The562’s baseball coverage in 2025 is sponsored by the Millikan, Long Beach Poly, Lakewood and Wilson baseball boosters.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
A main storyline from the 2025 Long Beach Poly baseball season has been the Jackrabbits’ lack of a true home field. And while Gwynn Family Field remains under construction during Poly’s campus overhaul, the program may have stumbled upon a permanent home for their playoff games.
The magic of the 2023 postseason was in the air on Thursday afternoon on LBCC’s Joe Hicks Memorial Field, where the Jackrabbits (15-13) opened this year’s CIF-SS Division 5 playoffs with a 2-1 walk-off win over Mayfair High (20-9).
Poly has walked off winners in their last two games at LBCC, with both of those wins coming in the playoffs. In fact, the last three playoff home games for Poly have ended in walk-off victories.
Thursday’s hero for the Jackrabbits was senior Daylen Carey, who was wearing a Moore League champion shirt earned during that 2023 season. That Poly team opened the playoffs with a dramatic victory over Beckman, and made a triumphant return to the scene just two years later.
“I was just really excited,” said Carey of his walk-off hit. “I can’t really describe it, but yeah, it was fun.”
Carey not only delivered the game-winning single in the bottom of the seventh, scoring Giovanni Migliazza from third, he was also the starting pitcher for the Jackrabbits, allowing only one run on four hits while striking out eight Monsoons in his complete game effort.
This was the first time head coach Solomon Williams and his Jackrabbits have played a game at LBCC this season, and it ended up as their first walk-off victory in their 28th game of the season. He was understandably impressed by what he saw from his senior right-hander on the mound, as he locked in down the stretch to keep Mayfair off the scoreboard and without a hit over the final three frames.
“What I saw was just utter domination,” Williams said of Carey. “If you’re going to make a playoff run, that’s what it’s going to need to be, is your seniors that have been here for four years, been invested in this program, they’re going to need to take control. And that’s what Daylen Carey did today for us.”
Mayfair took the lead in the fourth inning when freshman Jacob Brown lined a ball into right field that snuck under the glove of the diving Poly outfielder and bounced all the way to the fence for a leadoff triple. He would then score on a balk to put the Monsoons up 1-0, but Mayfair’s offense didn’t do much after that. Carey would retire the next 10 batters he faced, and only gave up a walk the rest of the afternoon.
But Poly’s offense had yet to collect a hit at that point, going up against Mayfair junior Spencer Cummins. It was Carey who finally broke Poly into the hit column, beating out a grounder to short with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.
After a passed ball put pinch runner Alex Morales into scoring position, leadoff man Tate Hammond delivered with a clutch two-out RBI single into left center, tying things up at 1-all.
“We were stoked to answer back right there and not let it go too long (with Mayfair in the lead),” said Williams of that two-out rally. “Just because we go through the lineup twice with no hits, we’ve got to stay with our exact same approach. It’s not time to give up. It’s time to stick with the same thing we’ve been working on and it paid off for (Hammond( right there.”
The Jackrabbits also supported Carey with some solid defense around the infield. Third baseman Deven Munoz had a great diving catch to rob extra bases, and both Izaiyah Gutierrez and Hammond made terrific plays charging ground balls from shortstop and second base, respectively.
Poly’s decisive seventh inning rally started with the No. 6 hitter in the lineup, Migliazza, laying down a great bunt for a hit. The throw to first base sailed high, allowing him to advance to second base to start the frame. Antonio Yepez came in as a pinch hitter and placed a textbook sac bunt that turned into another infield hit, putting Jackrabbits at the corners. Once Fausto Gaxiola was hit by a pitch, it loaded the bases and set the stage for Carey’s heroics.
“I was just thinking, hit the ball hard,” Carey said of his approach in that at-bat. “With no outs, there’s no pressure, because you’ve got three chances, plus the top of the lineup is right behind me. So I was just thinking, hit the ball hard, and whatever happens, happens. I got into a fastball count, so I figured it was coming. I was late on the first one, but I got my pitch on that one.”
Long Beach Poly will be hosting their second round game on Tuesday, welcoming Riverside Poly to (where else?) the LBCC campus. A walk-off win is never guaranteed, but at this point it would be unwise to bet against it.
