SAN JOSE, CA – St. Francis handed rival Bellarmine its fourth consecutive loss on Tuesday afternoon under a hot sun by a score of 5-2 to maintain control of first place in West Catholic Athletic League play. The downward spiral continues for the Bells, who have now dropped six of their last eight in addition to the four-game slide, the first time that has happened since 2011.
Jeremy Ydens set the tone for the St. Francis offense early by taking the first pitch he saw from Kyle Dean right back up the middle for a single to lead off the game. Ydens then stole second, advanced to third on a bunt single by Andrew Martinez, and finally scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Johnny Mendoza, giving the Lancers a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
“I knew they might come with the fastball very first pitch of the game, so I got a good pitch to hit and just tried to put a good swing on it,” said Ydens.
The lead allowed Lancer starter Andrew Carter to pitch with some comfort on the mound, allowing only three base runners through his first five innings. Of those runners, one was caught stealing, one was out on a 5-4-3 double play, and one was left on second base.
“(The lead) was huge,” said Carter. “It gave me a bunch of confidence, and while my guys were picking up for me, all I really had to do was pump strikes. That’s just what I try to do.”
St. Francis continued to build on the lead in the sixth inning, starting with a leadoff single from Devon Canty. Emilio Nogales then reached on a bunt fielder’s choice, and Eric Whitfield followed with an infield single down the third base line, and quickly the bases were loaded with no outs.
RJ Teijeiro delivered the first run of the inning with a base hit to left to score Canty. Carter followed with a sacrifice fly to left to bring in Robert Morcate, who pinch ran for Nogales. Blake Diggle singled to right to score Whitfield, and moved up and extra base along with Teijeiro when the ball got by right fielder Nick Chew. Ydens finished up the inning with another sacrifice fly to center, scoring Teijeiro and putting St. Francis up 5-0.
Bellarmine attempted to rally back from the deficit by scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth, with Todd Jackson getting hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Chew then singled to left, and Chris Oneal (pinch running for Jackson), moved up to second. Antonio Garcia followed with a single, and after a wild pitch allowed Oneal to score, Chew scored on a base hit to left by John Helmers, and the Bells trailed 5-2.
Unfortunately for BCP, that was all it could muster as the Bells went down in order in the bottom of the seventh. Carter went the distance for St. Francis, allowing five hits and a walk with those two runs, all while striking out four to improve his record to 5-0.
“I think Andrew did a really good job of keeping them off balance and I think our guys did a pretty good job of taking advantage of some mistakes,” said coach Mike Oakland, whose team now holds a record of 18-5 (9-2 WCAL).
St. Francis takes on third place Valley Christian on Thursday at 4 p.m. and looks to go for the season sweep after taking down the Warriors 4-2 on March 27.
As for Bellarmine (15-8, 5-6), the Bells enter a must win situation on Friday at Archbishop Riordan if it plans on returning to the CCS Open Division Championships they competed in a year ago.
“It’s frustrating,” said coach Mike Rodriguez. “Because we clearly are a better team than what we’re performing like right now. But it really shows what you’re made of when you’re put in a position like this and how you respond, how you overcome, or how you don’t overcome.”
