Foothill baseball edges El Dorado in 11 innings to clinch playoff berth
SANTA ANA – Foothill’s baseball team had to wait until the final week of the regular season to clinch a berth in the CIF-SS playoffs.
And had to wait some more.
The Knights scored the winning run on a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 11th inning to beat El Dorado, 3-2, in a Crestview League game.
The victory clinched third place in the standings, which gives the Knights a guaranteed playoff berth.
Jason Gugino's walk sent home Jaxon Forshay from third base for the winning run.
Foothill is 17-10 overall and 5-6 in league with one league game remaining in the regular season. The Knights play at El Dorado on Wednesday, which is the final day of the regular season in the CIF Southern Section.
El Dorado will not be in the playoffs. The Golden Hawks are 11-16 overall, well short of the .500 overall record required to get into the playoffs as an at-large team.
Cypress is the Crestview League champion. Villa Park clinched second place.
Excellent pitching by starters Caden Lauridsen of Foothill and Julian Rodriguez with some outstanding defensive plays from both teams kept the game scoreless through the seven innings of regulation play.
El Dorado scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning.
El Dorado coach Matt Lucas went with a pinch hitter, Lorenzo Favela, to lead off the eighth. Favela, batting for Sam Orozco, came through with a line-drive single to right-center field. Orozco returned to the game to run for Favela and advanced to second base on Christian Rojas' sacrifice bunt.
Xavi Cadena was intentionally walked, Brady Abner followed with a double into the left-field corner to drive in Orozco. Justin Karg's bad-hop single over the head of Foothill third baseman Evrett Rycroft sent home Cadena for a 2-0 lead.
Foothill's Brayden Bianchi led off the bottom of the eighth with a single and stole second base. Evan Kim then hit a home run over the left-field fence to tie it, 2-2.
Foshay started the bottom of the 11th inning with an infield single. AJ Nagler's perfect bunt was another infield hit, Maddux Blevin's sacrifice bunt moved Foshay to third base and Nagler to second, and Rycroft was intentionally walked to load the bases for a potential force out at home. Gugino walked to get Foshay home for the winner.
Lauridsen, a junior right-hander, has been a hard-luck pitcher this season. That would include Monday when he went nine innings. He is 4-4 with a 1.60 ERA, including losses to Orange County No. 6-ranked Villa Park, 2-1, and No. 3 Cypress, 5-3, and Etiwanda, 2-0.
"We've had such great outings from Caden Lauridsen all year," said Foothill coach Chris Price. "This guy probably deserved to win seven or eight games by this point. For whatever reason we haven't scored runs for him the way I think we can."
Kim's home run was his second homer of the season. With a 2-0 count, Kim was looking for a fastball and got one.
"I was just trying to be on time and put something in play, especially with a man on second base," said Kim, a junior third baseman. "It was really exciting, especially in a big game, a close game."
The CIF Southern Section baseball playoff brackets will be released Saturday at 1 p.m. Foothill likely is destined to be in Division 2.
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 9:23 PM.