Top 15 baseball finals in 15 years at Wild Things Park: California beats Freedom in 10 innings

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, May 20, 2018 | 10:24 AM

The TribLive High School Sports Network is counting down the Top 15 WPIAL baseball championship games held over the past 15 years at Wild Things Park.

Catch all the postseason action on the exclusive broadcast home of the WPIAL baseball playoffs, the TribLive High School Sports Network.

Here's a look at No. 9:

2017 Class 2A championship: California 3, Freedom 1 (10 inn.)

It was the second longest game in the 15-year history of WPIAL championship finals at Wild Things Park. But that was nothing new for California, a blue-collar team that was willing to work overtime to reach the golden light at the end of the district baseball postseason tunnel.

The Trojans scored a pair of runs in the 10th and held on to beat Freedom, 3-1, in the Class 2A title game, giving California its fifth WPIAL baseball crown.

The Bulldogs struck early when Nick Henderson's groundout plated Jason Norman in the bottom of the first. That would be the only run Freedom would score the rest of the game.

California tied the game in the fourth when Tyler Jacobs' RBI single scored Brandon Powell.

Pitching then ruled the day the rest of the way.

Zach Greene started for Freedom and pitched seven innings, allowing a run on only two hits. California starter Nate Luketich was just as good, lasting 6 ²⁄₃, giving up a run on seven hits. Both starters only yielded one walk.

Luketich was lifted in the seventh when Freedom had a chance to win it with two on and two out, but California reliever Richard Stimmell got Noah Henderson to fly out to end the rally.

After two scoreless extra innings, the Trojans finally struck in the 10th when Brenden Sheehan led off with a double off Nick Henderson, starting his third inning of relief for the Bulldogs.

Stimmell then singled for California to put runners on first and third with nobody out. Sheehan held at third while Stimmell moved to second on a groundout. Both runners then advanced on a John DeFranco sacrifice fly. Henderson's wild pitch scored Stimmell with a big insurance run as the Trojans went ahead 3-1.

Freedom, playing in its first baseball championship game, was blanked for a ninth straight inning in the bottom of the 10th as Stimmell sealed the victory for California.

The fifth championship (1983, 2001, 2006, 2014, 2017) did not come easy for the Trojans. They needed 11 innings to beat Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, 4-3, in the district semifinals.

Don Rebel is a TribLIVE High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.

Tags: California, Freedom