Mira Costa baseball advances to Division 3 final with win over St. Francis

MANHATTAN BEACH — Mira Costa baseball coach Andy Diver had one message for the Mustangs going into their CIF Southern Section Division 3 semifinal Tuesday against St. Francis.

“It’s your moment,” Diver said.

The Mustangs made sure that moment lasted all afternoon.

Starting pitcher Grayson Thomas scattered two hits over five scoreless innings and Mira Costa’s offense erupted for 14 hits in a 12-0 victory over St. Francis.

The win sends Mira Costa (20-12), the top seed in the division, to the program’s first CIF-SS championship game since 2013. The Mustangs will face Agoura on Friday or Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

Saugus was a 3-1 winner over Millikan in the division’s other semifinal.

“This group is scrappy and resilient,” Diver said. “They stacked good, competitive at-bats, (Thomas) is a sophomore, took the mound and hung five shutout innings with great defense behind him. It was their moment, they knew what’s at stake.”

The Mustangs found their rhythm in the second inning after St. Francis starter Aiden Mahoney worked through the first inning on just six pitches.

Mira Costa’s Connor Collins was hit by a pitch and later raced home from second on Kellan Finn’s infield single for a 1-0 lead.

“Our deal is to play aggressive and smart on the basepaths,” Diver said. “(Collins) was anticipating scoring on a ball to the left behind him.”

Thomas settled in after allowing a one-out single and two-out walk in the first inning, leaning on his defense throughout the afternoon.

Finn threw out JT Martin trying to steal second to end the second inning. Carter Rivera started an inning-ending double play in the third, and Miko Hodzic helped turn a double play in the fifth.

“I just tried to work my hardest in the zone,” Thomas said. “Five walks isn’t the greatest, but I just tried to pound the zone as best I could and trust my defense behind me. (Being able to rely on a solid defense) has been really helpful, it allows me to have a lot of trust in the guys.”

Mira Costa’s Emiliano Ortiz and Emmett Maloney retired six of the final seven batters to secure the victory.

Mira Costa added to its lead in the third inning. Rivera opened the inning with a double and scored on Ace Tarango’s single. Joaquin Scholer reached on an error that allowed Tarango (3 for 4, two RBIs) to score, extending the lead to 3-0.

Rivera said communication throughout the lineup helped shape the team’s approach.

“I had people like (Finn) telling me you’re going to get that fastball,” Rivera said. “Every at-bat, regardless of the situation, everyone was seeing it well, so everyone had that information and passed it down to one another and we just kept it going.”

The Mustangs broke the game open in the fourth, scoring five runs. They got RBI hits from Rivera and Tarango, and Cade Ceman had a two-run single that made it 8-0.

“We knew after the third inning we had a really good chance to win,” Tarango said. “It’s all about staying competitive. Our mindset after every time we score is to hang a zero on defense.”

Collins (2-for-3) added an RBI double in the sixth before Austin Olness hit a two-run home run to extend the lead to 11-0.

St. Francis (17-14) fell short of reaching its second CIF-SS title game in three years.

“We just didn’t play very well today,” Golden Knights coach Shaun Kort said. “I thought there were some plays that we didn’t make that led to a lot of runs, but that happens. We had some opportunities to score runs early and just didn’t take advantage of them.”