IRVINE — The Servite and Notre Dame baseball teams each had bases-loaded scoring opportunities in the sixth inning of the National Classic semifinals Thursday.
Notre Dame got the clutch hit it needed in the sixth to beat Servite 4-2 at Irvine Valley College and advance to the championship game.
The Knights will play El Dorado in the tournament championship game at 3:30 p.m. Friday at El Dorado High.
The Friars trailed 2-1 in the sixth inning when they loaded the bases via a single by James Clark, a walk to Thomas Cernius and Jaden Liu being hit by a pitch.
Luke Wilson was hit by a pitch to bring in the tying run.
Servite was unable to capitalize further and Notre Dame pitcher Nick Ladanza got a strikeout and a soft groundout to finish the inning with the score tied.
“We had our opportunities and at some point you have to come through with the bases loaded,” Servite coach Shawn Gilbert said. “That’s kind of been our MO in the past month, is not coming through when we need a big hit.”
Notre Dame loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs. Dominic Cadiz drove in the go-ahead run with a single to center field to give the Knights a 3-2 lead.
An errant throw on a pickoff attempt allowed another run to score and extend the lead to 4-2.
Logan Berenson of Notre Dame pitched a perfect seventh inning to earn the save.
Entering the contest, Notre Dame starting pitcher Juju Diaz-Jones had not allowed a run in 18 2/3 innings this season.
Diaz-Jones threw four shutout innings before allowing an unearned run in the fifth. Tyler Thorsteinson drove in a run to tie the game at 1-1.
“He did a good job mixing and the fastball was probably a little more than we expected,” Gilbert said of Diaz-Jones.
Notre Dame took the lead in the fifth inning with a controversial play at home plate. With the bases loaded, John Trainer hit a ground ball to third base and the Servite third baseman threw home to get the force out at the plate.
The umpire called the runner safe which led to Gilbert coming out of the dugout to discuss the call.
“I was a little fired up at that point and don’t remember exactly what he said,” Gilbert said. “It was something to the effect that the catcher wasn’t on the plate. I explained that he was on the plate and was knocked off once he got the ball.”
“I think the umpire was wrong but that didn’t define the game. What defined the game was the bases loaded and us not getting anything when we needed to.”
Talan Larson pitched well for Servite with one earned run allowed in five innings.
Cadiz went 2 for 3 with two runs batted in. Levi Sterling and Jacob Madrid each had two hits for the Knights.
Servite will hope to finish the tournament with a winning record by beating Gahr on Friday.
“The goal was to obviously get to the championship, but the goal was also to play better baseball all around,” Gilbert said. “At the end of the week if you come away 3-1, it’s not a bad thing.”
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