RYAN SILAPAN
Prep2Prep Senior Editor

May 23, 2016

SAN JOSE — In what was technically a quarterfinal, Saturday night’s Central Coast Section Open Division game between rival No. 5 seed St. Francis and No. 4 Serra felt like a championship game.

The top two ranked teams in the CCS Prep2Prep top 25 rankings battled for the fourth and final time.

The time was now for reigning Open Division champions St. Francis.

UCLA bound senior Jeremy Ydens threw six and a third innings of shutout baseball and went 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI to lead the fifth-seeded Lancers to a 4-0 victory over the fourth-seeded Padres, Saturday night at San Jose Municipal Stadium.

Ydens gave up four hits, walked five and struck out four in the win.

“We know it was a quarterfinal, but they had beaten us a couple of times already,” Ydens said. “We just tried to play our game and were lucky enough to get some balls go our way and hit the ball. I’m just glad we got the ‘W’.”

The senior needed some help closing out the game. After inducing a ground out, Ydens walked number nine hitter Kyle Roux, gave up a single to Tyler Villaroman, and Christopher Underwood reached on an error, loading the bases for Serra’s most dangerous hitter, Hunter Bishop.

Bishop — an Arizona State signee who is expected to be highly drafted in the upcoming Major League Baseball draft — was due up and St. Francis manager Mike Oakland decided to go with a lefty-on-lefty matchup and brought in reliever Brandon Oliver.

Oliver struck out Bishop and cleanup hitter Angelo Bortolin to pick up a much deserved save.

“I was just super happy because I didn’t do a good job getting outs in the last inning,” Ydens said. “I’m glad Oliver was able to bail me out.”

Oakland wanted his ace to finish off the game but felt going with the lefty-on-lefty matchup and trusted Oliver to get the job done.

“I really wanted Jeremy to finish the game but Brandon has done really well this year,” Oakland said. “He came in and threw some really clutch pitches in some tough spots against some really good hitters.”

St. Francis (24-8) got on the board in the second inning when Johnny Mendoza reached after being hit by a pitch. Following a fly out Mendoza reached third on an Emilio Nogales single before scoring on a Cole Sperling sacrifice fly in the top of the second.

RJ Teijeiro went 2-for-3 with an RBI triple in the sixth while Ydens delivered a two RBI single in the top of the seventh giving St. Francis its 4-0 lead.

Getting Ydens a lead early works wonders for the Lancers who feel every time he takes the ball they have a serious chance at winning.

“Whenever (Ydens) goes on that mound we think we are going to get that ‘W,’” said Nogales who went 3-for-3 at the plate. “Even with (Giuseppe Benedetti) our No. 2 pitcher he’s amazing — they are both amazing. I wouldn’t want a different 1-2 combo.”

Serra (25-6-1) was looking to beat St. Francis for a third time this season couldn’t get that one timely hit when they needed and when they did St. Francis made a play defensively.

In the bottom of the sixth, with the score 2-0 and two outs, Serra attempted to get its first run of the game but Lancers left fielder Alexi Segona gunned Serra pinch runner Patrick Caulfield, who tried to score from second on a single by Nick Knecht.

“I was yelling for him not to throw it,” Oakland said. “I didn’t want that tying run to move up, I was yelling ‘Don’t throw it, don’t throw it’ than when it went in I went ‘OK’.”

The Lancers spoiled a solid outing from Padres pitcher Christopher Apecechea, who gave up one earned run in five and two-thirds innings on the mound.

St. Francis and Serra came into the quarters after disposing of the top two teams in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League.

St. Francis defeated St. Francis Central Coast Catholic 8-0 and Serra defeated San Lorenzo Valley 6-0.

With the win, St. Francis will take on nine-seed Carlmont next Wednesday, at 4 p.m. at San Jose Municipal in a semifinal game.

Carlmont defeated No. 16 seed Valley Christian 8-2 in its quarterfinal matchup.

The Lancers are expecting to get Carlmont’s best shot on Wednesday.

“Everyone is gunning for us and we all know that,” Nogales said. “We got to keep working hard and grinding it out.”

The loss was a tough one to swallow for Serra, who was co-regular season West Catholic Athletic League champions with St. Francis this year. The Padres just 10 days ago defeated the Lancers 6-2 at Santa Clara University to win the WCAL Tournament title.

“Tip your hat to St. Francis,” Serra coach Craig Gianinno said. “We battled until that final out and I’m proud of everything (we) achieved together as a group.

“Tonight will not take away from everything the 2016 WCAL co-champions achieved. I’m really proud of them and they should be proud of themselves because they were truly champions.”

Bishop went 1-for-4 with triple and Jack Mori went 1-for-3 with double for Serra.

The Padres will graduate 16 seniors from its 26-player roster including some that will be playing at the next level.

Bishop (ASU, possibly the minor leagues), Villaroman (University of San Francisco), Angleo Bortolin (Loyola Marymount) and Apecechea (University of Hawaii) among others.

“This senior class was second to none,” Gianinno said. “The leadership, mentorship, maturity, the competitive intensity, talent, togetherness is just a great example of a great group of guys. They are a special group and we are all going to miss them.”