Oakland Tech wins Transbay title

“I’m honestly just trying to hit a single. It’s a big field. I can’t do anything more than that. Just hit a single and knock the runners in. I’m a low-and-in hitter. I got low and in, I saw it and I just dropped the barrel.” Michael Paltiel, Oakland Tech catcher, whose single was the key hit

Isaac Lucas did not waver. The Oakland Tech pitcher had allowed four hits in the bottom of the seventh inning of the third game of the Transbay Series against Lowell on Tuesday. One run was in and the bases were loaded with the tying run on third and just one out.

It was a pressure situation at Maloney Field on the campus of San Francisco State. Oh, and Lucas is a freshman. Lucas bore down, getting Jordan Bach on an infield grounder with an out at home and then inducing Matteo Koulias to pop out. The Bulldogs won the game 3-2 and claimed the Transbay title for the second consecutive year and sixth time in school history.

“Got a couple of unlucky hits there and there and I found myself in a hole, bases loaded,” Lucas said. “I really just tried to throw strikes and get out of it.”

Before the inning started, Lowell coach Darryl Semien told his team, “We have a job to do. And the game isn’t over and as long as we have three outs, we have a shot.”

He added that the players needed to scrap and claw their way on base. They did that. Lucas had pitched three innings to that point, allowing three hits and no runs in relief of Brendan Barry-Owen. Jack Schonherr led off the inning with a line-drive single to right. Cameron Tang then lined out to center. Levi Humphrey singled to make it first and third.

Mark Zhu’s infield single brought home Schonherr. Conner Vo then hit a high chopper to first. Blaine French shorthopped it and thought about trying to get the lead runner. Then, when he turned toward first, nobody had come to cover.

“Very,” catcher Michael Paltiel said when asked if he was nervous in the seventh. “What he (Lucas) feels, I have to feel. Nerves are nerves — you have to get past them.”

Paltiel had the key hit in the game, knocking in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the fourth. The bases were loaded, thanks to Tang hitting a batter and walking another, sandwiched around an error when Schonherr, the second baseman, couldn’t handle a throw from Zhu, the third baseman, on an attempted forceout.

“I’m honestly just trying to hit a single,” Paltiel said. “It’s a big field. I can’t do anything more than that. Just hit a single and knock the runners in. I’m a low-and-in hitter. I got low and in, I saw it and I just dropped the barrel.”

Oakland Tech coach Bryan Bassette said the team’s brain trust had considered pinchhitting for Paltiel.

“I said, ‘No, Fingers (we call him Fingers) has been hot. Let him hit,’ ” Bassette said. “First pitch, turned one around and put us up. We didn’t look back.”

Lowell (23-8) had taken a 1-0 lead in the second when Humphrey hit a double and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Vo. However, the Cardinals could have had more as they loaded the bases against BarryOwen, who got Shane Stanley to fly to right to end the threat.

Aidan Young dropped a terrific squeeze bunt in the fifth to knock in the other run for the Bulldogs (12-13-1).

Oakland Tech’s win sent Bassette out a winner. He is retiring as a coach for the time being to pursue a graduate degree at Cal.