WALNUT >> Bonita senior pitcher Justin Santiago served notice in the opening game of the San Gabriel Valley Pizza Chalet Tournament on Feb. 11 by taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning and earning a one-run victory over Northview.

Santiago got the call again Wednesday night for a typically intense battle against rival San Dimas in the tournament’s championship game at Mt. SAC. Although it wasn’t his best performance, Santiago was clutch when he needed to be and helped Bonita pull off a 4-2 victory.

Bonita scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to break a 2-2 tie and give Santiago a two-run lead going to the bottom of the seventh.

San Dimas’ Kasen Khansarania reached on an error by Bonita and Landon White was hit by a pitch to give the Saints hope. But Santiago struck out the next two batters and got a ground out to end the game.

Santiago went the distance, struck out eight, allowed five hits and threw five straight scoreless innings to close it out.

Bonita improved to 4-0 while San Dimas dropped to 3-1.

“I was just bearing down (in the seventh),” Santiago said. “I have a defense that I trust. It’s a team game that got us the lead and I just had to secure it. I just wanted to win, whether it was me finishing the game or (someone else), I just wanted to win the game.”

Bonita’s Jared Brunk led off the seventh inning with a double, and after the Bearcats loaded the bases with no outs, Diego Vasquez’s walk forced in Brunk to break the 2-2 tie. Tyler Holley’s fly out to left scored another run.

Bonita will travel to San Dimas on Tuesday when the rivals play their scheduled rivalry game.

Khansarinia nearly went the distance for the Saints, but he was pulled in the seventh after the Bearcats loaded the bases.

San Dimas co-head coach Mike Regan thought the Saints had plenty of opportunities to win, but they had some errors on the base paths and could not get timely hits.

“We made some key mistakes,” Regan said. “We had first and second and got thrown out at third. But our guys, I’ll take it every day. They make mistakes and they play hard. The good thing is we get them next week so I don’t have anything else to say. They beat us, that’s it.”

Bonita has some bragging rights, for now.

“It’s a great feeling being top of the mountain, but now we have a target on our backs and we have to defend that every day,” Santiago said.

Spencer Savage had two hits and scored twice for the Bearcats.

For the Saints, Vaughn Coleman had two hits and scored a run and White had a double and scored a run.

Bonita coach Ryan Marcos wasn’t surprised the game was tied going to the seventh inning.

“Our team is all heart, we fight and we came back,” Marcos said. “It’s baseball, anybody can beat anybody on any given day, but that seventh inning we came back and made it happen, so it feels good.”

White nearly homered for the Saints in the first inning, sending a shot to the fence in left field for a double.

A couple of batters later, Rocco Regan hit a double to left that scored White from third for a 1-0 lead.

Bonita’s Savage belted an RBI single to right in the second inning, scoring Andrew Alva to tie the score 1-1.

The Saints regained the lead on John Nauertz’s groundout that scored Coleman from third to go ahead 2-1 in the second.

It stayed that way until the fifth inning when Savage singled and moved to second on an error, then Vasquez singled to left to bring Savage home.