The562’s baseball coverage in 2025 is sponsored by the Millikan, Long Beach Poly, Lakewood and Wilson baseball boosters.
The Millikan Rams won more innings than they lost on Friday afternoon in their CIF-SS Division 2 playoff opener at Foothill High.
In fact, the Rams were in control for a large chunk of the game from innings 2-5. Unfortunately for the co-Moore League champions, the innings they lost hurt worse than the ones they won, resulting in a 6-4 loss in their postseason opener.
“This group of seniors have a set of pride that they have, and they’re not going to go down easy. And I thought they made a good run at it,” said Millikan head coach Ron Keester of his team’s comeback attempts. “I thought we hit the ball really good today, just made a few mistakes offensively, we didn’t execute. We made a few errors that cost us. We weren’t clean, and we paid for it.”
Things started well for the visitors in the top half of the first, when leadoff man Shane Wally roped a single to right field and advanced to second base on an error. The Rams were unable to cash in that prime scoring opportunity against USC-bound senior Gavin Lauridsen on the mound, and the Knights pounced in the bottom half of the inning.
The first four batters reached base for Foothill, as the home team went walk, hit batter, RBI double by Lauridsen, and then a Millikan error, which resulted in a 3-0 Foothill lead before an out was recorded.
That put the Rams in a tough early hole away from home, but junior starter Daunte Bell was able to find his footing, cruising through the next four innings while putting zeroes on the board. His curveball was dominant, generating a number of swinging strikes during his start. Once he was able to locate it for strikes early in the count to get ahead of Foothill’s hitters, he was carving them up with eight strikeouts–getting two punchout in each inning from 2-5.
“He didn’t give up,” Keester said of his junio southpaw. “He didn’t have a great first inning, got through it, and at that point, you’re like, what are we going to get out of him today? Then all of a sudden he starts shoving in the second, third, fourth, fifth. And he was great. It’s encouraging to see that even when things aren’t going his way, for him to be able to kind of take a deep breath and get the momentum back and be able to dominate the middle innings.”
While Bell gave his offense the opportunity to come back, the Rams were able to chip away, starting immediately in the top of the second. An infield single by Noa Morales led to their first run, as he moved around to third on a pair of wild pitches then scored on a Matt Ness sac fly.
The Rams struck again in the fourth, as an error allowed Anthony Pack to reach base starting the inning. Ben Keisler then ripped a base hit to left field, before Adrian Ramirez yanked an RBI single down the right field line, putting runners at the corners with nobody out, with the deficit down to just 3-2.
Millikan was unable to score again in that inning, which proved to be a pivotal moment in the game as Foothill never surrendered the lead.
A leadoff double by Connor Patton in the fifth presented another opportunity to score, but again the Rams were unable to convert. Lauridsen made a tremendous diving catch on a sacrifice bunt attempt for the first out, then had a pair of strikeouts in the inning which drew the ire of the visiting fans and dugout. Several Rams players and coaches bemoaned an inconsistent strike zone throughout the day, but the visitors were persistent in creating scoring opportunities.
Foothill was able to add some needed insurance in the sixth, however, as Bell began to lose steam on the hill. Consecutive walks loaded the bases and then forced in a run, before a two-RBI single off reliever Owen Waytas brought in two more runs, pushing the Foothill advantage up to 6-2 heading to the seventh.
Once again the Rams put a rally together, starting with a leadoff walk by Ness, then continuing with an RBI single from Xavier Kennard and another base hit for Wally. A sacrifice fly by Andrew Perez drove in the second run of the inning, and MIllikan had the potential tying run up to the plate when the final out was recorded.
It was a disappointing end to the season as the Rams were able to outhit Foothill 7-5 but just didn’t have enough things break their way. Keester said it’s a hard group to say goodbye to, with a core of three-year varsity guys making up the backbone of this group.
“I’m very happy with what this group has done,” Keester said. “It’s hard to say goodbye to these three-year seniors (Anthony Pack, Andrew Perez, Connor Patton, Ben Keisler, and Owen Waytas), they’ve been incredible. They’ve been fun. And it’s gonna be hard not to see them show up to the yard every day.”
With Friday’s win, Foothill advances to face San Clemente in the second round on Tuesday.
