{"id":318366,"date":"2026-05-16T04:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/318366\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:11:09","slug":"cif-baseball-long-beach-poly-slides-through-first-round-with-tight-win-over-sunny-hills-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/318366\/","title":{"rendered":"CIF Baseball: Long Beach Poly Slides Through First Round With Tight Win Over Sunny Hills \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a cloudy day for Sunny Hills, and there ain\u2019t no party like a Funkhouse party. The grey rolled in and Long Beach Poly shined in a first round CIF-SS Division 5 win on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits hosted the Lancers at Cabrillo High School, where the home team captured a tight 3-2 victory for the early postseason win. A strong performance on the mound and a pair of home runs fueled Long Beach Poly through the first round of playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you get into the playoffs, it\u2019s just about finding a way to get it done,\u201d Head Coach Soloman Williams said. \u201cObviously, we had a really gutsy performance from Malakai Pruitt, so we\u2019re feeling great, ready for round two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pruitt was the starting pitcher for the Jackrabbits and immediately got things going, ending the first inning with a looking strikeout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I threw that first bullpen, I knew I was ready,\u201d Pruitt said. \u201cTo be honest, I was kind of iffy on my nerves because this is my first year on varsity as a pitcher. It was just surreal that coach gave so much trust to me, and I really appreciate Coach Soloman for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each offense took some pokes at the ball early in the game, getting on base through some line drives but not finding success in bringing those runners across the plate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunny Hills found a way first, scoring their first run in the top of the second. Jacob Park hit the ball to deep center for an RBI double to put the visitors up 1-0.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits bounced back immediately, as junior Will Trunnelle hit a leadoff home run \u2014 his first of the season \u2014 in the bottom of the second to even the score out 1-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to answer with something \u2014 a walk, get on base, help my team somehow,\u201d Trunnelle said. \u201cHonestly, I got lucky. I saw it going, I was hoping it got out and it did. That feeling is probably one of the best ones I\u2019ve ever felt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next inning, UCLA commit Tate Hammond led off with a solo shot of his own over the right field fence to give Poly a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t call ourselves a home run hitting team, but we have shown a lot of power this season,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWhen Will was able to turn the tide a little bit with that big home run, I feel like it really loosened up the offense. Then, when Tate hit another big one, that gives us excitement, but then also kind of demoralizes the other team.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Jackrabbits kept riding that high tide. The Lancers weren\u2019t able to get anything going through the middle innings, and when the fifth inning rolled through, Poly tacked on another run to their lead.<\/p>\n

Manny Gonzales led off the inning for the home team with a line drive single to centerfield. After stealing second base, the senior advanced to third on a soft ground ball to the pitcher that resulted in an error, putting a pair of Jackrabbits on the corners for Fausto Gaxiola III coming to the plate.<\/p>\n

The senior Gaxiola III smacked the ball to right center field for an RBI single, giving the home team a 3-1 lead with two innings left in the ballgame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose have been the guys that we\u2019ve had to lean on all season and trusted,\u201d Williams said of his upperclassmen. \u201cThey were excellent again today, and we\u2019re gonna need them to be good every game to continue this run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long Beach Poly maintained their 3-1 lead until the seventh inning. Pruitt retired the first two Lancers in their final at-bats, striking out Jack Verity and forcing Riley Shaw to fly out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys work so hard, they put 110% effort on the field,\u201d Pruitt said of his team. \u201cIf I see that they\u2019re putting 110% effort offensively and defensively, I\u2019m gonna show them 110% effort on the mound as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Down to their final out, Sunny Hills was fighting to stay alive. A walk, single and hard-hit ball to third loaded the bases for the visitors. Pruitt ended up walking the next batter to give the Lancers an edge with a 3-2 score.<\/p>\n

\"2026<\/a><\/p>\n

That was when the junior took a lap around the mound and kneeled for a reset. With his team behind him and a Green and Gold community cheering for him, Pruitt knew what he had to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo calm myself down, I always go down on my knee and just talk to God,\u201d Pruitt said. \u201cThat\u2019s my coping mechanism when in a stressful situation. I always ask God for help, and He helped me today.\u201d<\/p>\n

After taking his breather, Pruitt settled back into his rhythm on the bump, closing out the complete game with a lineout to left and securing the first-round win for the Jackrabbits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel great, but this is not just about me, this is a whole team effort,\u201d Pruitt said. \u201cI just really appreciate everyone on this team that really supported me and helped to get this dub.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the shaky final inning, Williams said he trusted his junior ace to come through. He pushed Pruitt to his max amount of pitches in the complete game performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told him that we were going to need seven innings from him,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt went down to the very wire, but that\u2019s what we expected. That\u2019s a good team, had a really good lineup and they\u2019re going to fight for their season to continue, but Malakai was able to hold on for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits ended the first round with a 3-2 win vs. Sunny Hills, shining on offense and defense to fuel the playoff opener. Although Poly has struggled to stay in games this season, Trunnelle said the postseason energy is keeping his team together.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully this win is one of many,\u201d Trunnelle said. \u201cWe want to keep the streak going and stay hot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long Beach Poly will be on the road for the second round. The Jackrabbits are travelling to Cathedral on Tuesday to face off with the Phantoms and fight for their playoff chances to stay alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur game plan is always the same \u2014 it\u2019s going to be about putting the ball in play, making plays on defense and throwing strikes on the mound,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI feel like we have a really talented team, especially in this Division 5 bracket. We just have to keep doing what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-318366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}