Tag: inside sports

SAN JOSE — Three days after upsetting top-seeded Valley Christian in an instant classic on Wednesday, Archbishop Mitty completed its section playoff run with a dominant 6-2 win over St. Ignatius in the Central Coast Section Division I title game on Saturday at Excite Ballpark.

The Monarchs captured their second Central Coast Section championship in three years.

“This was really special because of our journey,” said Mitty coach Brian Yocke. “There were so many ups and downs, and we just leaned into it. It’d be easy to say ‘it’s not our year,’ but these guys never felt that way. That all goes back to their DNA.” 

Senior Nico Rodriguez totaled two hits, two runs and an RBI. Center fielder Tanner Kern had two hits, two RBIs and a triple.

“We’ve found our stride last week,” Rodriguez said. “It’s just been really fun to be a part of.”

The Monarchs starched St. Ignatius’ pitchers from the start of the game

Mitty put up two runs in the first inning and exploded for more in the second. 

Rodriguez knocked in Grayson Munoz and Derek Allen to give the Monarchs a four-run advantage. Two at-bats later, Kern tripled to bring home Rodriguez and pushed the lead to five runs for Mitty. 

By the end of the second inning, the San Jose school built up a 6-0 lead. 

Mitty’s offense totaled eight hits in the first four innings and knocked out starting pitcher Will Siwinski after 1 ⅔ innings. Siwinski came into Saturday’s game having given up just one run in 13 starts. 

“We trusted in our offense and we knew if we stuck to the approach that we were going to get hits,” Rodriguez said. 

St. Ignatius found life in the fourth inning, scoring two runs to cut the Mitty lead to four. But that was the last time the San Francisco school found any success on offense. 

Mitty pitcher Luka Pintar pitched all seven innings, striking out five and allowing five hits. 

Pintar closed the seventh inning by retiring three straight batters. 

“Pintar, he keeps you off balance,” said St. Ignatius coach Brian Pollzzie. “He’s got a fastball, curveball, cutter and changeup. He mixes it up and keeps guys off balance, especially with a lead.” 

Coming off Wednesday’s win over Valley Christian, the Monarchs were riding high. 

Valley Christian defeated Mitty twice this season and were the favorites to win the CCS title as the No. 1 seed. But the Monarchs’ gusty 7-5 win on Wednesday gave the San Jose school the confidence it needed to win the section final.

“We knew if we could beat Valley Christian, we could beat anybody,” Rodriguez said. “We’re playing really good baseball now.”

Both teams will be awaiting to see who they will play in the CIF NorCal finals next week when the regional schedule releases on Sunday.

But for now, Yocke said he will try to enjoy this moment as long as he can. 

“The best part is just seeing how happy these kids are,” he said. 

LIVERMORE — Granada has the ability to score runs in the double-digits in any game it plays in.

But during its North Coast Section playoff run, the Livermore school has leaned into its superb pitching and rangy defense, and Acalanes saw that first-hand on Tuesday

Granada put on a stingy defensive performance and defeated the Dons 5-0 in the North Coast Section Division I semifinals to advance to the school’s first section title game in school history. The Matadors will play De La Salle in the section championship on Friday at Livermore High. 

“It’s awesome,” Brown said about advancing to the NCS title game. “It’s the perfect group of guys to do it. There’s no other way we wanted it to happen.”

Granada senior pitcher Parker Warner allowed two hits and struck out six in six innings while senior shortstop Nate Brown totaled two hits, two RBIs and a run.

Acalanes had its chance to put runs on the board in the top of the second inning. 

With an one out and a runner on second, Warner struck out Acalanes’ Ando Butner but the call was reversed to a foul tip as the first base judge ruled Butner’s bat made contact with the ball. Butner was eventually walked and one batter later, second baseman Mason Zirkel hit a single to load the bases. 

Warner got the Matadors out of the jam by striking out the ensuing batter and fielding a lineout straight to the pitcher’s mound in the next at-bat to end the inning. 

“We just kept our composure,” Warner said. “We had that strike three call switched to a foul ball. We just had to flush that frustration out and go to the next play.”

In the bottom of the inning, Granada capitalized off of Acalanes’ defensive miscues. 

Junior Peyton Richards scored the first run of the game for Granada, crossing home plate after Acalanes overthrew first base on a bunt attempt. Later in the inning, junior center fielder Tyler Kardy scored from third after the Dons failed to pick him off to give the Matadors a three-run cushion. 

