Narbonne baseball punches ticket to Dodger Stadium in 5-0 semifinal win over Taft

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- For the second time in four seasons, the Narbonne Gauchos will play for a Division 1 LA City Section baseball championship at Dodger Stadium. Narbonne took down Taft 5-0 from USC's Dedeaux Field in the Division 1 City Section semifinals on Tuesday to reach the title game.

Senior pitcher Juan Garcia threw six scoreless innings striking out six for Narbonne. He allowed six hits. Rob Atencio pitched a scoreless seventh for the Gauchos. 

A second inning two-RBI single from Lucas Torres off of Taft pitcher Nathan Kerr plated the first two runs in the game for Narbonne.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Taft's Dylan Sidell and Nick Tomack-Villalobos singled to start the frame. Two batters later, Wellington Bristow hit a single to left field and Sidell initially tried to score from second on the hit. After crossing third, he turned around to go back to the base, but Tomack-Villalobos had already crossed second and was closing in on third. Sidell was eventually tagged out scampering back to third and Tomack-Villalobos returned to second. The base running error cost Taft as their next batter, Moses Hyde, struck out to end the inning. 

In the top of the sixth inning, Narbonne's Owen Martin hit an inside the park home run. Taft catcher Matthew Leiterman was then ejected for arguing he had tagged Martin out at the plate following a relay throw. Taft pitcher Matthew Magruder hit the next two Narbonne batters he faced and was also ejected. 

Later in the inning, Garcia helped his own cause with a two RBI single to put Narbonne up 5-0. 

BACK TO DODGER STADIUM

When Narbonne played for the Division 1 City title in 2019, the Gauchos beat Marshall 4-0. They'll play the winner of Bell and Garfield for this year's D1 title on Saturday at 10 am.