Pack Propels Esperanza Into Final

LONG BEACH — La Puente Bishop Amat won the Division I baseball title in 1996, but Esperanza had no trouble convincing the Lancers who was the better team this season.

The Aztecs, behind Brandon Pack’s four-hitter, knocked the Lancers out of the playoffs with a 6-1 victory before an estimated crowd of 1,500 at Blair Field.

Esperanza (24-5) will play Long Beach Millikan for the championship at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Anaheim Stadium. Millikan (23-6), which got into the playoffs as a wild card, was a 2-1 winner over Encino Crespi in the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader. The teams last met in a 1991 semifinal game, which was won by Millikan.

It will be the first finals appearance for the Aztecs since 1993, and their fifth finals appearance in the past 12 years.

“We needed to get back [to the final],” Esperanza Coach Mike Curran said. “It’s been a long time.”

Bishop Amat’s finished 25-5.

Pack (7-2) pitched a complete game, but didn’t make it easy on himself, issuing eight walks. But he didn’t allow a run until the seventh--an RBI single by Gabe Salazar, scoring Xavier Gomez--and was aided by three double plays, the last one ending the game.

“The feeling right now is awesome,” Pack said. “But we’re going to stay focused. We have one more to play. And I’m glad it’s Millikan; I know some of the guys over there, and it’s easier playing against people you know.”

The Lancers had a chance to break through in the third, when they loaded the bases on Salazar’s infield single and two walks with two out. But the senior right-hander escaped further trouble by getting Daniel Haren to ground into a force play.

Amat Coach Glenn Martinez knew then his team was in trouble.

“We have a young team [eight juniors, five sophomores], and I got the feeling we were playing not to lose instead of trying to win,” Martinez said. “But we’re not making excuses. Esperanza totally outplayed us. It’s a simple game; you hit the ball, throw strikes and play defense. And they did all three.”

The Aztecs got all the runs Pack needed off Lancer starter Bobby Hernandez (9-3) in the bottom of the third.

Singles by Justin Good, Omar Oregel and Tommy Nicholson loaded the bases with one out. Pack helped himself, scoring Good on a fielder’s choice grounder. After David Parrish walked with two out, Anthony Colacion sent home two runs with a single to right.

Parrish sparked another three-run rally in the fifth, hitting a one-out 385-foot RBI triple off Amat reliever Paul Mangini. Sal Deanda, running for Parrish, made it 5-0 when Mangini’s third strike to Colacion bounced past catcher Chris Cunningham for a wild pitch.