Granada took a 4-0 lead going into the third inning. 

A scary moment happened in the third when an Acalanes runner slid into Brown who was covering second and trying to make a throw at first. The senior limped off the field, but eventually returned to the game and made a big impact. 

In the next inning, Brown hit a single to get to first base. He stole second and eventually reached home on a Mikey Boyd single to center field that gave the Matadors a 5-0 lead. 

The final nail in the coffin came when Brown’s single in the sixth inning knocked in Richards, giving Granada a six-run advantage. 

“I thought we had a good game plan coming into today’s game,” said Acalanes coach Connor Hornsby. “We were close to breaking it open early, but couldn’t get the timely hit we needed. Hats off to Granada. They’re a fantastic program and they’re tough to get to.”

In three section playoff games, Granada’s defense has allowed nine hits and one run. Granada’s pitchers have struck out 16 batters in that span. 

“Our pitchers have been working really hard for us,” Brown said. “We’re getting ground balls and they’re making their pitches happen. At the end of the day, it’s all on them.”

BENICIA — A dislocated finger wasn’t going to keep Benicia’s Colton Richardson off the field. 

Just after Richardson suffered the injury in the fifth inning, Benicia’s coaching staff wanted to take the first baseman out of the game for good. But with his team down a run and the season on the line, the sophomore came back and recorded the biggest hit of the season. 

Richardson’s go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth inning was the deciding factor as No. 4 Benicia defeated No. 13 Washington 6-4 in the first round of the North Coast Section Division II playoffs on Wednesday. The Panthers will play Vintage at home in the quarterfinals on Saturday. 

“It was kind of a crazy feeling because that’s my son,” said Benicia coach and Colton’s dad, Ryan Richardson. “It was a tough moment because we had to ask him ‘Can you really swing the bat?’ But we put him out there, and holistically as a dad and a coach, I wanted to see him go do that.”

Richardson finished the game 2 for 2 with three RBIs. Junior shortstop Peyton Rowles had two hits and a solo home run. 

Washington junior Ezekiel Venn Porter had two hits and an RBI and sophomore first baseman Ehkam Braich had two RBIs. 

The Panthers struggled to generate consistent offense with Washington pitcher Joseph Banda on the mound. 

Benicia mustered just three hits in the first four innings as Banda’s mix of fastballs and sliders blew past Panther batters. 

The senior pitcher finished the day striking out five and allowing just one earned run in 5 2/3 innings pitched. 

On offense, Washington’s bats did just enough to keep the Fremont school ahead. 

Porter knocked in the first run of the game in the third inning when his single down the third-base line scored sophomore Tyler Stevens. In the fourth, Branch singled to center field to bring home Jacob Odom and Mateo Torres to give Washington a 3-0 lead. 

After five innings, the Huskies led 4-1 and had all the momentum. Knowing what was at stake, Ryan Richardson tried his best to wake his team up. 

“He kind of lit into us a little bit,” Rowles said. “He definitely lit a fire under our butt. But we needed that and it helped a lot. The momentum carried on from there.”

The start to the sixth inning didn’t look good for Benicia. 

After Rowles’ solo homer cut the lead to 4-2, the very next batter struck out and the Huskies needed just one more out to escape the inning. 

With the count at 3-2, third baseman Myles Cooper hit a routine ball to the Washington shortstop but he fumbled the hit as Cooper reached first and the inning continued. 

Feeling fatigued, Banda was pulled from the game by Washington coach Michael Sewell. 

That’s when Benicia made its run. 

A baseball coach from a school in De La Salle’s league is accusing the Concord powerhouse of relaying catchers’ signs to batters, according to a formal complaint filed on Friday to the North Coast Section office.

In the complaint, which was obtained by the Bay Area News Group, Dougherty Valley coach Kyle Stewart alleged that De La Salle has “personnel whom have devices such as cameras, telephoto lenses, walkie talkies, and verbal cadence from the coaching staff (that) creates a litany of questionable actions.”

De La Salle strongly denied the allegations.

The school’s athletic director, Leo Lopoz, wrote in a text message on Friday night that an internal investigation “found absolutely no evidence of sign stealing.”

NCS commissioner Pat Cruickshank confirmed that his office received the complaint and is hopeful that the schools can resolve the matter on their own.

