MISSION VIEJO — Entering this week, the Trabuco Hills baseball team was tied for third place in the South Coast League standings and needed to win all three of its games this week to grab a share of the league championship.
Trabuco Hills completed the sweep of Mission Viejo with a 3-0 win Thursday at Mission Viejo High.
The Mustangs earned a share of the South Coast League championship with Tesoro and Dana Hills. Dana Hills beat Capistrano Valley Thursday to earn its share of the league championship.
“I love this group. I love coming to practice everyday,” Trabuco Hills coach Michael Burns said. “They show up everyday, are selfless and work their butts off.”
The South Coast League is a five-team league, so all three of the first-place teams will earn automatic playoff berths. Tesoro will be in the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs while Trabuco Hills and Dana Hills will be in Division 3. Dana Hills owns the tiebreaker over Trabuco Hills for seeding purposes.
“Talking to all the coaches in the league we all kinda figured about halfway through that everybody is about the same,” Burns said. “We all have very good pitching and it was going to be a matter of execution and who kept fighting when the chips were down.”
Mission Viejo (15-13, 6-6) will apply for an at-large spot in the Division 3 playoffs.
The playoff pairings will be announced Monday morning.
Trabuco Hills ace pitcher Mikey Gray was outstanding Thursday. The junior pitched a complete game, allowed three hits with zero walks and recorded eight strikeouts.
“My fastball command was going really well,” Gray said. “I struggled in the early innings with my curveball, but we got it down in the end and it worked out really good.”
“Obviously the stuff is good but the guy just wants to toe the rubber and compete and win,” Burns said of Gray. “It’s what makes him great.”
Mission Viejo pitcher Keenan Anzai was also very good on the mound. The UC Davis signee pitched six innings, allowed four hits, three unearned runs and had four strikeouts.
Trabuco Hills finally broke through against Anzai in the sixth inning. Sean Dmytrowicz was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. All-County football player Ryan Luce laid down a sacrifice bunt and an errant throw into right field allowed Dmytrowicz to score.
The Mustangs added to their lead with run-scoring singles from Kenji Gonzales and Reiner Merli to extend the lead to 3-0.
Gonzales was the only player from either team to have multiple hits.
“Putting the ball in play is great and two-out hits are even better,” Burns said. “It felt like throughout the series we had those opportunities and didn’t always get that hit. We took care of it today against an outstanding pitcher.”
Three runs were plenty for Gray, who retired six of the next seven Mission Viejo hitters to end the game.
Anzai, Max Osika and Ryan Conser each had hits for Mission Viejo. Tyler Holland pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the Diablos.
