A battle between two unbeaten baseball programs in the North Coast Section lived up to billing on Wednesday afternoon, as host Heritage and Foothill battled through five and a half scoreless innings before the home team finally manufactured a run in the bottom of the sixth inning and emerged with a 1-0 victory.
Heritage’s lone run came when least expected. After threatening to score in each of the first four innings against Foothill starter Brett Hansen, the Patriots (7-0) were set down in order by reliever James Kroll in the bottom of the fifth. Kroll then retired the first two Heritage batters in the bottom of the sixth before sophomore Chaz Myers worked a full count and drew a free pass.
Myers stole second on the first pitch of Keith Jones’ plate appearance, and came around to score when Jones’ ground ball to third base one pitch later resulted in an error on the throw to first. Kroll retired Ryan Jackson on a fly ball to right field to end the inning, but the damage had been done.
“Chaz (Myers) is a very heady player, especially for a sophomore,” said Heritage coach Kevin Brannan. “We knew we would need to push the issue to score against this team. That was a big stolen base to put pressure on their defense.”
Foothill (7-1), the consensus top-ranked team in the section entering the game, did not go down easily in the top of the seventh. After Heritage’s Bryson Kinnick retired Oregon commit Sam Novitske on a fly ball to left field, Corey Steinhauer singled and UOP-bound catcher Jeremy Lea doubled to place the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. After Hansen was intentionally walked to load the bases – his third intentional walk of the game – Sam Zevanove’s ground ball to Stephen Murphy at third base resulted in a third-to-home double play, the fourth double play that the Falcons hit into during the game, with this one being the game-ending at-bat.
“All I wanted to do was pitch to contact right there and let my defense do the rest,” said Kinnick, who is 4-0 with a 0.49 ERA this season. “I trust my defense and I’m always comfortable pitching knowing that I have them behind me.”
Early in the game, it did not appear that either team would be held scoreless. On a nearly identical sequence to the seventh inning, Foothill loaded the bases with one out against Heritage starter Jacob Jackson in the top of the first. Novitske popped up to short to lead off the game, but Steinhauer singled and Lea doubled, followed by an intentional walk to Hansen to load the bases. This time, Zevanove grounded to Myers at second base, who flipped to Ryan Jackson at short, who completed the double play with his throw to first.
“We take a lot of pride in defending the ball,” Brannan added. “We’re not a power-hitting team, and we don’t want to play 9-8 games. We were confident in pitching around some guys to put our defense in a spot to get some two-for-one’s. Fortunately, it worked.”
Foothill also got runners to second and third in the second inning, and two more runners on base in the fourth inning. Meanwhile, Heritage pounded out seven hits in the first four innings against Hansen, loading the bases on three occasions, but could not break through.
“(Hansen) is a highly recruited kid for a reason. We knew we couldn’t try to beat him by swinging big, so we wanted to work counts, take simple swings, and put pressure on them,” Brannan said. “We did that every inning. We just couldn’t scratch one across. He’s tough.”
Hansen exited the game after four innings, having already thrown 85 pitches, while Jackson made it through five innings for the Patriots, being replaced by Kinnick after allowing a leadoff single in the top of the sixth inning.
“We knew (Jackson) could get the job done today. He pitched big games down the stretch for us last year, and he was waiting his turn,” Brannan said. “We haven’t needed two starters a whole lot with the way the schedule and rain outs have played out. We’re happy for him. We called his number and he answered in a big way.”
Jones and Myers each had a pair of hits in the game for Heritage, while Steinhauer had three hits for Foothill and Lea had the pair of doubles. The end result was the first-ever win for Heritage against Foothill, who now leads the all-time series 7-1-1. Despite the series record, though, the games have been much closer, with the last seven games played between the teams having been decided by a total of six runs. The previous six meetings had resulted in a tie and five one-run victories for Foothill.
Around the horn
Kyle Harrison and Cole Silva combined to no-hit previously unbeaten San Ramon Valley, as De La Salle powered its way to an 8-0 victory over in EBAL play. Nick Cirelli and Trace Tammaro each homered, while Jared Amigh added two hits, a double, and two RBI in the win for the Spartans.
Mason Arnold went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, leading a Livermore attack which scored all of its runs in the first four innings of a 10-5 win over Dublin. Ryan Robinson struck out nine on the mound, while Brett Oelrich and Ryan Mitchell each drove in a pair of runs in the win. Brandon Greim had two hits, including a double, in the loss for the Gaels.
Joe Gibbons allowed just two hits and needed only 61 pitches for the complete game victory for Alameda, in the Hornets’ 1-0 win over Hayward. Ryan Wong’s first-inning single – one of three hits in the game for Wong – scored Tristan Wiley with the eventual game-winning run, as Hayward starter Thinh Nguyen turned in a terrific performance of his own, scattering eight hits and not allowing an earned run.
Nick Bouillerce allowed just four hits and no earned runs, leading Granada to a 4-1 win over Amador Valley in EBAL action. The Matadors scored three times in the first inning, with Troy Wentworth’s RBI double serving as an early blow.
San Rafael junior Jack Cottrell turned in the top performance of the week so far, on Tuesday, when he no-hit Justin-Siena, striking out 13 batters and walking just one in the 2-0 victory for the Bulldogs. Junior Owen Kauer paced the San Rafael line-up, going 3-for-3 with both runs batted in.