“This is a complaint from one school to the other, and their two administrations can work on this together, and if I need to get involved I will,” Cruickshank told the Bay Area News Group on Friday. “I’d like to see if the two schools can handle things themselves, and if it’s unfounded, then it’s unfounded. If they agree on that, great. If not, we’ll take a look.”

Stewart declined to comment about the matter. Dougherty Valley athletic director SueEllen Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

The complaint alleges that during a game at Dougherty Valley on March 27, De La Salle coach David Jeans “repeatedly vacated the third base coaches area to peek over the foul line and into the catcher’s finger signals” before calling out “trust it” for a fastball or “battle” for an offspeed pitch.

The complaint states that Jeans stopped relaying signs when parents in the stands told him they were recording his actions.

During the next game between the teams, Tuesday at De La Salle, the complaint states that Jeans attempted to relay signs the same way for the first two innings.

“After the second inning, our pitcher, catcher, and staff completely changed our pitch calling signs,” the complaint claimed. “De La Salle had one hit for the remainder of the game.”

The complaint also alleges that during Tuesday’s game, a Dougherty Valley player noticed a man with a camera and large lens shooting from behind the center-field fence.

“The same player allegedly heard a pitch called from that same area of (the) fence, and immediately called time out and yelled “this guy back here is calling pitches,” the complaint states. “The man in question immediately packed up his stuff and scurried off.”

Jeans declined to comment when approached by a Bay Area News Group reporter after his team’s 7-3 victory at California on Friday.

Later Friday, Lopoz provided his statement, which read in full:

“On May 1, following a baseball game against Dougherty Valley High School on April 30, De La Salle was informed that some attending Dougherty Valley parents had made allegations that a photographer had been seen in the outfield and that this person had relayed game signs to De La Salle’s dugout during play.

“De La Salle immediately followed established protocols and conducted an internal investigation. This investigation found absolutely no evidence of sign stealing. Moreover, the photographer was identified as someone who attends and photographs high school baseball games and is well-known throughout the local area. He was at the game to take photographs for his personal use and to sell these images. He was not there at De La Salle’s direction or request.

“On May 3, De La Salle was copied on a letter that Dougherty Valley sent to North Coast Section (NCS), formally alleging sign stealing by De La Salle. In response, De La Salle immediately reached out to Dougherty Valley to refute the allegation and communicated the findings of its internal investigation with NCS and the East Bay Athletic League (EBAL).”

Neither NCS nor CIF addresses sign stealing in its bylaws. The practice is well documented throughout baseball history, but generally confined to the players and the field of play. When a team uses a scheme or technology to steal signs, that’s often viewed as breaking the bounds of sportsmanship.

Like many baseball teams in the Bay Area, Los Gatos spent a week away from home playing non-league teams. 

But instead of taking on other opponents from the West Coast, the Wildcats traveled down to middle Tennessee, playing unfamiliar programs like Friendship Christian and Overton in a small town called Lebanon.

Located around 45 minutes east of the state capitol and a world away from what the South Bay natives were used to, the teenagers grew to appreciate the state that coach Mike Minkel spent his college years.

“They saw a lot of respect for strangers and people you’ve never met before,” said Minkel, who went to school at Cumberland in Lebanon. “A lot of time spent holding doors for people and going out of your way to be kind when you don’t have to be.”

Despite both graduating from the same NAIA program in the 2000’s, both Minkel and his assistant coach Eric Mull still have plenty of friends in the area, making it possible to plan games and put together events with help from locals. 

Los Gatos won all three games in the Volunteer state, including a 10-5 victory in Nashville over Mookie Betts’ alma mater Overton High. 

They might have been 2,000 miles from temperate Los Gatos, but Brayden Smith and Lucas Carlisle led an offense that looked comfortable in the southeastern humidity. Each junior hit a home run against the Nashville powerhouse, which is 9-1 in league play. 

The 18-3 Wildcats stayed focused between the lines, but their coaches made sure they also had fun on their trip. 

With several of his players both avid country music and college baseball fans, they also enjoyed a day in the genre’s mecca and caught a Vanderbilt game too. 

The Wildcats even got to see the South’s party bus and hot chicken epicenter of Broadway Street, albeit from a distance. 

“They got to see what Broadway looked like at night,” Minkel said, who then laughed and added, “Although obviously, we all stayed in the car and drove them around, because there’s not much you can do walking around there at 16.”