When all was said and done it came down to one team being better than the other on that one particular day. How good you were for the long haul, the measurement for overall accomplishment, didn’t really matter.
Left-hander Luke Short was the dominant player Saturday as he pitched and hit Los Gatos to a 3-1 victory over Palo Alto in the Central Coast Section Open Division baseball quarterfinals at Washington Park in Santa Clara.
“We ran into a good pitcher,’’ Palo Alto coach Pete Fukuhara said. “You’ve just got to tip your cap.’’
Short pitched a complete game and allowed just one unearned run. He issued only one walk (and that was an intentional pass) and struck out seven. He also went 2 for 3 with two runs scored out of the leadoff slot in the lineup.
And so Palo Alto’s season came to an end, a season in which the Vikings won the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division title by two games (over second-place Los Gatos) and also won the De Anza Division post-season tournament (with a win over Los Gatos in the championship game).
Paly (22-7) had won two of three games with Los Gatos prior to Saturday’s CCS matchup. But the Wildcats evened the season series with the win and extended their season. They will play Serra, a team Los Gatos has beaten this year, on Tuesday in the Open Division semifinals.
“One game like this, running into a good pitcher doesn’t take anything away from a team that was a solo champion in a good league two years in a row,’’ Fukuhara said.
Just another cruel caprice of the game.
“It’s hard to win the last one,’’ shortstop Niko Lillios said.
Fukuhara went with Spencer Rojahn as his starting pitcher. Los Gatos (22-8) got a run in the bottom of the first, but Paly tied it in the third.
Lillios singled on a high-chopper to third base and then stole second, his 25th steal of the season. Josh Kasevich’s grounder into the hole was back-handed by the Los Gatos shortstop, but his throw got by the first baseman with Lillios scoring from second for his 33rd run scored of the season.
The score stayed at 1-1 until the fifth. Los Gatos loaded the bases with two out and Rojahn went to work on No. 8 batter Trevor Allen.
Rojahn’s first pitch was a curve that started out at the batter but broke sharply over the plate for a called strike. So Rojahn tried to throw the same pitch again. But this one was slower in making the break and it hit Allen, forcing in the go-ahead run.
Fukuhara changed pitchers to start the sixth, bringing in southpaw James Roake to face the two lefty batters at the top of the Los Gatos lineup. But Short singled to right and stole second. Then with two out cleanup batter Tyler Williams singled off Kasevich to bring home Short with an insurance run.
Paly went down in order in the top of the seventh and the season and careers of a group of talented seniors came to an end.
“It’s real weird not being able to come back next year,’’ said senior second baseman Max Jung-Goldberg, who is headed to the University of San Diego. “It’s really tough. I’m going to miss them so much.’’
Great game to watch and well played. Just a few to many walks to Gatos hitters came back to haunt Paly.
Another great season of Paly baseball and those kids represented Palo Alto High School well and played hard.
Just really great to see Paly Baseball so solid and steady the last 4 years and Head Coach Pete Fukuhara, Colombo and Brewer will have this thing going good for years to come, really solid program.