Centennial baseball coach Chris Martinez said he’s taken the most pride in how much time the team has developed its bench guys over the duration of a 32-game regular season.
That effort proved pivotal in the playoffs Saturday when the Bulldogs got a spark from the bottom of their lineup.
No. 9 hitter Jorge Arenas’ RBI double in the bottom of the fifth inning broke a scoreless time and ignited a five-run inning for Centennial against Faith Lutheran in a Class 5A Southern Region tournament winners bracket game.
The Bulldogs, the Sky League regular season champion, shut down Faith Lutheran, the Mountain League’s No. 2 seed, the rest of the way and claimed a 5-0 home win.
“We have 25 (players) on the roster and every kid has a huge part,” Martinez said. “It’s not just one or two people, so anybody in the lineup we trust.”
With the win, Centennial (25-9) has advanced to play Desert League champion Bishop Gorman at 7 p.m. Thursday at Durango in a winners bracket region semifinal. The winner advances to the 5A Southern Region title game May 9 and qualifies for the state tournament.
“This whole group, (they’re) a very confident group,” Martinez said. “The confidence was built just based off the work they did starting in November.”
Faith Lutheran (16-14) falls to the losers bracket and will play the winner of Monday’s Arbor View-Durango contest in an elimination game at 4 p.m. Thursday at Durango.
On Saturday, a pitching duel was shaping up between Centennial’s Dominic Tiberi and Faith Lutheran’s Liam Radke.
Tiberi kept Faith Lutheran off the board through the first five innings. Radke, after working through trouble in the first inning, was making easy work of the Centennial lineup.
But in the bottom of the fifth, No. 7 hitter Trevor Henson singled with one out, and Gio Telfer drew a walk. That brought up Arenas, who doubled to right field and scored designated runner Elijah Wilcut to give Centennial the games’ first run.
That turned things over to the top of Centennial’s lineup. Chase Hurley singled to score Telfer and Arenas. Three batters later, Terrell Otis tripled down the right field line to score Hurley and Jake Turner as the Bulldogs chased Radke out of the game.
“We just grinded out some at-bats right there in the fifth inning where we scored five runs. … (We) just kind of kept rolling from there,” said Martinez, who noted that Hensen and Arenas were not starters at the start of the season.
”The biggest thing with our group that I was super happy with is, not a lot of panic in this group. Not a lot of pressure. They were just concentrating on that next pick and they were going to get.”
Centennial’s big fifth inning was plenty of run support for Tiberi, who used his sinker to attack the zone, which helped set up his curveball, fastball and changeup, he said.
“When I saw that five spot on the scoreboard, the confidence was through the roof,” Tiberi said. “We’ve come back in a lot of games. We’ve been in a lot of pressure situations. We’re very proud of what we’re able to do to get a big win like that.
The 6-foot-3 senior right hander went 6⅔ scoreless innings and allowed three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts on 108 pitches.
“We knew we were going to get a good outing from him,” Martinez said. “I had a lot of confidence in him. That’s why he got the ball, but for him to keep that lineup off balance says a lot about him.
“Every time he takes the ball. We feel we have a shot the win.”
Tiberi was pulled in the seventh with two outs and two runners on base as he reached the 110-pitch daily tournament pitch limit. Andres Soto came in and walked Joseph Legat to load the bases, Soto but struck out Cooper Offerman to end the game.
“We faced a good team and it’s awesome to be able to come out and put up (6⅔) innings like that and compete the whole time,” Tiberi said. “They got some big guys on the roster, so it was awesome to compete like that.”
Otis finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs for Centennial. Macen Collura had a single and a walk for Faith Lutheran, which had just three hits.
Offerman doubled in the top of the third and advances to third on an Ethan Gordon single, but Tiberi forced Rookie Shepard to ground out into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Radke, a TCU commit, finished pitching 4⅔ innings with five hits, five earned runs, three walks and five strikeouts.
Faith Lutheran opened the tournament with a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Shadow Ridge on Wednesday.
The Crusaders’ winners bracket game against Basic on Thursday was canceled after the NIAA pulled Basic out of the bracket after the Wolves had used an ineligible player the whole season, and the Crusaders advanced to Saturday’s game.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
