ALBANY, Calif. - Noah Zirkle made it clear shortly after he pitched a no-hitter for St. Mary’s-Berkeley in their North Coast Section Division IV Championship victory over St. Joseph Notre Dame: “We’re not done yet.”
And while that may be true, no matter the outcome Saturday’s performance was a fine feather in the cap for the Panthers star pitcher.
St. Joseph’s starter Dylan Stewart was almost as equally impressive, but Derrick Bedford’s RBI single in the fifth inning was all Zirkle needed to dust off the Pilots before a standing room crowd at Brady Park.
No. 3 St. Mary’s (18-9-1) had breezed past Fort Bragg in the first round and earned a wild 17-6 victory against No. 6 Fortuna in the quarterfinal. Zirkle started in that game and allowed three runs in the first inning. But on Saturday, Zirkle stifled the opponent from the beginning. He wriggled out of some minor trouble in the third, when the Pilots boarded two batters via base on balls who were subsequently moved over on a sacrifice bunt. But he struck out Robbie Fintland to end the threat.
“I told him I was giving him the ball and I wasn’t going to take it away,” St. Mary’s coach Brian Mouton said about Zirkle. “It was his ball today.”
He only allowed two baserunners after that, one of which reached on a fielding error. He made quick work of the batters in the seventh, getting Stewart to ground to third, Casey Gorman-Miller to fly out to center, and Collin Ng to ground out to second baseman Cole Filson for the final out.
“This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life and I’m proud I can do it for this school,” Zirkle said. “This school’s been around since 1863 and we’ve only had two NCS-winning teams. That’s history right there. It gives me chills every time I think about it. The mental preparation, the physical preparation, and the confidence to win is what drove us.”
Stewart gave up four hits, walked three, and struck out seven in six innings. He walked Tristan Huerta to start the fifth. After Filson bunted him to second, Stewart threw a wild pitch, advancing Huerta to third. Leadoff hitter Eligh James hit a hard grounder to short, and Huerta held. Bedford then looped a single into left field, and Huerta crossed home to break the scoreless tie.
“As soon as I saw (James) get out, I said now is my time,” Bedford commented. “Just looking for the fastball I could hunt, I jumped on it, won us the game.”
In the postgame huddle, Mouton talked about the team pushing through adversity and savoring the victory. Bedford and Zirkle acknowledged the challenges, but both emphasized what lies ahead in the week ahead.
“You wouldn’t believe how up and down it was,” Bedford said about the season. “Celebrate? Ain’t no celebratin’, job’s not done yet. We still got more games.”
No. 4 St. Joseph Notre Dame (20-8) had outlasted McKinleyville in the first round, then eked out one-run victories against No. 5 Piedmont and No. 8 Redwood Christian.
“Considering it’s a loss, I feel pretty good that we played well,” St. Joseph Notre Dame coach Mark Castillo stated. “A big hit there or not could have been the difference in the game. They got a big hit in a spot, and we didn’t. I’m proud of our guys. Where we started and where we ended up, was pretty satisfying.”
Fresno State-bound Zirkle finished with a line of 7 innings pitched, 0 hits, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts. At first pitch, he had an 8-1 record and a 2.15 ERA. Stewart, who is headed for Pepperdine next year, entered the game with 6-1 record and 1.83 ERA.
The Panthers and Pilots met in the regular season on the same field earlier this season. St. Mary’s also pulled out a one-run victory in that game, winning 10-9 after trailing 6-0. Stewart started that game with a much different result, getting rocked for six runs in 4 2/3 innings. Zirkle, meanwhile, appeared as a batter, going 0-for-3, while Bedford hit a homer.
St. Mary’s now eagerly awaits Sunday’s announcement of where they’ll place in the CIF NorCal Regional Championship bracket.
“All I said from the beginning is that we need 21 outs and one run,” Zirkle added. “Being able to represent my school and play with my friends and my teammates the last four years, all the dudes that have come before me, has been huge.”
“They were very competitive,” Mouton remarked. “That’s the sum of this team. They never gave up.”
