Dejong King Of The Hill In Wilson High's CIF Baseball Playoff Victory

Wilson High pitcher Chase Dejong threw a complete game shutout with a school-high 14 striketouts to lead the Bruins to a 6-0 victory over Riverside King in the first round of the CIF Division I baseball playoffs Friday afternoon.

Dejong tossed the seven-inning shutout, recording a school high 14 strikeouts, with four hits, a walk, and a hit batsman.

While was confident in himself to go all the way to get the complete game, Dejong did not feel he had the velocity on his pitches.

“I didn’t feel that I was throwing my pitches as hard as I should,” he said. “But it was enough, and then (I’ll use) my curve which kept them off stride.”

Wilson advances to Tuesday's second round, and will travel to No. 3 seed, Vista Murrieta High. Game time is 3:15 p.m.

Wilson would strike first, scoring twice in the first inning.  King starter Eric Geiger walked three batters in the inning, including the first two runs of the game.

Geiger would settle down, allowing only one more run in the next three innings he worked. Wilson jumped on him with three runs in the fifth inning  on a three run homer by Stefan Miladinovich, which put the game away, 6-0, for the Bruins.

“Getting the lead was very important,” Wilson coach Andy Hall said. “It was good for the nerves of myself and everyone else who knew the importance of hanging a zero, and then scoring a ridiculous number of runs.”

Geiger would pitch 4 2/3 innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on four hits four walks and a strike out before giving way to Brian Roldan who would record the final out to get out of the inning.

Although Geiger struggled early on, Hall did not discount his performance in the game.

“Our scouting reports said that he would challenge us,” he said. “He was every bit of that…and more.”

While his counterpart struggled, Dejong continued to roll, racking up one strike out after another.

“Chase was his usual self, “Hall said. “He knew the first five to six batters in the lineup were all very good hitters with good knowledge of the strike zone, so when he got his first strike out it was huge.”

Knowing what is at stake, Dejong said he felt very good going into the game.

“To be honest with you, I wasn’t nervous going in to the game,” he said. “I knew what the game meant.  You can’t let the game be bigger than you. I felt good going all the way.”

BOXSCORE

School Name

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

R

H

E

ML King

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

5

1

Long Beach Wilson

2

0

0

1

3

0

x

6

1

4

WP – Chase Dejong (5-0)                                                                                                          LP – Eric Geiger (7-4)

HR - Stefan Miladinovich (3)