stuns

Jack Champlin, a junior pitcher for St. John Bosco, surveyed the memorable scene Tuesday afternoon. There were fans standing everywhere — down the lines, around the outfield walls, in the press box. It was the top of the seventh inning, and No. 1 Corona had two runners aboard trying to rally in the Southern Section Division 1 semifinals.

“I love it,” he said. “There’s close to 1,000 people and it’s electric. I didn’t feel any pressure, didn’t feel nervous.”

He got a strikeout and fly ball to save St. John Bosco’s stunning 2-0 victory over Corona and unbeaten pitcher Seth Hernandez, who had never lost in two years of high school baseball.

“Tough day for people who don’t normally have tough days,” said Corona coach Andy Wise, who guided the Panthers to the Division 1 title last season and saw his team’s record drop to 28-3.

The Braves will play Trinity League rival Santa Margarita in Friday’s 7 p.m. Division 1 championship game at Cal State Fullerton.

Everything St. John Bosco needed to do to pull off victory happened. Left-hander Trevor Heishman gave up one hit in 6 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts. He struck out Corona’s hottest hitter, Anthony Murphy, three times.

The Braves refused to be intimidated by the 99-mph fastball of Hernandez, who came in with just four walks and 96 strikeouts in 48 2/3 innings and an 18-0 record in high school baseball. He struck out nine, walked three and gave up a run in the second inning on consecutive singles by Champlin and Macade Maxwell. St. John Bosco scored another run in the fifth on a Hernandez balk.

“He’s just another player like us,” Champlin said of the Braves’ attitude toward Hernandez, one of the top pro prospects in the nation. “We weren’t scared. We came out with confidence we were going to win from the time we stepped on the field.

Second-year coach Andy Rojo has St. John Bosco in the Division 1 final.

(Nick Koza)

In two years as head coach, Andy Rojo has taken the Braves to the Division 3 final (last season) and now the Division 1 final on Friday.

His batters made Hernandez throw 92 pitches in five innings and hit the ball hard when they needed. “The key for us we wanted to put the ball in play,” he said.

St. John Bosco has never won a section baseball title after all the success the football and basketball teams have had. But this 26-4 team won the Trinity League championship for the first time since 2017 and has beaten Santa Margarita two of three times this season.

And they’ve got Champlin ready to be the closer again on Friday.

“I haven’t had a blown save,” he said with the confidence of a true closer.

Santa Margarita 12, Crespi 0: Ben Finnegan had three hits and four RBIs and Brennan Bauer gave up two hits in five scoreless innings to send the Eagles into the Division 1 championship game.

Mater Dei 5, Fountain Valley 4: A three-run sixth inning propelled the Monarchs to the comeback win in the Division 2 semifinals. Lawson Olmstead broke a 4-4 tie with an RBI single. Brandon Thomas picked up the save in the seventh and will pitch in the championship game.

West Ranch 8, Etiwanda 7: Ty Diaz had a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth inning, culminating in a three-run comeback victory in the Division 2 semifinals. Etiwanda took a 7-5 lead with two runs in the top of the eighth. Diaz finished with three hits and two RBIs.

San Dimas 4, Beckman 1: The Saints advance to the Division 3 championship game. They will face Glendora, a 7-5 winner over Temecula Valley.

Tyrese Haliburton’s incredible game-tying shot at the buzzer triggers Indiana Pacers overtime win against New York Knicks in Game 1 of Eastern Conference finals.

Tyrese Haliburton was sure his jumper as regulation ended was going in, then wasn’t certain it had after it bounced high off the rim and hung in the air for what felt like an eternity.

He thought it was a 3-pointer to win the game, then quickly realised it was a 2 to tie. A lot to process, followed by just one thought with overtime looming.

“Then my focus just became winning it,” Haliburton said.

The Pacers did, finishing off their stunning rally by beating the New York Knicks 138-135 in overtime on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The Knicks led by 14 points with under three minutes remaining in regulation, but Aaron Nesmith brought the Pacers back with a flurry of 3-pointers.

Haliburton then hoped he had won it with another. With the Pacers down two and time running down, he started to lose control of his dribble, regained it and dribbled back out toward the 3-point line. He fired up his jumper and when it finally fell in, he raced towards the sideline and made a choke signal to the crowd, like Pacers Hall of Famer Reggie Miller did to Spike Lee while leading an Indiana comeback in a playoff game in 1994.

Replays confirmed that Haliburton’s toe was on the line and it was a 2-pointer that tied it at 125. Andrew Nembhard eventually made the go-ahead basket with 26 seconds remaining in overtime.

Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is on Friday night.

Haliburton had 31 points and 11 assists. Nesmith finished with 30 points, going 8-for-9 from 3-point range.

Knicks stunned by Pacers’ late surge

It was a thrilling start to the ninth playoff matchup between these fierce rivals from the 1990s – but a deflating finish for the Knicks in their first Eastern Conference finals game since 2000.

Jalen Brunson scored 43 points and Karl-Anthony Towns had 35 points and 12 rebounds. But the Knicks couldn’t protect the big lead they built while Brunson was on the bench in foul trouble in the fourth quarter and had a collapse unlike any other in the postseason.

Teams leading by at least 14 points in the final 2:45 of the fourth quarter had been 994-0 since detailed play-by-play records began in 1997-98.

“Give them a lot of credit. They closed the game out like they’ve been doing all playoffs,” Brunson said. “Just not really good on our part.”

The Pacers beat the Knicks in Game 7 of the East semifinals at Madison Square Garden last year, routing a team that had been decimated by injuries.

This was an entirely different way to win, with the Pacers looking all but out of the game after the Knicks’ 14-0 run with Brunson on the bench pushed New York’s two-point lead to 108-92.

Even after Nesmith started to get hot, the Knicks seemed safe when Brunson’s 3-pointer made it 119-105 with 2:51 to go.

But Nesmith would later hit consecutive 3s and both free throws when the Knicks fouled him intentionally so he couldn’t try to tie it with another, giving Indiana the chance to tie on Haliburton’s last-second shot.