FULLERTON — West Ranch pitcher Hunter Manning completed a dominant playoff run by leading the Wildcats to a 2-1 win over Mater Dei to win the CIF-SS Division 2 championship Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.
The championship is the first for West Ranch (25-9), which was making its first ever championship appearance.
Manning, a UC Irvine signee, allowed one unearned run while pitching a complete game with just four hits allowed, six strikeouts and he retired Mater Dei in order four times. He caught a pop fly for the last out of the game before his team poured out of the dugout in celebration.
“Catching that ball was the greatest feeling in the world,” Manning said. “It’s 11 months of hard work and it was all worth it in that exact moment.”
Manning allowed just three earned runs in 26⅓ innings during this playoff run with just 15 hits allowed and 29 strikeouts. He finished his senior season with a 10-0 record and a 0.67 ERA.
“When you look back at our program history, there is always a pitcher who does really cool stuff and Hunter is at the top of the mountain,” West Ranch coach Ryan Lindgreen said. “He’s the absolute dude, everybody on the team trusts him and he was the right guy in the right moment.”
Saturday’s game was the final one for Lindgreen and assistant coaches Casey and Brady Burrill, who are all stepping down at the end of this season. West Ranch has elected to not participate in the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs next week.
Casey Burrill was the first head coach in the school’s history and led the Wildcats for 15 years before stepping into an assistant coaching role.
“Nothing has sunk in yet. Tomorrow I think I might be more emotional that it’s over but right now I’m nothing but excited,” Lindgreen said. “I’m so proud of these guys. This group had some exits in the playoffs that they were a part of as sophomores and juniors, and to see them come full circle here is amazing.”
Manning faced some trouble in the seventh inning. Mater Dei (19-14) got a runner on base after an error by West Ranch. Bradley Beaudreau hit a single to put two runners on base, which prompted a mound visit for West Ranch.
“We just wanted to know which hitter we were going to attack,” Lindgreen said. “I’m going to trust him in any situation and if he says he wants a guy, we are going to let him go get the guy. He made some big pitches there and won it.”
Brady Guth hit an RBI single for Mater Dei to cut West Ranch’s lead to 2-1. Manning got the next hitter to fly out to right field and the final hitter to pop up in foul territory.
Mater Dei got a good pitching performance from Fresno State signee Brandon Thomas. He allowed one earned run in six innings with just four hits allowed and four strikeouts.
West Ranch scored in the first inning due to a defensive miscue by Mater Dei. Landon Hu led the game off with a pop fly to left field that was dropped by Mater Dei’s left fielder and Hu reached second base.
After a sacrifice bunt, Hu scored on a RBI groundout by Stanford signee Nolan Stoll to give West Ranch a 1-0 lead.
West Ranch added to its lead in the fourth inning. Mikey Murr led the inning off with a single and a fielding error by Mater Dei in the next at-bat gave West Ranch runners at second and third with no outs.
Ryan Oh hit a RBI single to extend West Ranch’s lead to 2-0.
Oh was the only player from either team to have multiple hits.
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