Flintridge Prep’s baseball team ended a crazy, historic season for St. Anthony High in the CIF Southern Section Division 6 final on Saturday at UC Riverside while making some history of its own.

In the fourth extra-inning playoff game this year for St. Anthony, the Rebels (17-12) looked more at home in the eighth inning, where they scored twice and held off a Saints rally to win the first CIF baseball championship in school history, 3-2, in their first finals appearance since 1951.

Flintridge Prep got a stellar performance from starting pitcher Richard Pan, who scattered four hits over five innings. He also capped a three-hit day by driving in the eventual game-winning run with sacrifice fly in the eighth inning. Leadoff hitter Danny Chiarodit added two hits.

Both teams created plenty of chances to win, combining to strand 17 runners, but clutch pitching from Pan and St. Anthony starter Grant Grainger won out.

St. Anthony took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Grainger led off with a walk and scored on fellow senior Nathan Marquez’s RBI single up the middle. Flintridge Prep evened the score in the second inning without a hit thanks to a two-base error and three consecutive walks.

Grainger settled down after that and scattered seven hits in 5 1/3 innings work while Pan only gave up four hits in five innings. St. Anthony senior Coby Palmares came on in the sixth inning and got out of a jam with a pickoff at second base. Flintridge Prep junior Robbie Leslie also walked a tight rope in the latter innings, but when he took the mound in the eighth inning he did so with the Rebels’ first lead of the day.

“It was frustrating,” Flintridge Prep head coach head coach Guillermo Gonzalez said of failing to score between the second and eighth innings. “We were hitting the ball hard all game so we kept saying it was going to break our way, and it finally did. This whole journey with this team has been amazing.”