The last time Saratoga sophomore pitcher Joey Mederos faced Palo Alto, he was pummeled for three home runs in three innings in a one-sided defeat. That was then.
Tuesday, Mederos held the Vikings to three runs in a 4-3 Saratoga victory in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division playoff opener. The same teams will meet again at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Saratoga. The Falcons must defeat regular-season champ Paly twice in the best-of-three format to advance.
"I pitched against them last time and didn't do too well, so I was pretty pumped up," said Mederos, who has shuttled between junior varsity and the big club this season. "I was mixing up my pitches better and I learned my change-up. I didn't have it last game and my arm was just feeling a lot better today."
Mederos said coach Adam Varteressian emphasized the importance of the change-up, both to get ahead in the count and strike batters out. Varteressian also helped Mederos refine the pitch during bullpen sessions.
Mederos held the hard-hitting Vikings down, limiting them to eight hits over six innings, while striking out three and walking two.
But the job wasn't done for Saratoga after Mederos departed after the sixth inning with his team leading by one run. It was left to Stevie Berman to nail down the save in the seventh.
Danny Erlich got a one-out pinch-hit single against Berman and eventually advanced to second base, but Berman notched the final two outs to end the game.
Varteressian said it's been a maturation process for Mederos.
"We weren't playing our best and he wasn't throwing his best at that time," Varteressian said of Mederos' previous effort against Palo Alto. "If we didn't think he'd win, we would not have put him out there. Being a sophomore, he just needed time to develop."
The Falcons jumped on Paly for two runs in the first after Kyle Dozier's leadoff single. Dozier, who will attend Loyola Marymount in the fall as a preferred walk-on, went 3-for-4 in the game. He eventually scored on Berman's groundout.
"Getting ahead is always big," Dozier said. "It really helped Joe settle down. We all had full confidence in Joe."
Paly struck back in the second with one run on Sean Harvey's RBI single.
But Saratoga made it 3-1 in the top of the third inning on Davis Berryhill's squeeze bunt, driving home Berman who led off the inning with a single.
The Vikings moved to within 3-2 in the bottom of the third on Michael Strong's run-scoring single, knocking home James Foug who had earlier singled.
But Saratoga scored the eventual game-winner in the fifth after a leadoff single to center by Dozier that was misplayed for a two-base error. Dozier scored on Berman's sacrifice fly.
Paly coach Erick Raich was not pleased with the mistakes made by his team.
"You do the things that we do (today), you're not going to win games," Raich said. "We've given away runs all year; it's frustrating."
Added Raich: "Everyone talks about offense, but offense is only one aspect of the game. We might have out-hit them, but we didn't execute. Good teams throw strikes and play good defense. We just haven't done that (consistently) this year."
Paly closed to within one run in the sixth after Austin Poore's one-out triple to left-center field. He scored on Rowen Thompson's groundout, but the Vikings could get no closer.
Besides Dozier's big day, Eric Ferguson went 2-for-3 at the plate for Saratoga and Berryhill had one hit, two runs batted in and threw a Viking out at the plate from right field.
Poore went 2-for-3 for Paly.
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John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@Prep2Prep.com and followed on Twitter @PrepCat
