SANTA ANA — Last season, the La Mirada baseball team was eliminated from the Boras Classic, a prestigious tournament that features some of the best teams in Southern California, by Mater Dei in the second round with a 3-2 loss.

On Thursday night, the Matadores got payback in convincing fashion, knocking off the previously unbeaten Monarchs 10-2 in the semifinals of the Boras Classic at Mater Dei High.

La Mirada (10-1) was set to face Corona (10-0), the top-ranked team in the state, in the championship game Friday night at JSerra High.

Corona handed La Mirada its only loss March 4 in the Perfect Game SoCal Showdown.

“We’re just clicking on all cylinders from a pitching standpoint,” La Mirada coach Jimmy Zurn said. “Our offense is getting contributions from up and down the lineup, it’s not just a couple guys. We really like where we’re at in terms of team depth. Overall, top to bottom, we’re playing together and I think that’s important.”

La Mirada handed Huntington Beach its first loss Wednesday, and did the same to the Monarchs, who dropped to 10-1.

The Matadores had three players finish with multiple RBIs.

“We were feeling good,” said Matadores senior Maverek Russell, who belted a two-run homer in the fourth inning and finished with two hits and three runs scored. “Our plan was to go out there and focus on the fastball and adjust to off-speed.

“I feel like we did a really good job of that today. Our boys put up some really good at-bats. Two-strike hitting was really good, two-out hitting was good. A lot of things just went our way today and it was awesome.”

La Mirada’s Jason Rodriguez was 2 for 4 with three RBIs and Travis Friend was 2 for 3 with two RBIs.

It wasn’t just La Mirada’s offense that was good.

Kaden Corns was masterful on the mound for the Matadores. The junior right-hander went the distance, allowed two runs on six hits with nine strikeouts.

“I felt live,” Corns said. “I had my boys behind me, I had run support. So just playing loose on the mound. I felt really good.”

Zurn was all smiles when talking about his talented pitcher.

“He’s been doing this for two years,” Zurn said. “He should be as highly-touted from a college standpoint as anybody we have. I think he is going to make some four-year college program extremely happy.

“He’s as dominant as can be. He’s always in control. That performance we saw from him is something that we’ve come to expect from him.”

With the score tied 1-1, the Matadores’ two-out rally produced four runs in the third inning. They added four more runs in the fourth inning for a 9-1 lead, and cruised home from there.

Russell, a UCLA signee, belted his two-run homer in the fourth inning for a 7-1 lead.