FULLERTON — The Marshall baseball team was three outs away from securing the first CIF Southern Section championship in program history Saturday in the Division 6 final at Cal State Fullerton.

But then came a stunning finish.

Estancia began the bottom of the seventh inning with three consecutive baserunners before Jake Humphries hit a three-run double to right field to beat Marshall 4-3.

It was not the ending Marshall (20-7-1) hoped for after it finished second in the Mission Valley League and had the most wins in a season in more than 20 years. It was Marshall’s second appearance in a CIF-SS championship game.

Marshall coach Joe Federico, who announced his retirement as coach after the game, said he entered the seventh confident his team would leave with the title.

“It’s tough, it’s tough,” he said. “I thought with our guys we brought in (to pitch), we could handle them. It just didn’t happen. We just needed to get the three outs and those are always the hardest outs.

“They (Estancia) just beat us. They didn’t give up. They could’ve gave up and they didn’t.”

Making his third start of the postseason, Marshall pitcher Caleb Thatcher left it all on the field. He went 5 2/3 innings, gave up one run on three hits and struck out 10. He also went 1 for 2 at the plate with two walks.

“I was just trying to do my best for my team and everything,” Thatcher said. “My body’s honestly super worn out from doing both sides of it. I don’t know how Shohei (Ohtani) does it. I just really wanted to leave it all out there and I felt like I did.”

“That’s why I’m satisfied with our performance as a team,” Thatcher added, “because I felt we really left it all out there and might have got unlucky, but that’s just the way it went.”

The Eagles went ahead 3-0 in the first inning. Nick Callaway hit an RBI double and scored when Ben Muro hit a two-run single.

After picking up two quick outs to start the second inning, Estancia pushed a run across when Miles Dodge hit an RBI double.

Thatcher seemed to be in some trouble when Estancia led off the third inning with walk and a hit batter. However, he quickly settled down and retired six consecutive batters.

With two outs in the sixth inning, Thatcher was replaced after he reached the 110-pitch limit in a game.

“To be honest, I really wanted to stay in the game, but I knew I couldn’t be selfish,” Thatcher said.

Michael Gerst took over on the mound at that point.

Marshall was on the verge of extending its lead in the seventh. It had a runner on base when Callaway ripped a two-out double, but Christopher Romero was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

“We could’ve scored more runs, but we didn’t take advantage of that,” Federico said. “That hurt, it could’ve broke it open.”