Third-seeded De La Salle reaches Division I semifinals
For a moment Friday in the North Coast Section Division I baseball quarterfinal between De La Salle and visiting San Ramon Valley, it appeared history might repeat itself.
Nine days ago, when the same teams met in an East Bay Athletic League semifinal, De La Salle wiped out leads of four runs and two runs for an improbable 10-9 win in nine innings.
This time it was DLS that entered the sixth inning with a six-run advantage. The Wolves trimmed four runs off that lead thanks to four walks and three base hits, making it a two-run game going to the bottom of the sixth.
But Spartans catcher Anthony Martinez laced a bases-loaded single for two of his five RBIs, leading third-seeded DLS to an 8-4 victory over San Ramon Valley, which ended the season at 16-11.
Cade Cushing followed Martinez's single with another line drive to center that was caught by Jordan Lewis, who turned it into a triple play.
Martinez's other RBIs came on a three-run homer in the third that gave DLS a 4-0 lead. For the afternoon, Martinez was 2-for-5, which kept his season average at an even .400. The UC-Irvine-bound senior has nine homers and 39 RBIs, both team-leading figures.
“He's one of the best hitters in Northern California,” said Spartans coach David Jeans, whose program has won 18 consecutive NCS games.
The four-run sixth by San Ramon Valley made the game a bit more interesting than De La Salle (22-6) would have liked on the way to a semifinal meeting with Liberty, an upset winner over Clayton Valley Charter. DLS will host Liberty on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Four De La Salle pitchers walked 10 and hit two more. The Wolves had at least one baserunner in every inning, but Martinez threw out one runner trying to steal second and the DLS infield turned two double plays.
“It was a battle,” De La Salle starting pitcher Cal Randall said. “The defense held my back. They get acclimated to a lot of fields playing on this field.”
De La Salle's infield is a little choppy. SRV took advantage of it when Jared Lewis drove in two runs to make it 6-4 on a grounder that took a bad hop over second baseman Alec Nava's head. The grounder was scored as a hit.
The Wolves got two more runners on with one out in the seventh, but 6-foot-5 sophomore Jack Hershey closed it out by retiring the only two batters he faced for his first save.
Randall (4-2) was lifted in the sixth after walking his sixth batter to lead off the inning. He struck out five and hit a batter. He didn't allow a hit, according to the official scoring book, but a shot by SRV catcher Nick Putnam off the glove of Nava at second in the fourth easily could have been ruled a single.
Jeans said he got Randall after the leadoff walk in the sixth because “he was at about 90 pitches, he's got a great future and I never run a pitcher out there for 110 pitches. But Cal was electric today.”
Randall, who is committed to UCLA, has pitched a relatively modest total of 35 innings this season. He wasn't injured. The plan was for him to rest more early in the season, saving himself for the bigger games that would come later on.
“It helped a lot,” he said. “You try to chill out, not do too much, gain strength.”
Randall lowered his ERA to 1.96 on Friday. His fastball reached the mid-90s earlier this season against Monte Vista.
As for San Ramon Valley, the season was a trying one. Coach Tony Battilega stepped down without warning about three weeks ago, citing toxic conditions. The Wolves are ranked 17th in the Bay Area News Group Top 20.
Kirk Ekstrom, who is up from the junior varsity as the acting coach, said he will apply for the permanent job.
“I'm proud of the way we played after everything that happened,” Ekstrom said. “What happened was a tough blow. Told the players they needed to support each other, to love each other unconditionally. A lot of teams would not have bounced back. We made it to the quarterfinals.”