The Patriots will take on Eastlake HS on Saturday 6:00pm at University San Diego.

Full bracket: 2026 Baseball CIF Bracket

For tickets (will be posted soon by CIF): Go Fan

 

Author: John Maffei

For original article: San Diego Union-Tribune

 

To win a championship, upset the No. 1 team in the county, someone unexpected has to step up.

Wednesday, that someone was right-hander Lukas Waite.

Patrick Henry High School baseball coach Sheldon Watkins turned to Waite in the third inning of a winner-goes-to-the-title game contest.

And the junior, who had thrown just 11 1/3 innings all season, pitched the final five innings, allowing one run and striking out seven as the fifth-seeded Patriots beat No. 1-seeded Cathedral Catholic 5-2 to advance to Saturday’s 6 p.m. Open Division championship game against No. 3-seeded Eastlake.

Sal Gagliano, Henry’s third baseman, started on the mound Wednesday.

He went the first two innings when Watkins turned to Waite.

“It was going to be a bullpen day, a piece-it-together game and hope for the best,” Watkins said.

“Lukas had been hurt in the early part of the season. But he threw 57 pitches Saturday (in an elimination-game win over Rancho Bernardo) and he threw 80 today. We kept checking with him to see if he was OK, and he wanted to keep going.

“He was a stud.”

Waite admitted he was tired after throwing three innings.

“But we had a little bit of a long inning hitting, and I was able to get a breather,” Waite said. “It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I told the coaches I could keep going.”

He had a relatively easy sixth inning, striking out two after a leadoff single.

But Cathedral Catholic (26-6) got singles by Joshua Priest and Hunter Harrington, bringing the tying run to the plate.

Waite froze the hitter with a full-count slider, setting off a dogpile celebration.

“We wanted to give ourselves a chance, get the tying run to the plate, and we did that,” said Cathedral Catholic coach Gary Remiker.

With expected starting pitcher Cody Reynolds out with strep throat, Remiker, like Watkins, had to piece together his pitching.

Shoei Darvish, the team’s No. 1 starter, has been out three weeks with an injury.

He volunteered to start and looked sharp until Jimmy Gunn tagged him for a two-run homer in the fourth.

“For Shoei to do that for his team means everything,” Remiker said.

Cathedral still advances to the Southern California Regionals, meaning the Dons’ season isn’t over.

Henry advances to the Open Division title game for the season year in a row after losing to Granite Hills 3-0 last season.

“Cathedral Catholic beat us 13-3 just a few days ago,” Watkins said. “So we’re in the Loser’s Bracket and have to beat a really good Rancho Bernardo team, then come to Cathedral and beat a really, really good team twice to get to the championship game.

“The kids got it done. And I couldn’t be prouder.”

The Patriots and Dons are Western League co-champions. Wednesday was the fifth time the teams have played this season, with Henry traveling to Cathedral Catholic four times and finally winning the season series 3-2.

“Honestly, beating a really good team like Cathedral and getting back to the championship game means everything,” Gunn said. “Eastlake is really good,  but we have some unfinished business from last season.”