What first-year St. Joseph head baseball coach Erik Morrison called “a very special” season for his team ended in the first round of the CIF SoCal Championships Wednesday.

No. 7 San Dimas beat No. 2 St. Joseph 6-3 at St. Joseph’s Dave Brunell Field in the first round of Division 2. The Saints moved to 20-11. The Knights finished 24-8. The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was switched because San Dimas’s graduation commencement ceremony took place Tuesday.  

St. Joseph won the Mountain League championship by four games during the regular season, but the post-season for the Knights ended with two tough losses. No. 6 Centennial edged No. 5 St. Joseph 9-8 in nine innings in the CIF Central Section Division 1 championship game at Valley Strong Ballpark in Visalia Saturday night. The game lasted three hours, 37 minutes.

“It took us a few innings to get going today,” Morrison said afterward Wednesday. “I think we still had a hangover from Saturday.”

Josh Calcanes blunted a St. Joseph rally and wrapped up the win for San Dimas by shutting out the Knights on one hit in a scoreless sixth and seventh innings of relief pitching. The San Dimas starting second baseman struck out Erik Furness swinging on a well-executed off-speed pitch to end it. Furness was well out in front of the pitch on his swing.   

The Knights couldn’t come all the way back from the 6-0 lead the Saints took with a two-run third inning and a four-run fourth. Jason Almeda doubled with one out to get the Saints going in the third inning then scored on a Jayden Claros infield single. Ashton Romero drove in the second run with a sacrifice fly.

The Saints strung together four runs on four hits, including a two-run Vaughn Coleman double, in the fourth off St. Joseph starter Jayson Rodriguez.

Rodriguez’s usual position is shortstop. Niko Peinado and Mason Majewski were St. Joseph’s top pitchers, and both pitched a lot of innings in the Central Section playoffs. Majewski faced two batters in relief of Rodriguez, giving up a Claros single for the last San Dimas run then getting a groundout for the last out of the fourth. Peinado pitched the last three innings and shut out the Saints on one hit.    

The Knights finally broke through against San Dimas starter Joseph Layva when Connor Chanley scored on a Santana Covarrubias ground out in the fourth. A Robbie Roemling bunt single with one out started a string of five straight St. Joseph hits in the fifth.

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Roemling scored on a Furness single to center, but Ashton Bluem was thrown out at home trying to score himself on the play. Morrison vociferously argued the call, to no avail.

Chanley singled home Peinado, but San Dimas reliever Eleazar Santillan struck out Rodriguez swinging to end the inning then Calcanas blanked the Knights the rest of the way.

“They’re a good team,” Morrison said of San Dimas. “They play catch.” Each team made one error.

“A timely base hit here or there, and it might have been a different game,” said Morrison.

Morrison finished his first year as St. Joseph’s head baseball coach Wednesday after being an assistant in the varsity program the previous two.

“We changed the culture, and the players brought in to what we were doing,” said Morrison.

“The players showed up every morning during fall ball when we had no field to practice on,” while construction on the new St. Joseph softball-baseball complex was ongoing, Morrison said. “They saw the fruits of their labor,” with the league championship and a playoff run that saw St. Joseph take down No. 1 Clovis Buchanan in the Central Section divisional semifinals.  

Though the Knights will lose seven seniors to graduation, “We’ll be back,” Morrison said.