RIVERSIDE -- The eight-year-old school with a five-year-old baseball program has its first section title.
Firebaugh of Lynwood upset top-seeded Hillcrest Christian of Granada Hills, 5-4, to capture the CIF-Southern Section Division 7 championship Saturday morning at UC Riverside, bagging a feat many schools take decades to accomplish. The Falcons scored their runs in the first three innings.
It was quite an unlikely playoff run for Firebaugh, which had been ranked sixth in the final coaches' poll. But the Falcons turned on the switch when it mattered, winning its playoff games by scores of 9-1, 23-1 and 8-0 before defeating second-seeded New Roads 4-3 in the semifinals.
Anthony Rios, Armando Murillo and Francisco Miranda each had two hits for Firebaugh, which finished second in the Harbor League this season. Rios closed it out with 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Pitcher Josh Clark went the distance for Hillcrest Christian, allowing 10 hits in six innings. Offensively, he had three of his team's five hits.
