SAN JOSE — A lot was at stake for the St. Lawrence High baseball team in its Private School Athletic League Tournament Championship game against Summit Prep.
A win guaranteed St. Lawrence — a school that will be closing after 41 years of existence when this school year ends — one last league title and one more chance to go to the Central Coast Section playoffs, while a loss would simply be the end.
The final baseball team in St. Lawrence history will forever be remembered as PSAL regular season and tournament champions, as the Celtic Warriors defeated the Huskies 8-3 Friday afternoon in San Jose.
“I'm just so proud of everyone,” St. Lawrence senior Brandon Kubogamell said. “We knew it could've been our last game today so we were ready to fight against anyone.”
In a matchup of PSAL-North champion Summit Prep and PSAL-South champion St. Lawrence, it was the small Santa Clara Catholic school that struck first.
St. Lawrence (12-5) got things started early, scoring a pair of runs in the first and second innings and providing starting pitcher Armand Saraj a nice cushion.
The sophomore held it together to pick up the win. Saraj threw all seven innings, gave up three runs (two earned), six hits, three walks and struck out five.
“His talent and maturity is what helps him a lot,” St. Lawrence coach Kevin Hashimoto said of Saraj. “He got out of some tough innings and really battled through.”
Summit Prep (10-7) scored two runs in the top of the third, including an RBI single by Harrison Bost, but St. Lawrence answered right back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Senior catcher Cody Barela provided a two-run single to give the Celtic Warriors a 6-2 cushion.
Barela and Lee both went 2-for-4 at the plate and the duo combined for five RBI. Kubogamell went two-for-three with a double, two RBI and two runs scored. In all, St. Lawrence collected 11 hits.
“We were seeing the ball good and scored a lot of runs,” Lee said. “We knew that if we gave up runs, we could get it back. Winning feels amazing because this is a team which we lost to last year so it's sweet revenge.”
Revenge sweet enough to give St. Lawrence one last berth into the CCS playoffs.
For a team that found out early in its season that this year would indeed be the last for the program, the journey hasn't been easy.
“It's emotional, it's really emotional,” Hashimoto said. “These kids have worked so hard and put so much time and effort in. They had a lot of adversity this year and they over came that. I'm so proud of them.”
Geoffrey Toth and Ryan Ake went two-for-four at the plate for the Huskies.
Cormac Keegan took the loss for Summit Prep (5IP, 10H, 8R, 5ER, HBP, 2BB, 2K).
Summit Prep got in its own way, committing five errors leading to three St. Lawrence runs.
The Celtic Warriors committed four errors themselves, but were able to keep Summit Prep from having a big inning. The Huskies stranded nine guys on base.
“We have a lot of juniors and seniors on this team, and they don't get flustered by dropping the ball or making errors here or there,” Hashimoto said. “They just keep their head up and know the next play is an important one.”
Now St. Lawrence will focus on the CCS playoffs, which begin next week.
The official CCS baseball playoff meetings will take place this Sunday, at the CCS offices in San Jose.
Regardless of where they get seeded and have to play, the Celtics are just happy to know that they are the PSAL champions.
“We just stuck together and played as a team,” Lee said. “It feels amazing to win.”
