Prep Baseball: Broncos top Cathedral Catholic, a win away from title game
There were no scouts in the stands at Rancho Bernardo High on Friday. But the way freshman Joey Magrisi has been throwing they will be there in droves in three years.
Magrisi showed off his pinpoint control, L.J. Jones smacked a two-run homer and the second-seeded Broncos beat No. 3 Cathedral Catholic 3-1 in the second round of the San Diego Section Open Division playoffs.
Rancho Bernardo is 2-0 in the double-elimination tournament and advances straight to Tuesday’s fourth-round game of the Lower Bracket, where it will host either No. 7 Torrey Pines or No. 3 Cathedral Catholic at 3:30 p.m. Those two play in an elimination game on Saturday.
The Broncos need one more win to get to the championship game. If they lose Tuesday, they would play the same team again on Thursday in an elimination game.
Rancho Bernardo has to be feeling pretty good about its chances with ace Drew Finley lined up to throw Tuesday and Magrisi waiting to throw after that. If he is anything like he was on Friday, the Broncos will be tough to beat.
The right-hander pounded the strike zone, throwing first-pitch strikes to 25 of the 29 hitters he faced. He threw 90 pitches in the game and 72 of them were strikes. It amounted to a five-hit, complete-game win.
“The ball felt really good coming out of my hand today,” said Magrisi, who improved to 8-1 and actually saw his earned run average rise to 0.96. “I had great control of all three of my pitches and I just kept them off balance.”
Magrisi continued to paint the outside corner with his fastball, curveball and changeup. He registered seven strikeouts, three of them on called third strikes.
“When it’s going good the umpire tends to give you a little bit off the plate,” he said. “I was going good the whole day.”
The big blow from the Broncos’ offense came off the bat of Jones in the fourth inning. He deposited a no-ball, two-strike hanging curveball over the left-field wall for a two run homer and 3-0 lead.
“My eyes got really big on that one,” said Jones, who has three home runs this season. “I was waiting for it. I knew he was going to throw me something offspeed.”
The Broncos have been doing a little bit of everything offensively. They put down two sacrifice bunts in this one, including one that led to a run in the first inning after two errors by Cathedral’s second baseman. Then there was the home run by Jones.
“We are really on right now,” Jones said. “At the beginning of the season we did good, but now we are dominating.”
Rancho Bernardo is hoping to win its first section championship since winning the inaugural Open Division title in 2013. The Broncos have seven section championships overall. Their coach, Sam Blalock, has 11 championships including his time at Mt. Carmel.