Bell’s Armando Aguilar is called out at home after a tag by Birmingham catcher Nick Penaranda in the CIF Los Angeles City Section Open Division championship game at Dodger Stadium May 25, 2024.(Photo by Andy Holzman, Contributing Photographer)
LOS ANGELES — Birmingham baseball reached the CIF Los Angeles City Section Open Division championships for the third season in a row, but lost to Bell, 4-1, at Dodger Stadium on Saturday.
“It’s tough because you’re obviously wanting to win,” Birmingham coach Matt Mowry said. “It’s not that easy getting here, let alone winning it. This is our seventh trip in 10 years, so that’s pretty darn good.”
Birmingham (19-11-1) was the defending champion while Bell (22-6) was making its first appearance in the Open final and was trying to win its first City title since 2005.
Bell’s Gustavo Ramirez sent the ball bouncing into left field for a single in the top of the sixth inning and advanced to second on a wild pitch. David Gonzalez singled in the next at-bat to score Ramirez and give Bell a 1-0 advantage.
The Eagles, who beat No. 1 seed Granada Hills in the semifinals, added three runs in the top of the seventh inning to ensure the championship win.
Birmingham scored its one run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by JB Dalumpines. Bell executed a double play to end the game and secure the win.
Hits were hard to come by as Birmingham’s Mike Figueroa and Bell’s Jayden Rojas engaged in a pitchers’ duel early on. Rojas pitched six innings and gave up four hits while recording six strikeouts Figueroa allowed five hits and struck out six hitters in 6 1/3 innings.
“Mike pitched unbelievable all season for us and this was another game,” Mowry said. “I thought he threw outstanding and unfortunately he got a little tired at the end. They clutched up when they had the opportunity with bases loaded and we didn’t.”
Birmingham No. 2 hitter Trevor Sostman (2 for 2, one walk) singled to right field in the first inning and Dalumpines hit a fly ball to deep center field, — a blast that just barely was in range of Eagles center fielder Luis Melendez’s reach.
Bell produced two singles in the second inning and Armando Aguilar reached base on a fielder’s choice but couldn’t gain enough momentum to manufacture a run.
The Patriots loaded the bases in the third inning using a single by Cris Martinez and two intentional walks but Martinez, Sostman and Dalumpines were all left stranded.
They repeated a similar pattern when they put three men on in the bottom of the sixth inning. Dalumpines and Sebastian Valadez both executed bunts to get on base as Birmingham resorted to small ball to try and jump-start the offense.
“That’s what the game dictated,” Mowry said. “We got the leadoff guy on, we bunted him over and then we were like, hey, let’s put the go-ahead run on second. We bunted him over and it just didn’t work out for us.”
Rojas struck out one hitter and the defense induced two pop outs to right field to keep the Patriots off the scoreboard.
Birmingham’s season will continue with the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs, which begin Tuesday.
“We’re going to compete in that and then we’ll have a couple weeks off and start summer ball,” Mowry said. “They worked hard all year long and I’m proud of them.”
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