The key to unlock the opportunity that the 2026 Bakersfield Christian High baseball team has sought from the start, especially those who are among the largest senior class that head coach Mark Ratekin has had, was given to them Wednesday night.
A 5-0 home victory in the CIF Southern California Regional Division 2 semifinal over Arroyo Grande secured a spot in this Saturday’s SoCal Regional state championship game. The BCHS Eagles (28-6-1) will face Newport Beach’s Newport Harbor, an 11-6 winner in the other semifinal over Point Loma, for the championship.
“The senior class is special. They set their goal of getting to the state championship and now they’ve got that opportunity,” Ratekin said. “We’ve been there before a couple of years ago and the year before that. We have five or six guys who’ve been there.”
Senior right-handed starting pitcher McCoy Silicz went the distance getting out of a few jams, but also getting Arroyo Grande batters to chase pitches that led to outs.
He had defensive support from the likes of seniors Deakin Brinkley at shortstop and one in which Brinkley put the tag on Arroyo Grande runner Brock Paz in the sixth inning. Paz and Jackson Ralph got back-to-back hard hit singles off Silicz with the score still 2-0 BCHS.
But senior catcher Karson Greer caught Silicz’s pitch as Ruben Servin was trying to bunt and advance the runners. Instead, Greer fired a throw on target to a waiting Brinkley, who tagged Paz out when he tried to get back to second. The 1-2-6 play took the sails out of Arroyo Grande a bit, helping to squander what had been a potential strike for them.
“I thought the best play of the game was when Karson threw out the runner at second,” Ratekin said.
Greer also contributed with his bat. In the first inning, BCHS had the bases loaded and Greer came up with two outs. He hit a line drive toward first base and if not for the splendid catch made by Maddox Richwine at first, Greer could have opened up the game early. Instead, it kept the game scoreless.
Greer, however, wasn’t fazed. His next time up, in the third inning, he laced a double to right field to score Maddox Garza, who before Greer had singled in a run, too.
Speaking of Garza, he was part of BCHS’ insurance runs inning in the sixth. The junior first baseman, who had been delivering for the Eagles on numerous occasions in this postseason, laced a double to drive in one of three runs — Silicz and Ryan Burgess were the others with an RBI.
“I was just trying to put the ball in play when we needed it,” Garza said. He and his teammates did enough on Wednesday.
The 5-0 score put all the pressure in the seventh inning on Arroyo Grande (25-10), who was trying to avenge its CIF Central Section Division 2 championship loss to BCHS last Thursday in Visalia.
Instead, Silicz returned and delivered to get his senior teammates to the big stage.
“It was McCoy’s last start of the season, of his high school career. He went out there with a bulldog mentality and got ‘em,” Ratekin said.
Silicz got fly ball outs from Arroyo Grande batters Tanner Bournonville and Colton Gotchal and pinch-hitter Caleb Jaynes hit a routine ground ball to Brinkley who effortlessly threw the ball to Garza at first for the final out in the semifinal and to send BCHS to Orange County for a chance to finish the season and the high school careers of nine players with a championship to remember.