By Stephen Ramirez
steve.ramirez@langnews.com
@SteveRRamirez on Twitter
SANTA ANA — The area was already guaranteed of placing a team in the Boras Baseball Classic semifinals when San Dimas faced Glendora in the tournament quarterfinals Tuesday at Mater Dei High School.
Kale Morton made sure it was the Tartans who advanced.
The senior tossed a two-hitter to lead Glendora to a 5-0 victory over the Saints in a battle featuring two teams ranked in the area top 10.
The Tartans, also getting two RBIs each from Griffen Herrera and Justin Cage, led 3-0 after the first inning. Glendora improved to 9-2 and will face either JSerra or Vista Murrieta in Thursday’s semifinals at 6 p.m. at JSerra in San Juan Capistrano.
San Dimas, getting hits from Josh Avila and Daniel Millwee, slipped to 9-3. The Saints will play the loser of JSerra-Vista Murrieta game in a seventh-place semifinal at 3 p.m. on Thursday at Mater Dei.
Morton, who improved to 4-0, retired the first eight batters and didn’t allow a hit until Avila bunted for a single in fifth. Morton then hit David Vargas, but retired Jessie Garcia to end the inning. Millwee had an infield single in the sixth before Morton retired San Dimas in order in the seventh for the win.
Glendora took a 3-0 lead in the first, taking advantage of three walks by Peter Lambert before Herrera doubled to left for a 2-0 advantage. Cage followed with a RBI single to make it 3-0. The catcher also had a RBI single in the fifth for a 5-0 lead.
Glendora’s Kale Morton: “I felt good today. I commanded the zone, every pitch was working. I liked the first inning when we scored three runs. It gives me less pressure to pitch.”