LA CAÑADA - The Ganesha baseball team got out of a jam in the seventh inning to hold on for a 4-1 victory over La Canada on Tuesday to advance to the CIF Southern Section division 4 quarterfinals.
"Anytime you win on the road it's great," Ganesha coach Jared Sandler said. "We were down early and got ourselves in a tough spot. We made an error and walked three consecutive guys and were down 1-0. Went to the bullpen and got a great effort out of Sutton Frost."
Frost didn't start, but he was inserted with one out in the first inning with the Giants trailing 1-0. He proceeded to throw 5 2/3 innings of no-hit ball with 10 strikeouts.
Ganesha (20-3) advances to Friday's quarterfinals, where they will host Saugus, a 9-3 winner over Murrieta Mesa.
Giants starting pitcher London Richards walked three straight Spartans batters to force in a run for a 1-0 Spartans lead.
Frost came in and was dominant, helping the Giants carry a team no-hitter to the seventh inning before giving way to Christian Eaton, who gave up two hits and a walk in the seventh inning. But Eaton got of the jam to helps the Giants advance.
Frost's impact, however, was the difference.
"Felt pretty good," Frost said. "Nice day for some baseball and throwing first pitch strikes. Caught a couple breaks here and there but that'll work."
The Spartans' offense struggled. Will Park and Taylor Parrille provided the only two hits of the game for the Spartans.
La Cañada coach Nathan Bernstein handed the ball to sophomore Ross Piken, who closed the Spartans' first-round win over Downey.
Piken delivered in his first career playoff start, allowing six hits and one run run through 4.1 innings of work.
"From the first time I met Ross, you just see he's built a little different," Bernstein said. "He's one of those kids who doesn't rattle and he's incredibly tough,. He's going to be a problem for a lot of people in the San Gabriel Valley in the next couple of years."
After striking first on a bases-loaded walk in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead, La Cañada had all the momentum rolling on their side.
Piken cruised through the first four innings, shutting out a Ganesha offense that scored 91 runs in their previous five games.
However, the Giants finally broke through in the fifth inning and produced three runs to give Frost some run support.
"We felt like it was a matter of time until we would break through," Sandler said. "We were getting good swings off and they went into the bullpen and that's when things opened up for us a little bit."
The loss ends La Cañada's (18-12) best season since 2019, when they won 22 games.