Xavier Allen’s HR in the 11th sends Carson baseball to City Division I final

GLENDALE — The Carson and Taft baseball teams battled for nearly four hours Wednesday in a L.A. City Section Division I semifinal.

In the bottom of the 11th, Carson’s Xavier Allen ended the marathon.

With a runner on first and no outs, Allen hit a two-run, walk-off home run off of Taft reliever Victor Jara to give the Colts a 4-2 win at Stengel Field.

The Colts (18-13) will face Marine League rival Banning in the championship game Saturday at Dodger Stadium at 10 a.m.

Allen almost had a go-ahead home run in the sixth, but his drive to the left-field wall was caught by Taft’s Josh Friedman.

“I was a little anxious on the last couple of at-bats,” Allen said. “I knew I had to dial in and focus.

“I slowed my swing down a little bit and make contact with the ball and it flew out. The first ball (in the sixth) I hit was a precursor to what happened at the end. Once the ball got off the bat I knew it was over, that the ball was going out. I felt very excited knowing we are in the finals.”

Taft scored first on Nate Swinson’s RBI single in the fourth inning. Carson starting pitcher Josiah Ripley minimized the damage by getting Dominick Moore to ground into a double play to end the inning.

Carson answered with Kris Sinclair’s two-run single for 2-1 lead.

“I really wanted to help us win the game for our seniors to get them back to Dodger Stadium and play for a championship,” Sinclair said. “It doesn’t matter who we play Saturday. We’ve worked really hard to get there (championship game), but it’s all about the experience of playing in it.”

The lead didn’t last long for Carson. Taft tied the game in the fifth on a suicide squeeze bunt by Dylan Gustafson that scored Oliver Berger.

With Taft threatening to break the tie, Carson coach Michael Kunipo-Aguirre brought in pitcher Salvador Carillo. He struck out two batters to end the inning and wound up pitching 6 2/3 innings of scoreless relief and struck out 10.

That allowed Carson to stay in the game until Allen’s heroics.

“I told Salvador earlier in the week to be ready because we might need you to step up today,” Kunipo-Aguirre said. “He did an amazing job keeping their hitters off-balance and keeping his composure. Once he got in, he put it in cruise control and mowed them down. I’m really proud of him.

“It’s always on the table with X (Xavier Allen), he has good pop, but he is a young player and still gets anxious. He’s dangerous. When I saw him hit, I knew we had punched our ticket. We can worry about tomorrow when we get there.”

Carillo allowed only two hits in his long relief outing.

“I was just trying to throw some strikes and strike everybody out,” Carillo said. “Xavier is a beast and helped us get to Saturday.

“I feel amazing right now. I’m going to go home and eat some steak. I haven’t had that in a long time.”

Banning 3, Verdugo Hills 1: The top-seeded Pilots (22-8) scored three runs in the fifth inning and earned their second consecutive trip to the finals at Dodger Stadium.

Angelo Duarte drove in two runs for Banning.

Port of Los Angeles 7, Sotomayor 3: Joaquin Guerrero had two hits and Jaydan Lamadrid drove in two runs as the Polar Bears (14-8) won the Division II semifinal.

Steven Saenz pitched a complete game. He allowed three runs, walked one and struck out nine.

POLA will face Chavez in the final Friday at Stengel Field.