La Mirada baseball wins Suburban League championship

LA MIRADA >> After La Mirada baseball suffered its first Suburban League loss of the season on Tuesday at Bellflower, the Matadores took a long, silent trip home.

“When we parked, I told (the team) that I hoped they were reflecting,” La Mirada coach Jimmy Zu said. “I said that the moment we got off the bus, it was over. We were moving on to this game. We’re at home, and we’re good here.”

That tued out to be an understatement as La Mirada (21-7, 11-1) scored six times in the first iing and thumped Bellflower, 9-1, on Thursday afteoon in the regular season finale to win its sixth league title in the last eight years, and a third in the last four. The Buccaneers (19-7, 10-2) finish second in league.

The CIF Southe Section playoff brackets will be released on Monday.

“It’s a tribute to these guys and how they executed,” Zu said of how his team bounced back. “But it starts on the mound, and Jakob (Gonzalez) really stepped up.”

The senior Gonzalez went the distance and scattered eight hits while striking out eight batters with two walks.

“I was nervous and I threw up before the game,” Gonzalez said. “But (My teammates) laughed with me about it. There were great vibes here today.”

La Mirada batted around in the first iing as six singles and a suicide squeeze bunt helped the Matadores take a 6-0 lead. Shortstop Kevin Kendall and designated hitter Omar Myzel drove in two runs with their base hits, and then Kendall brought in two more runs with another single in the sixth iing to finish with four RBIs.

Gonzalez, who is committed to San Jose State University, didn’t find trouble until the sixth iing when Bellflower loaded the bases. However, third baseman Matthew Valdez stopped a sharp ground ball with two outs and tagged the ruer to end the iing.

SJSU coach Dave Nakama was in the stands to see Gonzalez pitch in person for the first time. The Spartans are in town to play Long Beach State.

“Gonzalez did a great job, but our offense didn’t show up and he got us out of our game plan,” Bellflower coach Keith Tripp said. Outfielder Anthony Garcia had three of the Buccaneers’ eight hits, and he scored their only run in the sixth iing on an RBI single from Aaron Orozco.

“It started in practice (yesterday) when we showed up ready,” Gonzalez said of La Mirada’s resilience. “I think (losing on Tuesday) helped us. It snapped our 10-game wiing streak in league, but now we get to start a new wiing streak.”

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