ATHERTON, CA - Menlo scored all the runs it needed early as sophomore Davis Rich tossed a complete-game, five-hit shutout to lead the Knights past Santa Cruz, 4-0, Saturday in a Central Coast Section Division II quarterfinal at Sacred Heart Prep.
The 12th-seeded Knights advanced to the semifinals and will face No. 8 Branham, which defeated No. 1 seed Pacific Grove 4-1, Tuesday at San Jose Municipal Stadium (4 PM). St. Francis CCC meets Monterey in the other semifinal following the Menlo-Branham contest.
The win was the sixth in a row for Menlo (19-12), which was led by Stanford signee Mikey Diekroeger, who had three hits and played outstanding defense. Jared Lucian added two hits and an RBI and started a key double play in the fourth inning to help Rich maintain his shutout.
“We’ve been on a roll,” Rich said. “We’ve been playing our best baseball of the season. We had the right mentality coming into this game.”
Menlo moved on to the CCS semifinals for the fifth consecutive year. Rich finished with three strikeouts and two walks to improve to 3-2. He battled out of bases-loaded, one-out jams in both the fourth and fifth innings to keep Santa Cruz off the board.
“I said, I know I wouldn’t want to come in with the bases loaded," Rich recalled when coach Craig Schoof visited the mound in the fifth, "so this is my inning and we finished that and we got out of it."
Rich finished with perfect 1-2-3 innings in the sixth and seventh. Senior Vincente Duffy had two hits for the Cardinals.
