RANCHO CUCAMONGA — The Ganesha baseball team stirred up debate and had people guessing where exactly it would be playing Saturday.
Many of the players and coach Jared Sandler initially were going to skip the CIF Southern Section Division 2 championship game against Loyola in favor of a baseball training camp in Mississippi. But one phone call changed everything.
Sandler and his whole team stayed home and defeated the Cubs 6-3 on Saturday evening at Morongo Field.
What happens in the near future to the Ganesha baseball program remains to be seen.
Ganesha (26-3-1) has now won back-to-back CIF-SS championships and three in the past four seasons. The Giants won the Division 4 crown last year in Sandler’s first season as coach and the Division 7 title in 2023 under coach Tony Green.
“The superintendent (Darren Knowles of the Pomona Unified School District) is a first-class guy,” Sandler said. “I spoke with him. I had never spoken with him before. He’s a first-class guy. And he asked us to come play and out of my respect for him we showed up and played and represented his school district.”
The controversy erupted Friday morning when Southern California News Group’s Fred Robledo reported that much of Ganesha’s team was going to skip the championship game.
Ganesha athletic director Don Cayer said at one point that he had scrambled to field a team that would mostly consist of junior varsity players. He even held a practice and was prepared to coach that team in the championship game.
“We had a coalition of the willing out there that we’re going to play,” Cayer said. “Then the superintendent called me and said we got the whole team back.”
Sandler said Ganesha put in a formal request to CIF-SS to have the game move to Friday or early Saturday. He said the CIF-SS refused.
Cayer confirmed that request was made last week before Ganesha’s win over Foothill in the semifinals Tuesday.
“When we won our quarterfinals game, I immediately found out this might be an issue,” Cayer said. “I sent an email to the CIF-SS commissioner asking for a Friday game if possible. It wasn’t possible.”
Parents of the Ganesha players worked to rearrange schedules and changed flights.
“You don’t want to know,” Sandler said when asked what went into all the changes. “It was a lot.”
While strong opinions were being made about whether high school teams should skip championship games, the Giants players themselves didn’t seem phased, especially pitcher/outfielder Logan Schmidt.
“Just a normal day,” Schmidt said about what he did Friday. “I don’t even have X or anything all this stuff is posted on. I mean I hear it from all these guys (his teammates) but nothing that affects me.”
Schmidt, an LSU commit and potential MLB first-round draft pick, pitched shutouts in the first round and quarterfinals of the postseason. He didn’t start against Loyola.
Ford Stoen, a Purdue commit, got the start. Schmidt pitched the seventh inning and earned the save.
Sandler explained why he didn’t start Schmidt.
“He’s a 17-year-old kid,” Sandler said “His health is our priority. That’s what it is. His health is our priority, so we did what we thought was best for him.”
Stoen pitched 3 1/3 innings and gave up one run and five hits. He struck out three batters.
Jacob Delgado and Al Moreno also pitched for Ganesha.
Ganesha’s offense was led by Dyson Grant, Gavin Smith and Bryant Loo.
Grant went 2 for 3 with a hit-by-pitch and scored twice.
Loo went 1 for 3 with three RBIs. He hit a two-run double in the third to break a tie and give Ganesha a 3-1 lead.
After Loyola tied the game 3-3 in the top of the fifth, Stoen smacked a single up the middle to score Smith to give Ganesha a 4-3 lead.
Loo then stepped up to the plate and laid down a soft bunt on a squeeze play. The ball slowly rolled to the grass in front of home plate, easily scoring Schmidt to put Ganesha up 5-3.
The throw to first to try to get Loo pulled the first baseman off the bag, so Loo reached on an error.
Smith went 1 for 2 with two walks and scored three times. He had an RBI with a double in the sixth to give Ganesha a 6-3 lead.
Though some questions were raised about whether the players even cared about the championship game, they did celebrate afterwards on the field and proudly carried the CIF-SS championship plaque off the field.
“I’m proud of them,” Sandler said. “They played the game the right way all year long despite what anyone else said.”
Ganesha will skip next week’s CIF State Regional playoffs.
So what about the future of the program after what happened Friday?
“I am not sure,” Cayer said. “That’s a discussion.”