West Ranch survives Saugus to continue quest for Foothill League title

SAUGUS — The West Ranch baseball team is questing for its first Foothill League title since 2016.

Saugus wasn’t making that easy on Friday afternoon, scoring six runs in the fifth inning and forcing the Wildcats defense to shift into a higher gear to come out with an 11-9 win at Saugus High School.

“It was a lot closer than we liked,” West Ranch catcher Nolan Stoll said. “But any league win is super important. We can’t drop a game like this, especially after our first loss. We’re just trying to get that check in the win category.”

West Ranch (10-5 overall, 5-1 Foothill League) is on a five-game win streak after dropping its league opener to Castaic, 6-4. The Cats have been runner-ups in the Foothill League six times since winning their last league title in 2016.

“We feel that we have really good teams and our consistency shows year after year that we have really good teams,” West Ranch head coach Ryan Lindgreen said. “But there’s always a win that we need and this is the year that we want to get that one.”

Saugus (9-6, 3-3) used a series of singles to repeatedly load the bases and send runners home in the bottom of the fifth inning.

James Frias doubled to lead off the frame and Abraham Ramirez drove him in with a single. Matthew Carta and Banning Sheff each hit RBI singles and Sheff beat a throw to the plate to tack on another run.

“They work their tail off every day,” first-year Saugus head coach Mike Miller said. “They come every day and they never give up. When we were down 10-2, I still believed we could come back. If there’s one team that could, it would be this team.

Jake Kaplan almost tacked on another run, but center fielder Ryan Oh threw home for the final out of the inning.

“You tip their cap to them and they did a good job of putting the ball in play,” Lindgreen said. “It took a really great play from Ryan to end the threat there with that throw home. We expect Ryan to make big plays and he did it.”

Aadan Laroe came in to close out the last 2 2/3 innings for West Ranch. He allowed two hits, one of which was a solo home run, in the final two innings.

“We got put into a tough spot, but I knew I had to go out there with a bunch of confidence,” Laroe said. “I have one of the best, if not the best, defenses in the Foothill League. So going in there, I feel really confident.”

The Wildcats were cruising through the first 4 1/2 innings, building up a 9-2 advantage. Mikey Murr drove in Caydin Wilson with a single to right center field and Nolan Stoll hit a three-run homer on an off-speed pitch for an early 5-2 lead.

“We really needed that momentum in a tight game,” Stoll said. “We were tied, we just needed that big hit with two outs and I’m glad I was able to pull through.”

Consistent hitting proved valuable to West Ranch throughout the game. Ty Diaz’s RBI double in the top of the seventh inning gave the Wildcats a big enough cushion to pull off the win.

Diaz went 4 for 5 and leadoff hitter Landon Hu was 3 for 5 with a walk.

“Between Landon and Nolan being three-, four-year starters — and Ty Diaz — these guys have a lot of experience,” Lindgreen said. “So in these big moments, I think they’re able to just trust who they need to be at the plate rather than letting the moment get too big.”

West Ranch resumes league play with a home-and-home series against Valencia on Wednesday. Saugus next takes on Hart on Tuesday as part of a home-and-home.