{"id":329957,"date":"2026-05-24T00:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T00:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/329957\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T00:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T00:56:23","slug":"masen-ruizs-3-run-triple-keys-birminghams-city-baseball-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/329957\/","title":{"rendered":"Masen Ruiz&#8217;s 3-run triple keys Birmingham&#8217;s City baseball title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Call it fate or destiny.<\/p>\n<p>In the bottom of the fifth inning on Saturday at Dodger Stadium in the City Section Open Division championship game, Masen Ruiz stepped to the plate for Birmingham with two outs and the bases loaded with the score tied  against El Camino Real.<\/p>\n<p>It was months ago that Ruiz left Chatsworth for Birmingham after the resignation of coach Marcus Alvarado, his uncle. He was one of Chatsworth\u2019s best players as a junior outfielder but rode the bench for much of Birmingham\u2019s season.<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz, who had entered the game two innings earlier as a defensive replacement, came through in the most pressurized of situations. He hit the ball over the head of El Camino Real right fielder Ryan Glassman for a three-run triple to key Birmingham\u2019s 4-2 victory. It was Birmingham\u2019s ninth City baseball title and first time in coach Matt Mowry\u2019s 20 seasons that he\u2019s won a City title and West Valley League title in the same season.<\/p>\n<p>Standing on third base with the Birmingham crowd roaring, Ruiz said, \u201cHonestly, I didn\u2019t know what was going on. I blacked out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruiz, the grandson of former Granada Hills Kennedy coach Manny Alvarado, had people telling him to be patient and be ready when an opportunity presented itself. He hadn\u2019t batted since May 7 against Cleveland. And did he deliver with a drive that rolled to the right-field fence off pitcher Hudson December and finally gave the Patriots breathing room.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf my name was called, I was going to do anything for the win,\u201d Ruiz said. <\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"Outfielder Masen Ruiz of Birmingham roars after his three-run triple in the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"757\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779584183_184_.jpeg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>Masen Ruiz of Birmingham roars after his three-run triple in the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>(Craig Weston \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<p>Nathan Soto made it to the sixth inning for Birmingham before closer Aidan Martinez and his 92-mph fastball was summoned from the bullpen. He struck out two batters when El Camino Real had runners on second and third. Then he struck out two more in the seventh.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez missed last season because of Tommy John surgery but returned to be one of the Patriots\u2019 most important two-way players.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Aidan Martinez, who missed 2025 after Tommy John surgery, throws the heat for two strikeouts. B6, Birmingham 4, ECR 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oMytxP8HLy\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/oMytxP8HLy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/latsondheimer\/status\/2058317664200867948?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 23, 2026<\/a>     <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a long road back,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI just wanted to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>El Camino Real scored in the first inning on a throwing error. Birmingham tied the score on an RBI single by Martinez.<\/p>\n<p>After some early jitters in the first inning, the two teams settled down to play good defense in support of their pitchers. Shortstop JuJu Monroe-Truitt made two heads-up plays with forceouts by throwing the ball to third baseman Sebastian Valadez to help out Soto. El Camino Real\u2019s outfielders were busy keeping December out of trouble through four innings despite three hit batters and two walks. Birmingham had runners aboard in the second, third and fourth innings.<\/p>\n<p>Birmingham players charged the field and threw around water during their celebration. Ruiz ran in from right field to join. It was a day he waited for and came through.<\/p>\n<p>Southern Section Division 1<\/p>\n<p>St. John Bosco 5, La Mirada 2: Defending Division 1 champion St. John Bosco is on to the semifinals after 13 strikeouts from Julian Garcia and two home runs from James Clark. St. John Bosco will play host to Harvard-Westlake on Tuesday. The other semifinal has Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at Norco.<\/p>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Call it fate or destiny. In the bottom of the fifth inning on Saturday at Dodger Stadium in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4472,4598,27732,136947,26763,10254,23932,136949,48,52,51,47,50,49,2648,136948,2967,136946,278,10443,136950],"class_list":["post-329957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ball","tag-birmingham","tag-chatsworth","tag-city-baseball-title","tag-el-camino-real","tag-first-inning","tag-innings","tag-junior-outfielder","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-martinez","tag-masen-ruiz","tag-out","tag-ruiz","tag-season","tag-st-john-bosco","tag-three-run-pinch-hit-triple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329957","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=329957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}