The nerves arrived well before Zach Partee found the feel for his curveball.
“I’ve been nervous since I found out I was starting this game,” he admitted.
But the fabulous freshman right-hander worked his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and never looked back, pitching the Agoura High baseball team to its first CIF-Southern Section championship game in 20 years.
Partee allowed two hits in six shutout innings as the Chargers handled visiting Long Beach-Millikan, 3-1, in the CIF-SS Division 3 semifinals on Tuesday, May 26.
“After the first few batters I settled in,” Partee said.
And now the fifth-place team in the Marmonte League has earned the right to play for a section championship.
“It’s been a ride these last three weeks,” said senior centerfielder Tyler Starling. “We didn’t even know if we’d get into playoffs. And we got a bid, we got in and we knew we were going to make a ride.”
Agoura stuck to the formula that had earned its first sectional semifinal berth in two decades.
With a potent combination of dominant pitching, rangy defense, aggressive baserunning and timely hitting, the Chargers have yet to trail in four playoff games.
“Our pitchers do a great job of throwing strikes and making us work,” said senior shortstop Braden Oliver. “That’s all we can do. … Great things have happened.”
Partee struck out six in extending his personal shutout streak to 13 postseason innings.
“These pitchers are something else,” said freshman catcher Dirt Ibanez. “They’ve been hitting their spots.”
In nailing down the save in the seventh, junior Cal Meyer yielded just the second run the Chargers have allowed in 28 postseason innings.
“Once we get the lead, with the pitchers we have, the team thinks it’s going to win,” first-year Agoura coach Adam Goldstein said. “It’s easy to coach that way.”
Agoura (19-13) advances to play Manhattan Beach-Mira Costa (20-12) for the Division 3 championship at Cal State Fullerton’s Goodwin Field on Saturday at 4 p.m.
It is the first CIF-SS final for the Chargers since they fell to Lakewood 2-1 in the 2006 Division 1 title game.
“We’ve got one more game,” Starling said.
Agoura needed just six baserunners offensively. Kaden Graves and Zack Greene singled and scored. Jordan Tawaga drew a walk and scored. Oliver, Ibanez and Cooper Stutler had RBI singles.
Each runner that eventually scored stole a base. Agoura has now stolen 11 bases in four playoff games.
“We did a good job of putting pressure on,” Goldstein said.
Partee walked three of the first four batters of the afternoon as Millikan loaded the bases in the top of the first.
But he escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts and a lazy flyout to right field with two outs.
The Chargers grabbed the lead in the home half of the second inning.
Freshman Greene bounced a two-out single up the middle, stole second and scored on Stutler’s line-drive single to right field.
Agoura doubled the lead in the bottom of the third, when Graves singled to right field with one out, stole second and scored on Oliver’s single up the middle.
Partee escaped another jam in the top of the fourth, when Millikan loaded the bases on two walks and an infield single. The freshman answered with a two-out strikeout, grabbing the cap off his head to shout in celebration.
The Chargers tacked on an insurance run to make it 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth.
Tagawa drew a two-out walk, stole second and third and scored on Ibanez’s single through the drawn-in infield.
Millikan brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the sixth, but Partee stranded two with a pair of flyouts with runners at the corners.
He wanted to finish the game, but his day was done at 107 pitches.
“Oh yeah,” Partee said, “I could have gone way more.”
Millikan scrapped together three singles to put the tying run on base in the top of the seventh, but Meyer escaped the jam with a game-ending strikeout.
“We’ve had a bullpen by committee all year,” Goldstein said. “But Cal the last month has been the go-to guy.
“He’s able to slow his heart rate down. He can throw a couple pitches for strikes at any time. … It was his opportunity.”
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: Pitching propels Agoura to first CIF-SS baseball final in 20 years
Reporting by Joe Curley, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
