylman was ruled out.

“It’s not the right call,” says Merrell. “The ball is ruled dead, the run scores, regardless of a first base touch. Game over. (Tylman) did touch first base upon breaking away from the dog pile, tried to avoid a tag out from a Mesa player, which made no sense, and while one umpire agreed with my rationale, they went back on their thought process a few times before handing down their final say.”

What Temecula Valley finds themselves in is a gray area. There are quite a few scenarios where, yes, a hit batter needs to touch first base, but there is no written rule for this specific situation according to staff members from the CIF Southern Section offices. So, Merrell and his Athletics Department filed a formal protest to have the situation looked into even more. Also, according to the Southwestern League bylaws, no league game can end in a tie.

“I brought this up to the umpires, but then they cited the time restrictions put in place by the Lake Elsinore Storm front office, and they called the game.” says Merrell.

With a league title on the line, which Temecula Valley was the front runner for, there are still two games to go.

“For now, it’s a tie,” Merrell stated. “Who knows what could happen next week. Vista Murrieta could lose, we could lose, maybe we pick this game against Mesa back up in the eighth inning at the end of next week…or the whole thing could just be a moot point by then. I still have to fight for my players about what’s right, and that call is not right.”

In the meantime, Southwestern League play wraps up next week with Murrieta Valley taking on Chaparral, Vista Murrieta taking on Murrieta Mesa, and Temecula Valley going up against Great Oak, all for their final two league games prior to playoff brackets being released. Those seedings will be out Monday, May 2, by 10 a.m.

Article contributions made by Valley News Sports intern Daniel Sheridan, G.C. Narrative, and Valley News Sports Editor, JP Raineri.

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