One moment, Taylor Busch was standing at the plate, trying to spark a championship-winning rally.
The next, the Moorpark High junior found himself under a pile of bodies at home plate, as he and his baseball teammates celebrated winning their first section title.
The floodlights flickered in celebration. The word “champions” flashed on the stadium scoreboard.
“It was all kind of a blur,” Busch said. “All of a sudden, I found myself at the bottom of the dogpile. It was crazy.”
What happened between those two moments Friday night at Diamond Stadium in Lake Elsinore will be a sore subject in Moorpark for years to come.
Busch appeared to hit a walk-off two-run home run to lift Moorpark to an 8-7 win over Newhall-Hart in the CIF-Southern Section Division 2 championship.
“You always dream of a moment like that,” said Moorpark senior Jacob Shannon-Wilkerson. “It was magical. All that hard work that our team had put in had paid off. I felt like we were on top of the world.
“I felt like nothing could ruin that moment.”
Busch was briefly held up between second and third as the umpires huddled, before calling the hit a home run.
“They came together as a crew, had a conference and they made a call,” said Moorpark coach Aaron Garcia.
But as Moorpark celebrated on the field, umpires inexplicably changed their ruling from a home run to a ground-rule double, which placed the tying and winning runs in scoring position with none out in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Moorpark could not understand the confusion. It fiercely contested the decision. One Moorpark player was ejected in the aftermath.
“That ball’s out,” Garcia said. “It disappeared from the yard. … We’ve got video proof of it.”
Suddenly, Busch’s storybook moment is unforgettable for a completely different reason.
“It felt good off the bat,” Busch said. “Obviously, it carried. Everyone dreams of hitting a walk-off home run. To get that moment taken away from us is pretty brutal.”
Moorpark was unable to come down from the high of its title-winning moment and execute the two-on, none-out situation.
After a line out, a groundout and a flyout, the Musketeers were forced to watch Hart celebrate the moment that had just been theirs.
“How do I, as a coach, explain to them that we need to accept it?” said Garcia, who is considering protesting the game. “I don’t have the words to explain it to them.”
Southern Section spokesman Thom Simmons gave a statement on the events to the Los Angeles Times, saying “Instant replay is not allowed by rule in high school baseball. It was a judgment call, and as such, it stands as final.”
Still coming to grips with the events of Friday night, Moorpark (19-10-1) now awaits its regional seeding.
“It’s a testament to this team, a testament to these kids and they deserve better,” Garcia said. “They never stopped trying and believing what they could do it.”
Sophomore Carson Cerny led Moorpark both on the mound and at the plate.
Working around nine hits in five innings, the left-hander allowed just three runs. He was also 2 for 3 at the plate. A.J. Mai also reached base twice.
A wild sixth inning foreshadowed the chaos to come.
Leading 3-2 after five, Hart tacked on four runs to build a five-run cushion. Ryder Frithsmith’s RBI triple, Brayden Jeffries’s RBI double and a Michael Hogen RBI single were the key swings.
It may have trailed 7-2, but Moorpark had already shown itself capable of climbing out of a five-run hole in Tuesday’s semifinal, when it turned a 5-0 deficit into a 7-5 win over Chino Hills-Ayala.
The Musketeers answered with a four-run, two-out rally.
“You can never count us out,” Busch said. “We’re always in it. Everyone in the lineup can produce at all points. We can rally our team to win it at any moment.”
Michael Leddy was hit by a pitch and Mai walked with two outs to chase Cooper. Carson Cerny greeted reliever Ian Edwards with an RBI single to center field.
After Cameron Johnson’s single loaded the bases, Robert Perez and Leo Chavez were hit by pitches to force in two runs and move the tying runs into scoring position.
Shannon-Wilkerson’s line drive down the right-field line looked like it would put Moorpark ahead, but the ball ricocheted off the first-base umpire, right to Hart second baseman Jaiden Chathle, who threw out pitch runner Nolan Johnson attempting to score the tying run.
Garcia could not believe Moorpark’s bad luck.
“That ball should have been on the wall,” Garcia said. “We should have scored three runs. … (The umpire) is standing on the outfield grass. How do you not get out of the way?”
Shannon-Wilkerson was thinking triple when he saw the ball get past the first baseman.
“I saw the umpire move towards the ball and it ends up hitting off his foot and goes right towards the Hart second baseman,” Shannon-Wilkerson said. “I know there are moments where the ball hits an umpire, but from where I was, it’s hard to believe that (was unintentional).”
Hart built a 3-0 lead after three innings.
Brayden Jefferis singled and scored on a double play in the top of the first. Michael Hogen’s RBI single and Hayden Rhodes’ sacrifice fly capitalized on a bases-loaded, none-out situation in the top of the third.
Hart starting pitcher Troy Cooper was perfect the first time through the Moorpark order, but the Musketeers finally got to him in the bottom of the fourth.
After Shannon-Wilkerson drew a leadoff walk and Busch was hit by a pitch, AJ Mai drove them in with Moorpark’s first hit of the night, a two-run single to right field.
Joe Curley is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com . For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter , Instagram and Facebook .
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Moorpark won a CIF-SS title. Then it didn't. Controversial call leads to bizarre ending
Local News
