Moments before starting pitcher Nick Turner threw the first pitch Sunday afternoon in the game that would send the Warriors to the state championship or end the season in defeat, Turner knelt down in prayer.

“I was praying for victory,” he said, “and to be able to go all nine innings.”

Turner’s prayers were answered when he retired the batters in the final game of the super regional playoffs, giving the Warriors a 3-1 victory over Allan Hancock College.

An opportunity to compete for the state championship that the Warriors haven’t had since 1951.

“If we can play like the games we’ve played all year, we’re good,” Nate Fernley, coach, said.

Turner, like pitchers Kyle Petter and Andrew Pulido had done that same weekend, threw a complete game, giving up three runs, one earned, with three walks, five hits, and eight strike outs.

“Once I got the first batter out, I was feeling confident and knew that the defense would do the work and they did,” Turner said.

With wins against Cypress College on Friday and Hancock on Saturday and Sunday, the Warriors advanced to the state tournament which will begin tomorrow at Fresno City College.

“There’s going to be three tremendous teams up there,” Fernley said. “Any state championship is like that, the best of the best.”

For the opening game of the Super Regional playoffs against Cypress, Andrew Pulido took the mound, throwing a complete game: allowing seven hits, five runs, three unearned, one walk and four strikeouts in a 12-5 win.

Unlike Saturday, when EC had an offensive explosion against Hancock, the Warriors’ bats were silenced by Hancock pitcher Jacob Valenzuela.

Valenzuela only allowed EC to score in the third inning.

The three runs were batted in by Drew Rodela, Aaron Deguire, and Kyle Petter who each had RBI singles.

Later in the sixth, Hancock would eventually score their only run.

“I’m proud of these young men for what they have accomplished,” Fernely said. “That last pitch where you know is close, you kind of get a little bit of jitters.”

On Saturday, EC’s offense viciously pounded a 19-5 victory out of Hancock, all the while Petter delivered his 13th win of the season, allowing five runs, four earned, 10 hits, two walks and four strikeouts and had three RBI’s at the plate.

The Warriors batted for a total of 21 hits in the game, with the entire lineup contributing with at least a hit.

John Hein helped get things started for the Warriors, with an RBI single in the first, followed by a two-out, three-RBI bomb, his first of the season, over the right field wall in the second inning.

“This is what I have been dreaming of ever since I was a little kid, to hit a home run in a big game like this one,” Hein said. “Lately my dad’s been telling me to look for the ball inside and turn on it and be aggressive and I did it.”

Hein had a total of seven RBI’s and only needed a triple to go for the cycle and catcher Aaron Deguire added three RBI’s.

“This group of guys committed themselves to being a team and to watch them do that and grow up into young men is a really good feeling,” Fernley said.

EC is the No.1 seed of Southern California and will be competing against Rio Hondo, the No.2 seed of Southern California, and San Mateo (No.1 seed) and Ohlone (No.2 seed), both of Northern California.

“You come in with a golden mind to try and win a state championship and to actually go play for one is pretty exciting,” Fernley said.