Paly finishes baseball tournament with a flourish Paly finishes baseball tournament with a flourish (April 09, 2004)

by Keith Peters

What started out as a potential disaster, ended with plenty of promise for the Palo Alto High baseball team.

Now, perhaps, the Vikings can look forward to a turnaround once the SCVAL De Anza Division season continues next week.

When Palo Alto opened play in annual Serra/Knights of Columbus tournament last weekend with a 14-5 loss to St. Mary's (Stockton) and a 7-3 setback to Bellarmine on Monday, the outlook for the rest of spring break looked pretty bleak.

Then, however, came a 15-1 blasting of Carlmont on Tuesday and a 3-2 win over Los Gatos in the tournament's fifth-place game Wednesday. Suddenly, the Vikings are riding some momentum.

We're playing better," said Paly coach Pete Colombo.

There were plenty of signs of that during the past two games. After committing six errors that led to six unearned runs against Bellarmine, the Vikings' defense tightened up and the results improved.

Paly committed just one error against Carlmont and three against Los Gatos.

Equally important was the offense. The Vikings had 18 hits against the Scots and got a big two-run homer from Nathan Ford to put away the Wildcats.

Against Carlmont, David Stringer (3-4) tossed a complete-game four-hitter and struck out eight. Fellow senior Shane Parsons blasted a grand slam for Paly, which got three hits each from Ryan Greenfield, Max Pinto and Ford.

Against Los Gatos, senior Jimmy Meuel did give up 10 hits but allowed no earned while earning his first win of the season. Ford's two-run homer came in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game.

On Monday, Paly received a fine pitching effort from Jeremy Gillan (4-1), who limited Bellarmine to just three hits and one earned run. Ford had two RBI.

While Palo Alto's tournament ended on the positive, Menlo-Atherton (7-10) saw its hopes dashed with a 12-8 loss to Helix in the third round of the 54th annual Lions San Diego Baseball Tournament.

The Bears took an early 7-0 lead, but a third game in three days finally took its took on the M-A pitching staff as Helix scored six times in the bottom of the third and six more over the next three innings.

Clark Hagman belted a two-run homer and Domenic Di Ricco had three hits and drove in four. Di Ricco finished the tournament with six hits in nine at-bats.

On Tuesday, Menlo-Atherton produced a 4-2 win over Lompoc as Grant Stevenson struck out 10 in a complete-game five-hitter. Seven of the strikeouts came in the final three innings.

Menlo-Atherton had only three hits, but made the most of them. Kyle McCabe blasted a grand slam in the fourth after David Klein, Di Ricco and Alex Roth had drawn walks.

On Monday, the Bears registered a 5-3 victory over Escondido, rallying for five runs over the final two innings to pull out the victory. After tying the game at 3-all with three runs in the top of the seventh, Menlo-Atherton got a single from Justin Dove to open the eighth. Alex Bedrosian then crushed a two-run homer to end it.

Domenic Di Ricco had three hits to lead the Bears. Tyler Finley had a double and two RBI. McCabe went the distance for M-A, limiting Escondido (6-5) to six hits.

While Palo Alto and Menlo-Atherton both received some fine pitching performances during the week, the best might have been the effort turned in by Tommy Pierson of Sacred Heart Prep.

The sophomore left-hander used only 90 pitches during his complete-game no-hitter, a 12-0 romp over visiting St. Lawrence in a Private Schools Athletic League game.

Pierson mixed his pitches well, using fast balls and off-speed pitches to shut down the Celtics. His no-hitter never appeared in jeopardy during a dominating performance that moved the Gators to 4-0 in league (8-1 overall).

Sacred Heart Prep gave Pierson plenty of support with 12 hits. The Gators scored six times in the second to put the game away. With two out, Grant Toeppen and RJ Horsley laced singles. Pat Coffey reached base on one of four St. Lawrence errors to plate the first run. The Gators then combined three hits and a walk to finish the inning.

Hudson Smyhe led the hit parade with two doubles and four RBI. Spencer Lucian added two hits and two RBI while Mike Connor also drove in a pair.

Sacred Heart Prep next will face Pinewood in a PSAL on Friday at the Los Altos Hills baseball complex at 3:30 p.m.

Swimming

The Sacred Heart Prep boys improved to 5-0 in the West Catholic Athletic League (and 7-1 overall) with a solid 112-58 dual-meet win over host Serra on Wednesday.

Senior Carter Brutschy clocked personal bests of 22.96 to win the 50-yard free and 5:07.20 to win the 500 free. Bradley Thompson also had personal records while winning the 200 individual medley in 2:04.62 and 100 back in 59.48.

Freshman Kameron Maxfield-Flores added PRs while winning the 100 fly (56.62) and 200 free (1:52.32).

The SHP girls posted a 107-63 triumph over Notre Dame-Belmont, also at Serra, as Genevieve Ang swam a career best of 57.14 to win the 100 free. She also won the 50 free in 26.83 while teammate Katie Sutherland won the 100 breast in a career-best 1:12.58.
Track and field

Menlo School junior Libby Jenke lost her state lead in the girls' 800 over the weekend at the annual Oakland Invitational at Cal's Edwards Stadium.

Jenke finished second in the two-lapper in 2:14.75, just off her Central Coast Section-leading best of 2:14.26. Lindsay Allen of College Park, headed for Stanford in the fall, won the girls' 800 in a new state-leading 2:13.10.

Jenke also took 11th in the 400 in 1:00.84.

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