ORANGE – It was not a situation where a high school baseball freshman usually thrives.

Brady Murrietta is not a typical freshman.

Murrietta’s three-run double in the fourth inning expanded Orange Lutheran’s lead to a comfortable point Friday and the Lancers defeated Villa Park 6-1 in a CIF Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinal at Hart Park.

Orange Lutheran (22-10-1) will play at Santa Margarita (26-6) in the semifinal round Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. Santa Margarita beat La Mirada 9-4 Friday.

Murrietta is a catcher with excellent catcher DNA. His father, Jason Murrietta was an All-Orange County catcher at Esperanza in the 1990s and is a member of the Cal State Fullerton baseball coaching staff.

The younger Murrietta has been in big situations before, having played on age-group baseball teams that have competed for national championships.

Orange Lutheran had a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the fourth inning. Ben Reiland was hit by a pitch, Derek Curiel was intentionally walked and Casey Borba walked to load the bases. Murrietta pulled a 3-2 pitch down the left-field line to drive in Reiland, Curiel and Borba to make it 6-1.

The Lancers scored two runs in the top of the first inning. JJ Robles drove in one of the runs with a single and the other scored on an error.

Josiah Hartshorn’s sacrifice fly drove in Justin Lopez for a 3-0 lead.

Villa Park got its run in the third inning. Robby Wiens was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

Orange Lutheran used five pitchers and limited Villa Park to two hits.

Murriett said he tried to maintain a simple approach to his key at-bat.

“You can’t think a lot,” Murrietta said. “Just go up there with ‘see ball, hit ball.’ ”

Murrietta is happy for the rematch opportunity against Santa Margarita, which swept three games against Orange Lutheran in early March.

“We’re pretty fired up to get a rematch with them,” Murrietta said, “to show them what we can do.”

Orange Lutheran freshman catcher Brady Murrietta talks about his three-run triple that helped the Lancers beat Villa Park 6-1 and set up a rematch with Santa Margarita… pic.twitter.com/HvOV8LoBlC

— Steve Fryer (@SteveFryer) May 13, 2023

“He’s a special kid,” Orange Lutheran coach Eric Borba said. “He’s caught at a very high level. He’s mature beyond his years.”

Three Trinity League teams are in the Division 1 semifinals: Santa Margarita, Orange Lutheran and JSerra, which beat Sierra Canyon 6-3 Friday.

JSerra will play at Corona in the other semifinal Tuesday. Corona defeated No. 1 seed Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks 2-1 in 10 innings Friday.

Villa Park finished the season 21-11. The Spartans won the Crestview League championship and in the playoffs had wins over Damien and Huntington Beach.

A bad moment for Villa Park happened in the sixth inning. Senior shortstop Gavin Grahovac went down after making a back-handed attempt at a ground ball to his right. He aggravated an oblique strain, a muscle injury that affected him the past two weeks.

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