Sonny and Zach Garza homer past Quincy

Othello finishes second in districts to Ephrata, the Jacks were eliminated

Sonny and Zach Garza hit solo home runs for Othello on Friday against Quincy, enough to put the Huskies into the championship round.

Sonny Garza also pitched seven innings and allowed four hits and one run in the 4-1 semi-final win. The Huskies faced Ephrata on Saturday and lost 3-0 to take the No. 2 seed into districts.

"The defense was huge and we know we had to stay focused," Othello head coach Abe Ramirez said after Friday's game. "They never got down and knew they needed to come out and play baseball."

Sonny Garza went head-to-head with Zach Aguirre of Quincy in a matchup Quincy head coach Pat McGuirre favored. With Aguirre's offspeed stuff, he felt Othello batters would stay off balance against the junk-ball pitcher.

Aguirre's command of his breaking and offspeed balls kept the Huskies scoreless heading into the third inning, before giving up a home run to Zach Garza in the second at bat of the inning.

Sonny Garza followed in the bottom of the fourth with a solo shot over the center field wall for a 2-0 lead.

"He actually gave up seven hits today and we knew if we could get the defense behind him, we had a shot at this one," McGuirre said after the game. "The first one was a knuckle ball up and he drilled it and the second one was a curve ball that was up."

Gerald Moore drove in Quincy's only run of the game on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth to cut the lead to 3-1, then Othello scored the last run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the same inning.

Sonny Garza settled down in the seventh after allowing the one run and got Quincy out 1-2-3 to end the game and guarantee a spot in the regional tournament next weekend.

"He is a go-to guy," Ramirez said about Sonny. "He is playing good ball and a leader on this team. Right now we can count on him at the plate and a great ball player."

Against Ephrata on Saturday, the Huskies were held to two hits while the Tigers took a 3-0 victory for the district title.

Mike Ratigan went the full seven innings and struck out two in the 2-hitter performance. Wyatt Forrest hit a sacrifice fly RBI in the first to break a 0-0 tie and Aaron Key hit an RBI double in the four for insurance as the Tigers finished with a 3-0 win.

Quincy fell to Naches 4-3 in Saturday's semifinal consolation bracket. Naches finished as the No. 4 seed, while Ki-Be went as the No. 3 seed to the regional tournament.