Lancers win CIF-SS championship in baseball
By Steve Ames

Special to T.O. Acorn

When the third out of the seventh inning was made on Saturday afternoon, the Thousand Oaks High baseball team wasted no time piling on top of each other on the pitcher’s mound at Edison International Field after beating Canyon of Anaheim, 7-3.

The long awaited moment had come. The Lancers were celebrating their first state divisional championship in the school’s 40-year history.

Those of the Southland who make predictions about championship outcomes did not have Thousand Oaks penciled in as the winner. The Lancers began the playoffs after finishing second–with a 10-4 record–to Westlake High (11-3) in the Marmonte League baseball standings.

For Thousand Oaks it was going to be a tough road to the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Division II championship. But after Thousand Oaks defeated Warren, 10-1, Temecula Valley, 4-0, Arroyo Grande, 5-3, and Valencia, 6-2, only Canyon of Anaheim stood in the way of the CIF title.

Canyon, of the Century League, was a formidable foe as the Comanches were looking for their fourth CIF-SS divisional title in their fifth finals appearance, the most recent in 1997, then as a Division III school.

Canyon (24-6) no longer stands in Thousand Oaks (25-6) way as the Lancers are the CIF champions after they defeated the Comanches.

Thousand Oaks senior shortstop Chad Lundahl had the feeling as far back as September when the team began fall practice that 2003 was the year for the Lancers to win the CIF championship.

"I have it written down in my school locker, the date of the championship game and I knew what we were going to be doing the whole time," he said Saturday after the win. "I knew that was going to be the date that we were going to be the champions. I had that much faith in the pitching staff, the players. The chemistry that we share, it’s unbelievable."

Starting pitcher Bret Montgomery (11-2) got the win, pitching five innings while scattering seven hits, giving up three runs, all earned, and walking two. He struck out two batters. Kyle Ayers pitched the remaining two innings, allowing no runs, no hits, no walks and striking out five. Vinnie Pestano (10-3) was the losing pitcher.

"We were going as far as we could all the time," Lundahl said. "Our team knew that it was just a matter of time before the ball started dropping. As long as we just kept faith in ourselves to do it and relied on our pitching to keep going, that’s all we needed. We had so much faith in ourselves and our team was so ready to play today.

"We were all out here together. We kept each other calm, talking to each other all the time. I think verbally we kept each other maintained out there so nobody got too excited. I think we came through in the clutch situations when we had runners on base and that’s what we needed to do."

Thousand Oaks was abundantly aware of what it had to do as the bottom of the fourth inning began: Canyon had a 3-0 lead and had its ace on the mound. But no one on the Lancer bench panicked.

"That’s the nature of these guys," said head coach Rod Stillwell. "Unfortunately, we did get some help from their pitcher who made a couple of errors. That’s disappointing, but our guys never give up.

"All year we were down by two, we were down by three (runs) and it’s not over until the last out. I am so proud of these guys. They’ve been battling since September and just never seemed to be out of the game. Pitchers keep us in the game and defense does a good job and somebody different comes up with a key hit."

During the fourth inning Thousand Oaks sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six runs on four hits and three Canyon errors.

David Fonseca opened with a single to right field. Tyler Rinaldi, in an attempt at a sacrifice bunt, reached first on an error by Pestano, and Fonseca advanced to third. Mike Flickinger singled to center field to score Fonseca and Rinaldi moved to second, then on to third on a passed ball. David Iden ran for Flickinger.

"I was up there looking for a fast ball which I got," said sophomore third baseman Fonseca, who was 2 for 4 with a run scored.

"I knew he (Pestano) was going to throw a fast ball. I saw the back of his hand and the four seams. That’s a fast ball. I was trying to hit the ball hard and put it in play."

Eric Guillen reached first base on Pestano’s second error. Jeremy Megorden, who was 2 for 3, singled to left field to drive in Rinaldi–the first of five unearned runs that inning– and Guillen advanced to second and Iden to third.

Jason Bizar reached first on a fielder’s choice, Guillen was out at third and Iden scored as Megorden advanced to second. Lundahl doubled to left field for a pair of RBIs as Bizar and Megorden scored.

The fourth inning at-bat for Lundahl came after flying out to center field in the first and third innings.

"The first time I thought I got a lot of it, the second at-bat I just missed," he said. "I was on him (Pestano) all day so I knew the third time I was going to get something. I was trying to get more on top of it, I was getting under it a little bit, but I came out with a hit on the third time."

After Lundahl’s at-bat, Brian Bird reached first on an error by first baseman Chris Winger and Lundahl scored.

Senior first baseman Bird, who was 2 for 4, said coming to the plate with the game on the line is a challenge, but said he "wouldn’t really call it pressure. It’s just been my role as a four-hitter to get RBIs and get hits. I just look for a good pitch to drive and put a good swing on it."

Nick Casanova relieved Pestano and Nick Peters reached first on a fielder’s choice with Bird out– with a throw from shortstop to second base–and Fonseca flied out to center field to end the inning.

The Lancers seventh run came in the fifth inning when Rinaldi and Flickinger were hit by pitches. Guillen sacrificed the pair along, Megorden was hit by a pitch and Bizar hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Rinaldi.

In the locker room as the players dressed in their street clothes and got ready to climb the stairs to an excited crowd awaiting them on the stadium concourse, the chant began among the team, one that kept in perspective the goal from the beginning.

It was: "Onepeat, onepeat, onepeat."

Not: "repeat" or "twopeat."

Will it be another four decades before the next championship?

"I’m sure going to enjoy this one for a while," said Stillwell, in his second year as Lancer head coach, "I hope it’s not going to be that long. We’ve got too many good kids in the area that work hard and play year-round these days.

"I think things will probably be a little quicker than that. Titles, I don’t know. We’ll just keep trying to improve as an organization or as a program."