LAGUNA BEACH — Laguna Beach starting pitcher Branson Wade led the Breakers to a 2-1 win over Grand Terrace in the CIF-SS Division 4 semifinals Tuesday at Laguna Beach High.
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Laguna Beach (20-11) will play Glendora for the Division 4 championship Friday or Saturday at Cal State Fullerton or LoanMart Field in Rancho Cucamonga. The CIF-SS will announce the dates, times and places for all of the baseball finals Wednesday.
Glendora won the Division 3 championship last season.
This will be the first championship appearance for Laguna Beach since it won the Division 4 title in 2016.
“It’s an honor. It’s been 10 years, a very long time and that needed to change,” Wade said. “We were bad for a lot of years to be honest and we were tired of that. We all started working harder, picking each other up and working more as a team and it’s been working.”
Wade allowed no earned runs over six innings with five hits allowed and five strikeouts to earn his 25th career win, which ties a school-record set by Blake Burzell from 2015-18.
Wade threw just the third no-hitter in school history earlier this season and set the school’s all-time career strikeout record (246). The previous strikeout record for the school was 206 held by Burzell and Steve Shapard, who graduated in 1968.
“I felt pretty good,” Wade said. “I just went out there and tried to pitch every inning like it’s the last because you never know, it could be the last game. I felt like I was attacking hitters.”
“It’s something we talked about before the game that Branson is going to keep us in every game, we just have to play our best defensive game,” Laguna Beach coach Ryan Belanto said.
It has been a wildly successful first two years for Belanto as the head coach at Laguna Beach. The Breakers won the Pacific Coast League in 2025 and went 25-3 before losing in the second round of the Division 1 playoffs.
This is the first time the Breakers have won at least 20 games in back-to-back seasons since they did it in five consecutive seasons from 2013-17.
“It’s huge for these guys,” Belanto said. “A lot of our seniors were on that team last year that won 25 games and made the Division 1 playoffs. If you look in our dugout, half the seniors that graduated last year are here today which is just a testament to the kids in this community and what we’re doing.”
Grand Terrace (20-8) was seeking its first CIF-SS championship appearance.
The Titans scored first in the third inning when Ray Roybal reached second on a dropped ball by a Laguna Beach outfielder. Roybal scored on a RBI single by Ezekiel Jahen to give Grand Terrace a 1-0 lead.
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Grand Terrace could have added another run in the inning which could have changed the game dramatically. With two runners on base, a Grand Terrace player hit into a possible double play, but the Laguna Beach second baseman made an errant throw to first, which would have scored a run.
The second base umpire ruled interference on the slide at second base, which ended the inning before the run could score.
Laguna Beach took the lead in the fifth inning with two run-scoring hits with two outs.
Jackson Arrasin led the inning off with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. After a flyout, Otis Boultinghouse had two strikes against him when he hit a RBI single to tie the game at one.
“I fell down in the count early but just kept giving myself cues, keep staying in it,” Boultinghouse said. “(There was) never a doubt in my mind that I would get the job done. (I) just always talk to myself positively and making sure I clutch up for my boys.”
On the ensuing at bat, Lincoln Adams hit a run-scoring double to give the Breakers a 2-1 lead and give Wade a chance to win.
“I was a little nervous to be honest,” Wade said. “I always trust them and always knew they were going to come back so I was really hyped up.”
Wade struck out the side in his last inning before having to leave the game with 108 pitches. If Laguna Beach plays on Saturday, Wade will be eligible to pitch four innings due to a CIF rule that a pitcher can only record a maximum of 30 outs in a week. If the Breakers play on Friday, Wade will not be allowed to pitch.
Wade has an 11-3 record with a 1.23 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 85⅔ innings. The 11 wins are the second most in a single-season in school history and the 105 strikeouts are a school record.
Grand Terrace pitcher Noe Villanueva was very good as well, allowing just two earned runs in six innings with three strikeouts. The Titans were the second-place team from the Sunkist League and beat San Marcos, Palm Desert and Marina in the playoffs.
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