SANTA CLARA, CA - Prior to Saturday night’s Central Coast Section Open Division Quarterfinal, Bellarmine pitching coach Brian Vieira bought some Red Vines from the snack shack at Washington Park.
The bag contained seven strips of licorice, each of which Vieira ate after the bottom half of each inning and threw the last one into his mouth right as ace Corby Punian struck out St. Francis’ Tyler Deason to secure a no-hitter and a 2-0 BCP victory.
The Bells had fallen to the Lancers in the three previous meetings between the teams this season by scores of 6-3, 2-0, and 15-6, including being no-hit in the second game. Luckily, for Punian and the rest of the Bellarmine team, the fourth time was the charm.
“It was so exciting. With my pitch count so low, I knew I just had to keep throwing strikes and let my defense work,” said Punian. “That’s exactly what we did. We hit the ball, played defense, this was the best game we played all year.”
Added coach Mike Rodriguez: “Just brilliant. His performance was just brilliant, that’s the only word I can say."
Despite two Bell errors, the Bellarmine defense was extremely solid behind its pitcher, featuring diving catches from Domenic Zanotto and Tyler Bindi as well as a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play from Matt Ross, Scotty Jarvis, and James Gaffey in the fourth. Punian’s final line included three strikeouts and two hit by pitches in his seven innings of work.
Although the Lancers did manage to put four runners on base, only two advanced to second base and both were left stranded.
“Corby threw a great game and really made it hard for us. We hit the ball well but they made some great plays. We just couldn’t get anything started,” said Lancers coach Mike Oakland.
The Bells fared better offensively. Seeing Deason for the third time this year, Bellarmine’s hitters knew what to look for and were aggressive right from the first pitch. A leadoff double in the top of the first from Bindi followed by another from Scotty Jarvis caused an explosion of “yes” chants from the Bells’ dugout as they jumped out to a 1-0 lead.
“I really just went up looking for a fastball and it worked,” said Jarvis, who also gave credit to his teammate Brandon Wong for increasing the energy level in the dugout during the first inning. Jarvis, who is headed to UCLA next year, went 3-for-3 at the plate with another double in the fifth in addition to his RBI double in the first, and forced an intentional walk in the top of the seventh due to his explosive first three plate appearances.
Bellarmine’s second run came in the third inning following James Gaffey’s leadoff single to right. Gaffey advanced to second on a groundout from Bindi, to third on a single to left from Jarvis, and then scored on a fielder’s choice sacrifice bunt from Jack Thoreson, beating Deason’s throw at the plate, leaving all the runners safe, and giving the Bells’ a 2-0 lead.
Deason lasted 5 1/3 innings, surrendering both runs on five hits while striking out four. Tim Susnara threw the last 1 2/3 innings of shutout, two-hit, two-walk, two-strikeout baseball. Deason did pitch very well, but a rising pitch count and tough breaks on the defensive end cut his outing shorter than he would’ve liked.
“I thought he pitched pretty well, got out of some jams, but we didn’t help him out defensively,” said Oakland. “It is what it is. Would’ve liked to see us be more active with the bats too but it didn’t happen.”
The loss ends St. Francis’ season with a 26-5 overall record and a WCAL tournament championship. They finish their season with the No. 1 ranking in the Prep2Prep CCS and Bay Area Rankings, as well as number 11 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 writers’ poll -- as things stand now.
St. Francis also had the same record as WCAL regular-season champ Archbishop Mitty, but Mitty was awarded the regular-season title because it defeated the Lancers twice, as stipulated by league bylaws.
“They had a really great year. They played a really tough schedule; nothing was easy,” Oakland said. “They fought all the way to the end, and unfortunately it didn’t work out for them, but they did some really great things.”
As for the Bells, they advance to the semi-finals to meet Mitty on Wednesday. The teams have split two games this season, with each team winning one game -- both on the road, ironically.
“We have to have a lot of intensity, we have to execute, and we have to perform very similarly in that we need to do our best defensively, do our best base running, do our best pitching, and hopefully we’ll get the result we want,” said Rodriguez.
The probability that coach Vieira will once again have Red Vines with him at Wednesday’s game is high, whether or not they work is yet to be seen. First pitch is at 7 p.m.
