Centaur baseball advances to the CIF quarterfinals

People say good things come to those who wait. For the 2024 Culver City High School varsity baseball team they didn't have to wait that long. Last year they took last place in the Bay league with a record of 3-7 and this year they won the league championship with a record of 7-3. Their overall record last year was 9-13-1and their record this year is a remarkable 24-4.

Last Tuesday they won their second straight CIF Division 4 playoff game 1-0 against Riverside Roosevelt at Roosevelt. "It feels great," said second year head coach Devaughn Wallace right after the game. "The boys were well prepared, and we played very hard, and we wanted it a little bit more than Roosevelt."

According to Wallace the long bus ride influenced the team in the beginning of the game but the team woke up just in time to get the victory. "We started a little slow, but our dugout is full of energy. One of our seniors got everyone together and gave a speech that picked everyone up and right after that we scored that one run. Senior leadership got us through that game."

Wallace continued to talk about his team. "These players are not afraid of the moment. They have bought into the system. They love playing with their teammates. That's a big thing in our program. We take it one pitch at a time, and we try to stay fundamentally sound. There are no words to describe how proud I am of this team."

Now the Centaurs have a home CIF quarterfinal game on Friday against Oak Hills high school from the city of Hesperia at 3:15 p.m. Hesperia's overall record is 23-6 and they are 15-0 as the first-place team in the Mojave River league.

The Centaurs first playoff game last week they beat Castaic 3-2. During that game pitcher Evan Reiter had a no hitter going into the sixth inning before giving up two runs. Also, in that game senior Henry Herrbach hit his first home run of his high school career.