Senior Donovan Anthony threw a two-hit shutout while striking out 15 as the Agoura High baseball team topped visiting Oakwood, 4-0, in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 playoffs on Friday, May 15.
Anthony’s mastery on the mount delivered the Chargers their first postseason victory since 2015.
“Donovan pitches to contact,” said first-year Agoura coach Adam Goldstein. “He doesn’t walk anybody. He can throw two pitches at any point in the count. Today, he challenged everybody and had 15 strikeouts. He literally dominated them.”
Sophomore Colton Mellinger provided the offensive spark, going 2 for 3 with a first-inning triple, a second-inning home run, two RBIs and two runs scored.
“Mellinger was the difference today,” Goldstein said.
Senior Tyler Starling also homered for Agoura (16-13), which will visit Garden Grove-Pacifica in Tuesday’s second round.
Division 1
Cypress 8, Oaks Christian 2: Carson Sheffer was 2 for 4 with a double and a triple and scored a run, but the Lions (22-8) were eliminated on the road.
Division 3
Arcadia 3, Simi Valley 2: Junior Evan Rodriguez slugged a leadoff home run on the first pitch of the game and had a game-tying home run leading off the sixth inning nullified on appeal.
Rodriguez was at the plate when the top of the fifth ended in confusion. Simi Valley believed an advancing runner was tagged out. Arcadia believed Rodriguez was called out for interference.
When Rodriguez led off the sixth inning with his second home run, Arcadia appealed Simi Valley for batting out of order.
“We had confirmed with the umpires,” Simi Valley coach Scott Vermette said. “They told us the runner was out, not the batter. … I think our whole fan base heard it as well, but tough loss. We will be back next year.”
The Pioneers still tied the score on Ryan Whitson’s infield single in the top of the seventh, before Arcadia’s Matt Manzo delivered a walkoff double in the bottom half of the inning.
Kyle Casey allowed two runs and three hits in 3.2 innings and Jackson Plagenza allowed one run and two hits in three innings of relief for Simi Valley (16-11).
Division 5
St. Bonaventure 1, Mayfair 0: Rowan Kaiser’s walk-off single to shallow center field with two outs in the bottom of the seventh ended nearly seven innings of scoreless baseball.
“Rowan did a good job of having a good quality at-bat and being ready for the moment,” St. Bonaventure coach Mike Minjares said. “It’s something we’ve talked about all year, just staying through the middle of the diamond. That’s where the hits drop.”
Wyatt Richardson drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the seventh, stole second and scored the winning run. The sophomore also earned the win in relief on the mound.
“It took some grit, that’s for sure,” said Minjares. “That was a good quality team.”
Joseph Martinez, Masiah Merricks and Richardson combined for a five-hit shutout and Luc Beauchemin was 2 for 3 for St. Bonaventure (22-6), which visits Culver City in Tuesday’s second round.
Division 7
Grace 6, Beverly Hills 0: Freshman Kade Monica needed just 65 pitches to threw a four-hit shutout, striking out seven, as the host Lancers advanced.
“It was pretty impressive,” said Grace coach Luke Barrett. “His composure for a young guy is pretty special.”
Monica faced 24 batters and threw 21 first-pitch strikes.
“He was dominating,” Barrett said. “I don’t know any other way to put it.”
Grace took 2-0 lead on a Jack Mazza RBI groundout and Maikai Saiki RBI double in the bottom of the first.
Gavin Willis was 2 for 4 with a run scored and Monica finished 2 for 4 with an RBI for Grace (17-11), which will visit North Torrance on Tuesday.
Santa Paula 5, Pasadena Poly 4: Sophomore Steven Sanchez’s RBI single drove in Jack Wadkowski with one out in the fifth inning, breaking a 4-4 tie, and Joe Reyes threw a clean seventh inning for the save as the host Cardinals advanced.
“Back and forth,” said Santa Paula coach Gabe Diaz.
Sophomore pitcher Isaak Medina allowed five hits and four runs in six innings for Santa Paula.
“He fought through it,” Diaz said. “He didn’t have his best stuff going, but he held it together.”
Eight of nine starters delivered hits for Santa Paula (13-16), which will host Fontana in Tuesday’s second round.
“The bottom of our lineup is what really sparked us and got us going,” Diaz said.
Division 9
Ojai Valley 16, San Luis Obispo Classical 0 (5 inn.): Archie Moller threw a no-hitter in a run-rule shortened five-inning game, striking out 13 of the 19 batters he faced and allowing just one walk.
Dylan Carroll, Jay Galgano and Ash Combs had two hits apiece for the Spuds (6-3), who will host San Bernardino in Tuesday’s second round.
Joe Curley covers baseball for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter/X, Instagram/Threads, Facebook, Bluesky and TikTok.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Anthony pitches Agoura baseball to first CIF-SS playoff win since 2015
Reporting by Joe Curley, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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