3A Division I State Championship Game

London and Liberty-Eylau battled back and forth but in the end London prevailed 4-3 to capture the 3A Division 1 State Championship. It was London’s 5th straight appearance in the State tournament but only their second time to win a championship.

London picked up the first run of the game in the first inning. Aiden Salinas singled to left field and then moved to 2B on a Zak Garcia walk. He moved to 3B on a double play ball and scored on a passed ball. London took the early lead 1-0.

Liberty-Eylau returned the favor in the bottom half of the inning. A Triston Haugh double moved Eli Jarvis over to 3B. Collin Evans hit a ground ball to 2B that scored Jarvis and the game was 1-1 after 1 inning.

London got on the board again in the top of the 2nd. Ethan Ortega singled to right field. Courtesy runner Carpentier stole second. Zach Tyrone then singled down the left field line and Carpentier scored to put London back on top 2-1.

It was Liberty-Eylau’s time to respond and they did with 2 runs. Pinch runner Banks scored when fielder’s interference was called while in a run-down. Britian Pipes then came up and hit a fly ball to right field to score a run giving Liberty-Eylau their first lead of the game, 3-2

The score stayed at 3-2 until the top of the 5th when London grabbed back the lead. Zak Garcia got on base by error and then stole second. After RJ Olivares walked, Christian Olivares hit a RBI double scoring Garcia. Max Carreon then hit a Sacrifice Fly to right field that scored RJ Olivares. London led 4-3.

London starting pitcher Ethan Ortega had settled in and did not allow another run after the 2nd inning. He gave up only one hit from the 3rd inning until the 6th when he was lifted for relief pitcher Zak Garcia. Garcia did his work on the mound holding Liberty-Eylau to no runs on no hits with 3 strikeouts to preserve the lead, pick up a save and lead London to the 2025 3A Division 1 state title.

Ortega finishing with 5 IP, 2 Hits, 3 Runs, 4 Ks and 3 BB. He was named the championship MVP. “There’s no better feeling than this,” Ortega stated. “I felt it my freshman year and we’ve been chasing it since. It helped than many of us have been here before, You still get nervous but you get going out there and then you settle down and focus. This team has the grit. As we say, we have the “dog” in us. We wanted this more than ever.”

London’s Co-Head Coach Kevin Carr made these comments: “We had confidence in Ethan. He is one of our experienced guys. He knows what it’s like to get down and then come back. We wanted him to carry us as long as he could because we knew we had Zak we could bring in. I can’t say enough about his performance today. I feel blessed to be part of this group. We lost some seniors from last year but I think this team had a chip on their shoulders and we knew this could happen.”