PLEASANT HILL - There were just nine hits total in Saturday's North Coast Section Division III baseball championship game between Alhambra and Bishop O'Dowd. Fortunately for Alhambra, two of its four hits came at the right time, leading the Bulldogs to a 2-0 victory over the Dragons in a well-played pitching duel, giving Alhambra its first section title in program history.
O'Dowd starting pitcher Wyatt Thompson allowed just four hits and did not let a runner get past second in any of the last three innings, but could not prevent Alhambra from stringing together mini-rallies in the second and third innings. The second inning tally for the Bulldogs was especially galling for O'Dowd, as it all happened with two outs.
Thompson hit Mateus Conaway with a pitch, and after Tyler Boyce fouled off four straight pitches, Conaway stole second to get in scoring position. Boyce then singled to center field on the next pitch, and Conaway raced around to beat the throw from the outfield and score the first run of the game.
The opposite occurred in the bottom of the third inning, as Alhambra did all of its damage in the first two batters of the inning, the only time all game that the Bulldogs had multiple hits in a single inning off Thompson. Senior Dillon Elliott led off the inning with a double to left field, and senior JT Griffin followed with a line drive single to center, with Elliott scoring on the play for the second and final run of the game. Thompson quickly got out of the inning with a double play and a strikeout, but the damage had been done.
Meanwhile, Alhambra starting pitcher Brody Eglite was phenomenal for the Bulldogs. He survived back-to-back errors in the top of the first inning, inducing a pair of ground balls and a pop-up to escape unscathed, and faced just one batter over the minimum in the next three innings. O'Dowd put together a two-out rally in the top of the fifth, with a single, walk and double steal to put runners on second and third, but Eglite got a fly ball to center to end the inning.
O'Dowd's final gasp came in the top of the seventh, and it was a good one. The Dragons loaded the bases with one out, following back-to-back singles by William Herbert and Jaylen Anteneh, but Eglite induced a ground ball to Griffin at first base, and Griffin made throw home for the force out at the plate. Eglite then notched his third strikeout of the day to end the game, a 98-pitch complete game effort in which he scattered five hits.
The section title capped a special year for the Bulldogs, one in which they also captured a share of the DAL-Valley title and allowed just four runs during their entire post-season run.
