The Samohi Vikings baseball squad’s run towards a CIF Southern Section Division V championship came up three runs short, ending the team’s most successful season in over a decade.
On Friday, the Vikings traveled to Lake Elsinore Storm Stadium to face off with the Chino Hills Huskies in the Division V title game, dropping the contest 4-1. Both squads threw out their aces in the contest, with the Vikings’ Jackson Klein and the Huskies’ Brody Buoncristiani facing off in a matchup between two of California’s top hurlers.
The Huskies got to Klein in the first inning, as a Jackson Gray grounder up the middle brought Buocristiani home from second base for the 1-0 lead. Samohi’s Blue Hunter attempted a throw to home from center field, but Bobby Munoz was unable to attempt a tag out. The very next batter, Andrew Baldomino, hit another grounder up the middle that got past the Samohi infield and was able to bring in Gray from second base.
In the third, Gray once again got on base, setting up Baldomino with a runner on. The Huskies sophomore delivered for the opposition, hitting a line drive toward the first base line that fell fair, and an error by Samohi’s Jacob Myrow in right field allowed Gray to come home from first for the 3-0 lead. The fourth Huskies run came later in the inning off a sacrifice ground ball from Frankie Brazil, bringing Baldomino home from third base.
Buoncristiani kept the Vikings offense at a standstill in his five innings pitched, as the squad got just five runners on base in that time. The Vikings finally struck when Buoncristiani was pulled for Baldomino in the sixth, as a standup double by Blue Hunter got the team in scoring position, eventually brought in on a sacrifice fly by Sage Douglass for the first and only Samohi run.
Despite the loss, the Vikings playoff push was the deepest the team has gone in CIF brackets since 2007, and the 2024 squad that finished 21-8 overall was the most successful since the 2014 campaign, a 27-7 unit that made it to the semifinals of the CIF-SS Division 3 bracket.
The title bout was the final Vikings contest for several seniors, including Klein, who established himself as one of the state’s standout pitchers in 2024. Joining Klein in graduating from Samohi is top reliever Tony Ponce, who was instrumental in the squad’s second-round home playoff victory over Ganesha.
At the plate, the Vikings will need to retool for 2025, losing five regular lineup contributors in this senior class. This year’s playoff run was the final stretch of games for Douglass, Myrow, Munoz, Spencer Levin and Theo Smith. The squad will remain formidable, however, bringing back top hitters like Hunter, Isaac Liberman, Brady Satinover, Jackson Myrow and Manny Lares.
