Playoff perfect: Mitty beats Granite Bay to win NorCal DII title
SAN JOSE >> The Archbishop Mitty baseball team was just waiting for the playoffs to show what it could do.
The Monarchs concluded a 6-0 run through the Central Coast Section and Northern California playoffs with a 4-2 win Saturday over Granite Bay for the inaugural CIF NorCal Division II championship.
Outstanding pitching was the big reason behind Mitty's postseason success. After an 18-10 regular season that included a 6-8 mark in West Catholic Athletic League play, the Monarchs allowed a combined total of four runs in six playoff games
“At the beginning of the year I said this could be one of the best pitching staffs ever,'' Mitty coach Brian Yocke said. “As a staff, they came together in the postseason.''
Four of the six postseason victories were shutouts. Half the runs the staff allowed were scored by Granite Bay in the third inning Saturday when Preston Fondren hit a tworun double. But lockdown pitching in the late innings propelled Mitty to the title.
After that two-run third which cut Mitty's lead to 3-2, sophomore left-hander Luka Pintar cruised through the fourth and fifth. Avery Isola hit a leadoff single for Granite Bay in the sixth. Pintar (8-3) then fielded a sacrifice bunt, but threw low and in the dirt to first base for an error, putting runners on first and second with none out.
A moment of reckoning. Pintar gave himself a little talk.
“I knew I could trust my
defense so I told myself not to be afraid to attack the zone,'' Pintar said.
He struck out the next two batters and got the final out on a grounder to short.
“He knew he was good enough to attack hitters,'' Yocke said. “But to go strikeout-strikeout, that's his mindset. I couldn't have asked for more.''
Pintar had two outs with a runner on in the seventh when he reached his pitch limit. Tristan Fox came in to get the final out and record the save.
Mitty (24-10), the No. 2 seed in the NorCal Division II bracket, jumped out in the lead with a two-run first inning. David Estrada singled before Matteo Blandino and Jarren Advincula each drew walks to load the bases. Antonio Cabrera's sacrifice fly scored one run. A single by T.J. Hays brought in another.
Luke Brocilo and Noah Pang singled in the second to put runners on first and third and Brocilo scored on Alijah Ramos' fly out to right field.
The Monarchs added an insurance run in the fifth on their third sacrifice fly of the game.
Mitty received production up and down its lineup. Estrada, Advincula, Cabrera and Brocilo had two hits apiece. Hays drove in two runs.
“For me and especially for the team and the four seniors we have, to end it like this is just so special,'' Advincula said.