SAN JOSE - At the start of the 2014 season, Bellarmine baseball made four goals: to go undefeated in non-league play, to win the WCAL round robin, to win the WCAL playoff tournament, and to win a CCS Championship.
The Bells will get a chance to play for their final goal on Saturday night, following Wednesday night’s 5-2 win over Archbishop Mitty at San Jose Municipal Stadium.
The Bells’ key to victory Wednesday was doing at the plate what their opponents did not: execute. In total, Mitty left nine runners on base, including leaving the bases loaded in the first inning and runners in scoring position in the second through sixth innings.
“We played very tough, they played very tough,” said Monarchs’ coach Bill Hutton. “But they did an outstanding job in the batter's box of fouling off pitches and putting balls in play.”
With the game tied 2-2 in the top of the fifth and Mitty starter Kris Bubic reaching the 100-pitch mark, Alec Iniguez stepped up to the plate. After a nine-pitch at-bat to force a walk, the Bells had a runner at first with no outs.
Iniguez then stole second with one out, advanced to third on a Scotty Jarvis ground ball to short, and finally scored on a Corby Punian base hit to center, giving Bellarmine a 3-2 lead.
“I started off the game 0-for-2 and I had been struggling lately hitting the ball and I worked pretty hard in cages,” said Punian. “With Bubic, I was trying to see pitches early, but the third at-bat I told myself I was going to look fastball and just hit it when I get it.”
Punian also singled in the top of the seventh, knocking a base hit to right field off Mitty reliever CJ Romero with the bases loaded to score Iniguez and Nick Chew, extending the lead to 5-2, the eventual final score. Punian finished the day 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a strikeout.
Bellarmine’s pitching, which has been lights-out as of late, no-hit the Monarchs into the fourth inning until a Max Werner RBI base hit ended the Bells’ no-hit streak at 12 innings. Conor Ridley started on the mound and lasted the first 3 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on two hits while striking out three and walking three.
When sophomore Sid Iyer relieved Ridley in the fourth inning, he inherited runners on first and third with one out. He quickly struck out Trent Scharrenberg on three pitches and then got Monarch slugger Luke Rasmussen to fly out to center, leaving the inning unscathed.
In Iyer’s 3 2/3 innings on the mound, he only allowed two hits and struck out two to earn his sixth victory of the season.
“Coming out of the ‘pen I felt good, I felt really loose coming into the game," Iyer said. "So I felt confident in all my pitches; fastball, curveball, it all felt good, so I didn’t have trouble throwing strikes and I think that’s what helped me."
The loss ends the Monarchs’ season with a 24-7 overall record that included a WCAL round-robin championship and Mitty’s best season since the 2010-2011 school year.
“We’re WCAL champions, that doesn’t get said too often,” said Hutton. “I’m proud of these guys, they played hard right until the end. Bellarmine was the better team tonight, and I wish them the best of luck against Leland on Saturday.”
The Bells, now 26-7 will take on Leland for the CCS Open Division Championship on Saturday at San Jose Municipal Stadium. Bellarmine hosted the Chargers in the Bellarmine Pre-season Bash back on March 1 and routed them by a score of 16-1, but after Leland’s 4-3 extra-inning victory over Valley Christian on Wednesday, the Chargers are not to be doubted.
“That’s in the past,” said Bells’ coach Mike Rodriguez of the teams’ previous matchup. “That’s going to be the challenge: to allow everyone to remember that game means absolutely nothing. It was the third game of the year for us, the second for them, and a lot has changed.”
Either way, Rodriguez has hope his team will continue to play good baseball and is proud of the effort so far.
“For us, we expected to be here. We knew we were capable, we knew if we played well, anything was within the reach of our team. It’s good to see the fruits of your labor.”
First pitch Saturday is at 1 pm.
