Whether it was coming up with a clutch hit, playing a stellar center field or throwing a 6 1/3 inning gem to send his team to the Central Coast Section Open Division title game, junior Jeremy Ydens of St. Francis did it all this year.

Ydens, who has given a verbal commitment to UCLA, can now add one more accolade to his and the rest of his Lancers teammates accomplishments this year as Ydens is the Prep2Prep CCS Player of the Year.

Ydens was equally as dominant at the plate and on the hill this year for a St. Francis team that won the prestigious Boras Classic, West Catholic Athletic League regular season and WCAL postseason tournament titles and the biggest title of all - the Central Coast Section Open Division championship.

At the plate, Ydens hit .404, leading the Lancers in hits (44), RBIs (22) and tied for the team lead in doubles (8). He also smacked five triples and two home runs. He also stole a team-high 25 bases.

On the hill, Ydens went 7-3 with a 1.69 ERA while striking out 67 in 62 innings of work. The junior only allowed 17 runs all year — 15 earned — and walked only 15 batters. He was also named WCAL Player of the Year.

Piedmont Hills High baseball coach Bill Kennedy told his team going into the Central Coast Section playoffs that special is not good enough. Kennedy was correct.

The Pirates’ Central Coast Section playoff run this year made the word special not grand enough to describe it.

Kennedy led the No. 16-seeded Pirates — the lowest seed in all of Division I — to not only the school's first-ever CCS playoff victory, but took the team all the way to the CCS Division I championship. As a result, Kennedy is the Prep2Prep CCS Coach of the Year.

“It feels very rewarding, it was all the players and my assistant coach,” said Kennedy.

Piedmont Hills became the first No. 16 seed to capture a CCS title.

Kennedy led the Pirates to victories over No. 1 seed North Salinas (2-1), No. 9 seed Leland (5-4), No. 12 seed Milpitas (11-8 in 10 innings) and a championship game thrashing of No. 7 seed Pioneer 10-0 in five innings.

“My thinking is any school in the CCS has somebody that can pitch,” Kennedy said. “A lot of teams have one kid that can always throw. We expected that we could play with anybody. We got a chance to play the best in the first round and came back to beat them 2-1 in the seventh inning. We silenced the town of Salinas.”

Kennedy immensely credited his 26-year-old assistant coach Andrew Castaneda who was in sync with him from the very beginning. Sometimes during the year Castaneda would make moves without telling Kennedy but Kennedy just went with the punches and trusted his young assistant.

“We have the same thoughts on making moves most of the time anyways,” said Kennedy. “It’s very rewarding working with him and the kids respect him a lot.”

It was during and after the semifinal game against Milpitas that Kennedy and the Pirates really started feeling the backing of the Piedmont Hills community. That very same day, Piedmont Hills was having its graduation and during the graduation commencement the administration would continuously give updates about the score of the game.

When news broke from Principal Traci Williams that the team had beaten Milpitas to advance to the title game the entire senior class and spectators broke into a massive cheer.

For the seniors, it was extra special because not only did they advance to the title game but Williams put in a request for spectators to wait until the boys were able to get back on the bus and back to campus so they could receive their diplomas.

“She earned points with the boys forever with that move,” said Kennedy. “Kids were putting on their caps and gowns right over their uniforms. It was special for the parents as well because they showed up and didn’t have to sit through an entire graduation process. They got to see their kids graduate in five minutes.”

Kennedy — who played in a CCS playoff game back in 1972 for Piedmont Hills — said the support for the team during the playoff run was amazing.

From former teammates to alums that played in the 80s, 90s and 2000s, scores of Piedmont Hills supporters showed up to the semifinals and especially the championship game.

Kennedy said he knew after defeating Milpitas in 10 innings that with so much support and backing from the Piedmont Hills community and administration there was no way they were losing the title game. The Pirates opened up with a four-spot in the first inning and never looked back in a 10-0 mercy rule victory over Pioneer.

“It wouldn’t have mattered who we played the next day,” said Kennedy of his teams performance in the D-I title game. “They were excited and they deserved it. Nobody worked harder than them. Seeing so many people there also the whole administration was great.”

A far cry from when Kennedy took over the helm of the Pirates back in late December of 2013 when he had trouble even finding teams to play.

Now two years and a CCS D-I title later Kennedy said he’ll remember this team not for winning a CCS title but the character of the kids.

“The kids knew enough about the game and respect it,” said Kennedy. “They played hard and they sure got rewarded.”

Pretty special indeed.

Troy Miller

Arman Sabouri

Kyle Pruhsmeier

Andrew Carter

Aiden Finch

Kyle Marinconz

Troy Miller

Sahid Valenzuela

Jeremy Ydens

Arman Sabouri

Scott Ota

Will Wegner

Hunter Bigge

Chris Rivera

Brendt Citta

Andrew Martinez

Fineas Del Bonta-Smith

Jake Holton

Nick Prainito

Jonathan Engelmann

Cameron Castaneda

Ryan Gault

Ro Mahanty

Andrew Daschbach