The dream season for Millikan came to an end on a cold Friday afternoon, when Riverside Poly’s Evan Mott threw a five-hit complete game to lead the Bears to a 5-2 victory over the Rams in the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division I playoffs at Long Beach Community College.
Mott (5-0, 2.80 ERA) got stronger as the game went on, and collected all six of his strikeouts in the final three innings.
Millikan ace Josh Frye (8-4) went the first four innings and allowed five runs on ten hits and struck out six Riverside Poly batters, but picked up the loss.
The game-changing inning came in the top of the fourth when the Bears struck for four runs on six hits, and sent nine men to the plate against Frye.
Austin Haner singled to start the inning and was followed by a Dylan Barnes double. Jesse Santana’s ground out to Brandon Dopplick scored Haner.
Chris Joranco, Todd Cooney, Jake Marisnick and Blair Moore combined on four consecutive hits before Frye was able to get R.J Ybarra on strikes and Randy Myers to fly out to end the inning.
The Rams (22-11) bounced back in the bottom of the fifth when Ralph Davis had a one-out single, Brandon Sadler then singled and after a fly ball to deep right field off the bat of Jonathan Singleton, Cody Hazel was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Paul Slater then walked on four pitches to bring home Davis and the Rams trailed just 5-2 with their best hitter all year, Matt Clampitt, coming to the plate.
But Mott was able to strike out the Rams’ third baseman and then retired six of the final seven batters to finish off the Moore League champions.
“We knew Millikan was a scrappy group of guys who never give up, so it felt good to be able to finish the game against them,” Mott said. “My fastball was working for me today, but my off speed pitches weren’t effective at all. All year we’ve been able to have that one big inning, and today it was the fourth inning.”
As he’s done all year, Frye handled the loss with dignity and class.
“I hit my spots today, but they just hit the ball hard,” Frye said. “It’s tough right now, but I know when I look back on this season it will be all good thoughts because we accomplished a lot and my teammates played so well behind me.”
Andrew Culver finished his senior year in style by throwing three scoreless innings and striking out two to keep Millikan within shouting distance.
Riverside Poly (20-10) scored first when Chris Joranco’s single scored Dylan Barnes in the top of the second inning.
Millikan answered right back when Emmy Antonaras doubled to deep right-center, advanced to third on a ground out off the bat of Adam Annella and scored on a first-pitch single up the middle by Brandon Dopplick.
Davis went 2-for-3 for Millikan, Antonaras had the only extra base hit and Clampitt and Sadler each had drag bunt singles to account for the Rams offense on Friday.
The loss was especially emotional for the many Millikan seniors and coaching staff, as several Rams’ seniors left the field in tears.
“They got their rally started with a chopper and a bloop hit, but then they hit the ball hard, so you have to give them credit,” Millikan coach Scott Glasser said. “We had that one really good chance of getting back in the game (in the fifth inning with the bases loaded) and we were happy to have Matt at the plate, but he (Mott) made some good pitches to get out of it.”
The Moore League championship was special for a group that began the season at 2-6 and finished by winning 20 of their next 25 games, and the 43-inning scoreless streak that will likely never be duplicated.
But it was the relationships and closeness that Glasser will remember most.
Said Glasser: “This is a group of kids I will always remember because they were the first to give me success as a coach in the playoffs and I will always point back to them as the beginning of whatever success we have going forward. Their success validated to us as coaches that we’re doing the right things and I know it doesn’t seem like it to them because we’re always telling them what to do, but we care about them a lot.”