MOORPARK — The Moorpark baseball team is 11 days removed from falling to Hart in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 championship game, but the Musketeers are still alive and fighting.
They beat CIF Los Angeles City Section Open Division champ Bell 6-0 in the first round of the CIF SoCal Regional Division II tournament on Tuesday at Moorpark.
They’ll host Ayala in the regional semifinals at 4 p.m. on Thursday.
Moorpark (20-11-1) became one of the most talked-about baseball teams in Southern California when a hit that was originally called a walk-off home run was ruled aground-rule double in the CIF-SS championship game. Hart went on to win 7-6 — a win that divided fans and prompted the school district to appeal the result as multiple videos of the hit emerged on social media.
“At that point, it’s a fork in the road,” Moorpark coach Aaron Garcia said. “We can completely roll over or we can decide to put the cleats back on, strap them up and get back to work.”
Garcia said that Moorpark planned on participating in the CIF SoCal Regional playoffs regardless of the result of the CIF-SS finals.
“We were going to do it regardless because we’ve never been here,” he said. “We’ve never made it out of the third round of the playoffs. Moorpark High School’s never been in the state championship. So no matter what, we were planning on rallying for that.”
The Musketeers got off to a hot start in the second phase of playoffs by shutting out Bell (22-7) on Tuesday.
Carson Cerny singled with two outs to get on base in the second inning and Leon Chavez stepped up and hit an RBI double to drive him in during the next at-bat.
Cerny came in to relieve starting pitcher Danny Lopez in the third inning and went on to strike out four and gave up just one hit in four innings. Sophomore Tanner Stotts came in for the last inning and allowed zero hits.
“It’s definitely been a ride,” Moorpark senior catcher Robert Perez said. “Knowing that all the pitchers are different and working with them has been great because they all understand pitching and catching and I understand them.”
Leadoff hitter Jacob Shannon-Wilkerson, a Lewis and Clark College commit who holds the program record for stolen bases, singled in the third inning and went on to earn free bases at second and third.
Shannon-Wilkerson said he started developing his base running in Little League, keeping an eye out for slouching pitchers as his cue to make a break for it. As he got older, he researched techniques and attended a Seattle Mariners camp to help refine them.
“It’s knowing what to look for,” Shannon-Wilkerson said. “Speed is a huge factor, but if you have that quick twitchiness and you know what you’re looking for when it comes to stealing and timing, it’s not rocket science. It becomes instinct.”
Greg Lareva was walked in the midst of it all and moments later, Moorpark used its baserunning to tack on another run. While Lareva was caught in a rundown between first and second base, Shannon-Wilkerson used the opportunity to reach home plate.
Moorpark added four runs in the sixth inning to secure the win. Michael Leddy hit an RBI single, AJ Mai hit a sacrifice fly, Cerny doubled to bring in a run and Perez finished the offense up with another sacrifice fly.
“We ended up taking a good win here, but it’s a different dynamic right now,” Garcia said.
“You don’t get a chance to play all of your games at the top, riding that high. You have to be able to find a way to get the job done when you’re on that low, too. And that’s what we showed here today — being able to take ourselves from the lowest part of our season and take a step in the right direction.”
MORE SCORES FROM TUESDAY
Liberty 14, Westlake 5
St. John Bosco 3, Granada Hills Charter 2
Birmingham 2, South 0
Point Loma 3, St. Francis 2
Pacifica 6, Village Christian 1
Shafter 6, Eagle Rock 3
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