COSTA MESA — The Estancia baseball team is becoming familiar with dramatic postseason victories.

The Eagles were just one out away from clinching a spot in the CIF-SS Division 6 championship game, but the tying run was also just 90 feet away from scoring.

Estancia pitcher Vaughn McCrea fired a pitch to Rancho Mirage’s Jesus Gutierrez, who hit a fly ball to shallow left field. Jacob Ramirez made a diving catch to secure Estancia’s 4-3 win Tuesday at Estancia High.

The catch set off a wild celebration by the Eagles players, who have a chance to earn the baseball program’s second section title. The

Eagles will face Marshall of Pasadena in the Division 6 final on Friday or Saturday. The finals schedule will be announced Wednesday.

In these playoffs, Estancia (19-13) earned a walk-off victory, 4-3, over Pacifica Christian in the quarterfinals and beat Alhambra 10-8 in the first round.

“As soon as I saw that ball hit, I knew it was gonna be shallow,” Ramirez said of his game-clinching snag. “And there was, earlier in the game, he (Gutierrez) did hit another shallow ball, which I made also. But I kind of expected it to drop and I just ran and caught it.”

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