Murrieta Mesa’s unorthodox and underdog baseball team wins Southern California’s toughest division – Los Angeles Times

All hail the Inland Empire and the 210, 91, 71, 15 and 215 freeways that helped families and fans discover the hottest area, literally and figuratively, for high school sports in 2015-16.

It was a little past 11:05 on Saturday night in scorching San Bernardino, when Murrieta Mesa won the Southern Section Division 1 baseball championship with a 3-2, 10-inning victory over Studio City Harvard-Westlake.

It took three hours, 36 minutes for the most unorthodox team to finally prevail. In a prep baseball season with plenty of surprises, the biggest one of all was a school that had never even made the playoffs before winning the toughest division in Southern California.

“We do a lot of unorthodox things, but they work out in the end,” pitcher-third baseman Zac Filos said. “We all play for each other, and that’s what counts. We’re all brothers.”

Imagine this scenario: Harvard-Westlake is 90 feet away from victory with a runner on third and two outs in the bottom of the eighth. There’s two strikes on the batter.

That’s when Murrieta Mesa Coach Bryn Wade ordered consecutive intentional walks to load the bases. The Twitter world of coaches and fans reacted with aghast. But Matt Thomas hit a fly ball for the third out, and the game played on.

Wade, who pulled his right fielder after he dropped a fly ball in the same inning, is a 40-year-old second-year coach and third cousin of Jackie Robinson. He talks to people in the stands during games.

“That’s my coping mechanism,” he said. “Those games aren’t easy to get through.”

He pulls pitchers faster than a dentist pulls teeth. By the second inning, Murrieta Mesa was on its third pitcher.

“It’s just part of what we do,” Wade said. “It’s fairness. The kids are prepared to own their moment.”

Wade knows something, because that third pitcher he called upon, Kevin Palm, shut out Harvard-Westlake for 7 1/3 innings with brilliant relief pitching.

It was the top of the 10th inning when the Rams did what they do best — bunt. Reserve Andrew Dunkel put down the squeeze to score Filos from third base to break the 2-2 tie.

Minutes later, Filos got the game-ending strikeout and suddenly players were charging onto the field, water was being thrown everywhere and some people were shaking their heads at what they had just seen.

During the awards presentation, Wade took off his jersey and revealed a T-shirt he had been wearing with a Jackie Robinson illustration in the middle. The man truly believes in the virtues of Jackie Robinson, and his players clearly care about their coach.

“I love him to death,” Filos said. “He’s like a second father to us.”

It was the year for the Inland Empire to shine. Corona Centennial won the Pac-5 football championship; Chino Hills went 35-0 and won the Open Division state basketball championship; Michael Norman led Vista Murrieta to the state track championship.

In baseball, there were unexpected happenings. Sidearmer Collin Quinn of San Juan Capistrano JSerra went 12-1 with an 80-mph fastball. Manhattan Beach Mira Costa won the Boras Classic. Woodland Hills El Camino Real won its ninth City Section championship while relying on a closer, Elan Filous, who sat in the stands at Dodger Stadium a year ago as a fan.

Nothing, though, tops Murrieta Mesa, the school that finished last in the Southwestern League a year ago and first in Division 1 using its unique style of baseball.

“Our goal is just to have fun,” Filos said.

Follow Eric Sondheimer on Twitter: @LATSondheimer

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