It wasn't too long ago that Palo Alto baseball coach Mark Ginanni called a team meeting to discuss his team's up and down year. "We talked about the rollercoaster effect," Ginanni explained. "We'd win two, lose one; win one, lose two."
Up and down. Down and up. Highs and lows. But not for long. Things began to click and the players began to act.
"I think I started to see something that final week, when we won three games in three days," Ginanni said, noting that some giant lightbulb had gone on over his players' heads. "They had an individual meeting--no coaches allowed. I think it started then."
"It" might have been the realization that, as a team, these Vikings were indeed a special group.
"We knew what kind of talent we had," Ginanni said. "We just said, 'let's just do it.' "
And do it they did. The Vikings won those three games in three days to wrap up the SCVAL De Anza Division title, their first league crown since 1986. And now, Palo Alto is doing it again.
Two more victories and the Vikings will have a long-awaited CCS championship.
But first, Palo Alto must get by Terra Nova in a Division II semifinal at San Jose Municipal Stadium at 7 p.m. In the other semifinal, Sequoia takes on Saratoga at 4 p.m.
The winners will meet for the title Friday at 7 p.m. in San Jose Muni.
Paly earned tonight's berth by surprising Monterey, 3-1, Saturday at Santa Clara's Washington Park. Earlier that day, Terra Nova ended Menlo School's season with a 6-1 victory.
"We knew they were a good team," Ginanni said of Monterey, ranked third in the CCS this season. "But we got good pitching from Todd (Carter). It was a good game, and an even better win."
Palo Alto now has won seven straight games and is starting to feel mighty confident.
"We feel we can beat anybody," Ginanni said. "I think the guys are confident. We're on a roll."
Ginanni will throw junior left-hander Jamie Littlefield against Terra Nova, a team the Vikings defeated, 5-3, in the Lions tournament earlier this spring. If Littlefield can summon up his curveball and produce another performance like he did in Paly's CCS-opening victory over Sacred Heart Prep--Littlefield fired a one-hitter--then Carter will get the call in Friday's title game.
Carter wasn't overpowering against Monterey, but still had a no-hitter until the fourth when the host team pushed across its only run of the game on a double and a pair of groundouts.
He settled down and pitched a complete-game three-hitter, throwing 103 pitches.
Carter got the support he needed beginning in the fifth when Jim Farris walked and took third on Kevin Okimoto's second of three hits. After a groundout by Mikey Smith, Pete Fukuhara tied the game with a sacrifice fly.
Paly scored single runs in the sixth and seventh, the first on an RBI single by Peter Rice and the second when Okimoto doubled and scored on a single by Jamal Harrison.
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