AUSTIN YU
Prep2Prep Junior Editor

May 8, 2013

The St. Francis baseball team took its first step toward winning the league playoff title, defeating visiting Archbishop Riordan 4-1 in the quarterfinals of the West Catholic Athletic League playoffs Tuesday night.

The Lancers (25-3) are the No. 2 seed in the WCAL playoffs and the Crusaders (12-16) were the No. 7 seed.

The loss ends the season of Riordan which will not make the Central Coast Section playoffs. Also, Crusaders coach Matt Gallegos said after the game he will not return as the Crusaders' coach.

Riordan began the game with momentum as its first two batters, James Cullinane and Dante Biagini, were walked by Lancer starter Bailey Owen. However, Cullinane was caught stealing, putting a crimp in the Crusader rally.

It wasn’t until the third inning that St. Francis got to Crusader starter Jorge Navarro. A walk to senior Chris Baker and a bunt single by Champi Lucca put men on first and second with nobody out. A balk by Navarro then allowed both runners to advance into scoring position. Then a wild pitch allowed Baker to score. Navarro walked another batter, then Hunter Simmons followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

The Lancers weren't finished. With two out, Kort Peterson and Michael Strem both doubled to increase the Lancer lead to 4-0.

Riordan didn't manage a run until the seventh inning when it scored on a bases-loaded walk.

Owen, Richard Boe and Tyler Deason all pitched for St. Francis, which now has its top pitchers in line to what it hopes will be the playoffs final two games.

Gallegos seemed to realize his team was overmatched.

"We are a very good high school team, but you have to understand the nature of our league is very difficult day in and day out," he said. "We just don't have the horses, we don't have the numbers, we just don't have the top-notch player. The WCAL is a monster, it's hard out there and these guys are great ball players. I mean look at the size of my team and look of the size of their team. Sometimes you just face teams that are better than you and you can't take it away from them. They're all good and every day we just have to be at our best and hope for the best."

As for St. Francis, it got back on the winning track after successive setbacks last week to Bellarmine and Valley Christian.

"I think that it was a pretty typical performance," St. Francis coach Mike Oakland said. "We pitched well, we played pretty good defense, we got some timely hits when we needed to.”

Oakland also credited Riordan for its gutsy effort.

“Regardless of their record, they always play everybody in our league tough and they make it very difficult for you. Hats off to them; their coaching staff does a great job with what they're given and I just think that we did what we needed to do. I'm pleased with the preparation that the guys had in the game and I'm pleased by their level of focus in the game and now it's time to move on and play a very good opponent."

St. Francis now moves onto the semifinals where it will face Bellarmine (22-6) at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Santa Clara University.

Oakland thinks the Lancers' previous games against the Bells will be informative.

“We've seen them twice so we have some information from the games that we've played and hopefully we can use it to our advantage," he said. "Obviously they have information too, so they'll be probably saying the same thing to their kids."