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It took two days, two different fields and 14 innings of play, but in the end the Granada High baseball team finally got its first North Coast Section championship.
The Matadors turned the trick by outlasting De La Salle for a 1-0 win in a classic Division I title game that started Friday at Monte Vista and ended Saturday at Granada.
Two teams that have established their prowess as offensive powerhouses saw their respective pitching dominate the game.
On Friday (May 24), the game started at 5 p.m. and by close to 8 p.m. neither team had pushed a run across the plate. Tied at 0-0, the game was called due to darkness.
With Monte Vista’s field unavailable Saturday, the game was shifted to top-seeded Granada’s field for a 1 p.m. start on Saturday to continue the proceedings.
The two pitching staffs were overpowering. For De La Salle, starting pitcher RJ Meyn went eight innings and did not allow a hit — the Mats did not get their first hit until the ninth inning.
Granada starter Jake Sekany was equally as impressive, allowing only two hits over nine innings, striking out six batters.
Jack Karst came in for De La Salle in the ninth and pitched two innings, allowing a hit in each inning. AJ Hattaway came in for Granada in the 10th and allowed one hit and struck out two.
On Saturday, the ball was handed to Tommy Curran for De La Salle, with Granada turning it over to ace Parker Warner, the Player of the Year for the East Bay Athletic League.
Curran allowed two hits, while Warner also was touched for a pair of hits and struck out six in his four innings of work.
The 14th and final inning had the most excitement by far of any over the course of the game.
With Ethan Sullivan of De La Salle at first with one out, Jamie Sullivan singled to left, Sullivan moved to third — it was the first time in the game the Spartans had a runner reach third — and Mullin ended up at second when the throw from the outfield went to third.
But Warner, who is headed to Stanford, struck out Carlo Garcia and induced Sean Stafford to fly out to left to end the threat.
In Granada’s half of the inning, with one out, Warner reached on a hard-hit ball that caromed off the De La Salle second baseman. Mikey Boyd followed with a single to center field, moving Warner to second.
After a second out, AJ Martinez singled to left, bringing Warner in with the game-winning run.
The Mats, a top-20 team in the nation, moved to 29-1 on the season and are the top seed for the CIF NorCal Championships.
Granada will host No. 8 Clovis West, Tuesday (May 28) at 4 p.m.
De La Salle was seeded No. 4 and will host No. 5 Rocklin, also Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Should Granada and De La Salle both win, they would meet again Thursday (May 30) in the semifinals.
NCS softball
Amador Valley also needed extra innings, pushing a run across in the top of the eighth to get a 3-2 win over College Park to win the D-I title.
Emmerson Giles got the Dons the early lead with a home run in the first inning. The Dons made it 2-0 with a run in the fourth and took that lead into the bottom of the seventh.
College Park tied it up with a two-run homer from Abby Wood, sending the game into extras.
In the top of the eighth, Lauren Tran drove in the go-ahead run for the 3-2 Amador lead. In the bottom half, Amador pitcher Kaylee Davis — who went the distance, striking out 11 — closed the door to give the Dons the win.
Amador stands 16-11 on the season and will open CIF NorCal play as the No. 8 seed and will play at top-seeded Saint Francis Tuesday (May 28) at 4 p.m.
The Dons lost to Saint Francis 8-2 earlier this year.
CIF State track and field
The Granada 4×800 relay team turned in the performance of the meet for EBAL teams, finishing second in the meet held at Buchanan High in Clovis.
Eshaan Singh, Adrian Cuevas Gomez, Erik Bromley and Aleksander Schade were the four runners.
Foothill’s team of Elias Benard, Brennan DeCoite, Shiven Karnik and Nolan Chavez placed seventh in the same race, also finishing on the medal stand out of 17 schools entered in the event.
On the girls’ side, Granada was sixth in the 4×800 with the team of Evelyn Ruckmann-Barnes, Sade Bumpus, Mia Lnenicka and Jana Barron.
Arrin Sagiraju of Dougherty Valley was seventh in the boys’ 1,600-meter finals.
Elise Doyle of San Ramon Valley was sixth in the girls’ pole vault with a clearance of 12-5. The event was won by former Dublin athlete Jathiyah Muhammad of Pittsburg with a mark of 13-9.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
