CCS roundup: Santa Clara outlasts Branham in nine-inning baseball thriller

In a challenge that needed two extra innings and didn t end until nearly midnight Santa Clara overcame multiple Branham comebacks on Tuesday to beat the San Jose school - in the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Division IV playoffs at Excite Ballpark The domination sends eighth-seeded Santa Clara into the Division IV championship encounter against second-seeded St Francis SCP on Friday night at Santa Clara University Santa Clara led - after three innings and - after But fifth-seeded Branham erased both deficits The San Jose school tied the outcome - with two in the fourth and evened the count again with four in the fifth after Santa Clara had taken what seemed like a peaceful lead Branham then escaped a bases-loaded one-out jam in the sixth and got out of a bases-loaded two-out threat in the eighth But Santa Clara wasn t going to be denied in the ninth After a wild pitch put runners into scoring position with one out John Kepner singled to left to drive in Connor Houle to give Santa Clara an - lead Drew Diffenderfer followed with a line-drive single to right knocking in Andrew Traffas to make it - After a walk loaded the bases Greg Salgado singled to center to bring in Kepner for a - advantage Dominick Chavarria sacrifice fly drove in Santiago Lopez to complete the scoring Branham opened the bottom of the ninth with a single but Kepner struck out the next batter and then induced two fly outs to end the competition Kepner pitched the final five innings for his club allowing one run In a season of numerous highlights for Santa Clara this one might have topped them all Santa Clara had a strong regular season but was seeded low because of its strength of schedule The seeding hasn t mattered it turns out In the first round Saturday Santa Clara beat top seed Carlmont - in nine innings Tuesday s achievement improved Santa Clara s record to - Branham finished - Division IV No St Francis SCP No Homestead It took Homestead and St Francis of Watsonville nine innings to settle this CCS semifinal at Excite Ballpark The Sharks - fully manufactured the encounter s lone run in the bottom of the ninth It started with a single to center by Mason Borrego Borrego stole second with one out and advanced to third on a groundout With two outs he was in position to sum if Homestead made a mistake That s exactly what happened A ground ball was misplayed at shortstop and Borrego raced home to points the winning run The heartbreaking loss rendered a Herculean pitching performance moot for Homestead - Andrew Sun started the championship for the Mustangs and pitched five shutout innings then Logan Christianson took over and went innings with just one hit allowed and the one unearned run Christianson struck out five hitters and Sun fanned three Neither Homestead pitcher conceded a walk Sun also led the Mustangs with three hits in his final high school tournament matching the three hits he gave up on the mound Division V No Menlo School No Piedmont Hills Menlo scored in every inning building a - lead heading into the top of the seventh Then suddenly Piedmont Hills bats woke up in a big way The Pirates plated five runs in the final inning and had the tying run up with one out after Jake Paskert s triple brought in Christian Bustamante Logan O Connell and Toby Torres Unfortunately for the Pirates that was as close as they would get Jack Freehill buckled down and struck out Josh Gomez then got Alex Tran to fly out to center to end the encounter Freehill also had three hits and two RBIs for the Knights - Menlo will face No Monterey - in the championship competition Thursday at Excite Ballpark Piedmont Hills finished - Division VI No South San Francisco No Fremont-Sunnyvale South City - scored in every inning but one to advance to the championship tournament with a win at Santa Clara University Emilio Oseguera had three hits and two RBIs for the Warriors Gabriel Martin Adam Keith and Josh Ornelas also drove in runs as South City moves on to play Stevenson in the Division VI final on Thursday at Excite Ballpark Oseguera got the win on the mound allowing two runs and four hits with seven strikeouts in six innings Fremont finished - No Stevenson No Sobrato Sobrato s bid to reach the championship competition fell short as Stevenson prevailed behind a big event from Phinn Thomas who went for with three RBIs and scored three runs Vince Pomo and Austin Pierson each knocked in two runs for Sobrato Stevenson improved to - Sobrato dropped to - Softball Division I No Gilroy No Saratoga A true pitchers duel at Los Gatos High ended with Gilroy coming out on top Starting pitcher Lele Yslava spun a one-hitter in the circle for Gilroy - striking out Saira Ramakrishnan wasn t far behind for Saratoga - allowing two hits and one earned run in six innings Averi Peters had the lone RBI for Gilroy scoring Jennie Hernandez on a ground ball Earlier in the fourth inning Hernandez walked advanced to second on a wild pitch and stole third Sydney Riera put specific pressure on Gilroy in the top of the seventh reaching on an error to lead off the inning and later stealing second with two outs But Yslava recorded her th strikeout to end the tournament on three pitches No The King s Academy No Live Oak In the other semifinal at Los Gatos Katia Nesper did it all for TKA - She pitched a complete-game shutout with strikeouts and batted in the winning runs with a two-run triple in the third inning Ava Thompson drove in the other run for the Knights scoring Mia Bennette with a single to right in the fifth TKA will play Gilroy in the Division I championship on Saturday Live Oak s season ends at - Division III No Aptos No Sobrato Aptos - took control early in this battle of high seeds and didn t let up The Mariners - scored in the top of the first added three in the second and put the hammer down with five in the fourth Related Articles Antonio Castro crushes two homers as De La Salle beats Foothill to reach NCS D baseball title event NCS roundup College Park reaches first NCS D-I baseball final in a decade Alanna Clincy pitches complete challenge hits two-run double as Willow Glen advances to CCS Open title meeting NorCal golf De La Salle wins organization title College Prep s Chang places first Trump warns California Gov Newsom of a transgender athlete showdown this weekend Sobrato - managed two runs in the bottom of the seventh but it was too little too late Jordan Bouton had the RBI hit for the Bulldogs driving in two Division V No King City No Independence innings Ava Sanchez and Skylar Crowell each had a single for Independence but that was about all the highlights for the San Jose school as King City rolled to a run-rule preeminence at Hollister High After a scoreless first inning King City erupted for three runs in the second three in the third four in the fourth and six in the fifth Janesa Lopez led King City with three hits and four RBIs Raylie Moore knocked in three runs and Amity Hearne drove in two as King City - advanced to play Soledad or South San Francisco in the final this weekend Independence finished -