ACTON — The Vasquez baseball team could not rally from an early deficit against Grace in the first round of the playoffs on Thursday afternoon.
Grace scored in the top of the first inning and in five of the seven innings in a 13-4 win at Vasquez High in a CIF-Southern Section Division 7 first-round game.
The Mustangs finish the season with a 17-8 record and finished second in the Heritage League.
“We tried our best. We had a great season,” Vasquez senior Nate Jacobson said. “We had a lot of potential to be great. Can’t complain too much. Just happy that we finished the season pretty strong.”
Vasquez was outhit 12-8 by Grace (12-11-2), but the Lancers took advantage of nine total walks by the four Vasquez pitchers.
“Probably one of our worst games this season,” Vasquez coach Sheldon Sparks said. “We just didn’t do the little things. Bottom line is the pitching, how many walks did we have? Quite a bit.
“It’s a long season. A long grind. Highs and lows. We just came out a little flat today. We weren’t ready to play baseball.”
Grace scored two runs in the top of the first inning, on three hits and two walks, including one with the bases loaded.
Vasquez answered with one run in the bottom of the first, loading the bases with no outs.
Vasquez senior Landon McGriff led off with a walk, Jacobson reached on an error on a sacrifice bunt and senior Brandon Vasquez and sophomore Mason Puett drew back-to-back walks to force in a run.
Grace senior starting pitcher Rudy Garguilo retired the next three batters with the bases loaded to end the threat.
The final out in the first was a ground ball and Grace junior Jack Mazza recorded the out at first, but dislocated his knee cap on the play. There was a 30-minute injury delay before Mazza was loaded into an ambulance on the field and taken to a local hospital.
“We came out a little bit flat, but towards maybe the third or fourth inning, we obviously had that medical emergency which sucked, but towards the third or fourth inning we started come back a little bit too,” said McGriff, a three-year varsity player. “We started to bring the energy a little bit more, but again, the ball wasn’t falling for us the right way. It was falling good for them, but bad for us. Nothing much you can do about that.
“It’s a good hitting ball club over there. Nothing you can really do about that.”
While both teams went down quietly in the second inning, Grace broke open the game in the third inning, scoring four runs on one hit, three walks and a hit batter. Grace senior leadoff batter Alex Van hit a three-run double.
The Lancers added three runs in the fourth on two hits, including a two-run home run over the center-field fence by senior Kyle Zahn.
“It was hard for us to always match the other team’s energy or at least go above it,” said Jacobson, a four-year varsity player. “For us, that’s usually one of our weaknesses. That’s what shut us down in all the losses this season.
“As a whole, I was just happy to be out here. Couldn’t ask for better friends on the team. I would say we were pretty close this year and going to miss it a lot.”
Vasquez answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth on five consecutive hits to start the inning.
Vasquez senior Luke Real led off with a single, freshman Vince Ortiz followed with a bunt single and senior Landon Jensen hit an infield single to load the bases with no outs.
Vasquez junior Zach Van Ornum and McGriff hit back-to-back RBI singles and Jacobson followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to allow Jensen to tag and score from third.
“Honestly, not great, but I’m just glad we got to come out here and play with each and every one of these guys,” McGriff said. “I thought we did some things well, but sometimes the ball just doesn’t fall your way. It’s a tough one, but our guys will be back next year and they have a bright future as a team.”
Vasquez senior Max Schneider went 2-for-4 with a double in the seventh, as the Mustangs loaded the bases with two outs.
Vasquez will lose nine seniors to graduation.
“We’ve got a big freshmen class coming in,” Sparks said. “Next year, we’re going to be real young, real young.”
The four Vasquez pitchers, Puett, senior Ace Medina, Luke Real and freshman Joshua Bauer, combined to strike out 14 Grace batters.
Zahn hit a solo home run over the center-field fence in the sixth inning and Grace added three runs in the seventh inning on four hits.
Zahn had only been playing for two weeks, after missing most of the season after under going Tommy John surgery in November.
“It’s just uplifted us,” Grace coach Luke Barrett said. “It’s really given us extra motivation. It’s our team leader out there. To see the guys rally around him is just awesome.”
Barrett said he was proud of how his team played after Mazza was injured.
“Losing a teammate was tough,” Barrett said. “I thought the guys rallied around that injury, too. That can go two ways when you lose a player like that. I thought we went in a positive direction there and rallied around to win it there.”
Grace competed in Division 2 and 3 in recent years and had not advanced to the second round. The Lancers advanced to the second round in Division 3 in the last five years.
Vasquez lost in the first round of Division 7 last year, 11-1 to Rancho Christian.
The Mustangs advanced as far as the quarterfinals in recent years.