West Ranch baseball reaches CIF-SS semifinals with back-to-back no-hitters

STEVENSON RANCH — West Ranch pitcher Hunter Manning was battling illness all week. But when the seventh inning against Sultana rolled around Friday, he was locked in.

“My focus today was to survive and advance, get on to Tuesday, have my boys’ back,” Manning said. “It wasn’t hard to create motivation because this is playoffs. If you lose, you go home.”

Only one hitter reached base, with a walk, in the final inning, as Manning finished off a no-hitter in a 10-0 win for the Wildcats in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.

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West Ranch baseball beats Sultana 10-0 to advance to the CIF-SS semifinals. Hunter Manning threw a complete game no-hitter. #sports #sportsreporter #baseball #highschoolbaseball #nohitter #santaclarita

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It was West Ranch’s second straight no-hitter in the playoffs after Mikey Murr and Matthew Castellon combined for a no-hitter Tuesday in a 12-0 victory over Crean Lutheran.

“Everything felt really, really good out of the hand,” Murr said. “I’ve been getting more opportunities to start games instead of close games, and I think that’s helped me out a lot because it gives me a fresh start — zero-zero.”

The win sends West Ranch (24-25) to the Division 2 semifinals. The Cats will be home Tuesday against Baseline League runner-up Etiwanda (17-12-1), which beat Servite 8-3 in the quarterfinals.

Manning struck out eight hitters while walking two in his “flu game” to improve to 9-0 on the mound this season.

The Wildcats’ offense got to work early to help alleviate pressure from Manning, a UC Irvine commit. Landon Hu hit a leadoff double and West Ranch was able to score three runs in the first inning before Nolan Stoll hit a solo home run over the left center field fence for a 4-0 advantage.

“I thought we did a really good job with two strikes, consistently,” West Ranch head coach Ryan Lindgreen said. “Landon set the tone. He leads off the game with a double, and it let everybody relax a little bit and know that we were going to be able to get some hits today.”

The Sultans (24-25) struggled to settle in defensively and deployed four pitchers in an attempt to find a groove. West Ranch scored three unearned runs in the fifth inning and added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Murr, who last season became the first West Ranch player to hit for the cycle, hit a solo home run and Ryan Oh doubled before scoring on a passed ball.

“Before the game, our team talked amongst each other and we knew that we needed to have (Manning’s) back all day,” Murr said. “And I think we did just that. Every time the ball was put in play, we made a play.”

First baseman Carter Friedrichsen and third baseman Omar Gutierrez shined on defense as Manning doled out his fastball-slider combination. Lindgreen felt confident leaving his pitcher in to finish the game, despite the illness.

“We had ourselves a sizable lead, but sometimes if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said. “His pitch count was manageable and he said that his energy level felt good. I think we just decided, let’s just finish our game. This is our game, it’s his game and let’s finish that.”

Other scores from Friday’s quarterfinals:

Division 1

Crespi 3, Mira Costa 2 (9 innings)

Division 3

Temecula Valley 4, Castaic 1

Division 4

Thousand Oaks 6, Woodbridge 3

Ganesha 1, Saugus 0

Dos Pueblos 11, Trinity Classical Academy 1