Masen Ruiz lifts Birmingham over El Camino Real in City Open final with bases-clearing triple

LOS ANGELES — There wasn’t even a name on the back of the jersey to help identify Birmingham junior Masen Ruiz when he stepped up to bat in the bottom fifth inning.

The bases were loaded and coach Matt Mowry called upon Ruiz to deliver during the climax of the CIF LA City Section Open Division Championship at Dodger Stadium on Saturday with the scored tied against West Valley League rival El Camino Real.

Ruiz got the pitch he wanted — a fastball belt high. Ruiz pulled his hands through with the bat to generate a line drive beyond the reach of El Camino Real right fielder Ryan Glassman.

All three base runners scored and Ruiz came away with the deciding hit that elevated No. 1 seed Birmingham over No. 2 seed El Camino Real for a 4-2 victory that gave the Patriots their sixth CIF LA City Section title.

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Birmingham finished 27-4, including 14 straight wins to end the season.

“I thought about the dream I had when I was a kid,” Ruiz said. “The dream was always to come over to Dodger Stadium and win it for the high school I was playing for. I transferred here and all I wanted to do was just win (for the team) I was playing for and that was Birmingham.”

A dark No. 41 was attached to the jersey for Ruiz, who had barely played for half the season since transferring from Chatsworth. Ruiz himself couldn’t have imagined his title would come in a Birmingham uniform.

Ruiz is the nephew of former Kennedy and Chatsworth coach Marcus Alvarado and grandson of Manny Alvarado, a longtime educator and baseball coach at Kennedy.

Alvarado resigned from Chatsworth before the beginning of the season and Ruiz, who played at Chatsworth, wasn’t eligible to join the Patriots until the first week of April.

It was a journey that ended in the championship ring.

The first five innings were rigid, and the scored was tied 1-1 after the first inning.

“(Ruiz) comes from a long line of champions so that kid being put in a pressure situation is nothing for him,” Mowry said.

Senior pitcher Nathan Soto went five innings and allowed just one run with one hit batter and two walks. Aidan Martinez finished with the save and had an RBI single in the bottom of the first.

“My heart’s bumping,” Martinez said. “It hasn’t hit yet.”

El Camino Real (21-10) will return 14 players from this season’s team and will restart its quest for its 11th LA City Section title. A win on Saturday would’ve pushed El Camino Real past Chatsworth for the most titles in CIF LA City Section history.

The Royals got four hits and a quality outing from pitcher Hudson December, who threw a complete game.

El Camino Real just didn’t get hits with runners in scoring position to match Birmingham.

“You can’t duplicate the environment of Dodger Stadium on the field,” El Camino Real coach Josh Lienhard said. “You have to have experienced it before. Today we just didn’t get the big hit. Hats off to Birmingham.”