SAN JOSE - With the count 2-0, Brooks Allen knew a fastball was coming; all he had to do is put the ball in play. He did just that.
The senior third basemen lined the outside fastball from Bellarmine’s Troy Burg down the right-field line to score Miles Brown and Calvin Quittner, and give Mitty a 3-2 walk-off victory over the visiting Bells.
“At that point, I was just looking for a pitch to hit, and I got it,” said Allen, who finished the day 1-for-3 with two RBIs. “As I was running to first base, I was just saying, ‘stay fair, stay fair,’ and it stayed fair by maybe an inch.”
Trailing 2-0 at start of the bottom of the seventh, Haydn King led off the inning with a base hit up the middle for the Monarchs. Joe Cahn then reached on an error. A rushed throw got past first baseman Wolfie Rehbock, and the second error of the play allowed King to advance to third.
Stanford-bound Kris Bubic stepped up to the plate and ripped a double to right to score King, and cut the Bellarmine lead to 2-1. With Brown pinch-running for Cahn and Quittner for Bubic, Derek Bauerle grounded out to third for the first out of the inning, and Bellarmine elected to walk John Azevedo to load the bases, setting up Allen’s game-winning at bat.
“You always hope for it, you have to hope for it,” said Mitty coach Bill Hutton. “Burg’s pitching lights out, we’re not putting up much of a fight early on, and then you see the clouds coming, because we only had one hit against Serra, one hit against St. Francis, and then the flood gates open. That’s baseball.”
Prior to the seventh inning, Mitty’s only runner of the game had come on a leadoff double in the top of the fifth. Bubic’s hit broke-up a perfect game by Burg, but he sat on second base for the rest of the inning.
Bellarmine’s two runs came in the top of the first inning, starting with a leadoff base hit from Connor Mack. Mack then stole second base, but did not advance further on Mark Gaffey’s base hit to left. Both runners then moved up on a passed ball, and Garcia came through with a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Mack. Gaffey scored on an errant throw from the cutoff man to make it 2-0.
After the first inning, Mitty’s starter Kyle Mora settled down and kept the Bells of the board. Some runners reached base, but none were able to advance past second base. Mora finished the day with six plus innings pitched, two runs allowed (one earned) on six hits and a walk, with four strikeouts.
“You just have to bear down in those situations,” said Mora. “You just have to play for your team. These guys did a great job picking me up in the end. Its just baseball.”
The win improves Mitty to 16-6 on the season with a 6-3 mark in the West Catholic Athletic League and pushes the Monarchs into a three-way tie for second place with Serra and Valley Christian. They return to action tomorrow and travel up to San Francisco to take on Riordan, who defeated them 4-3 at home earlier this season.
As for Bellarmine (15-7, 5-5), the Bells get the rest of the weekend off and will take on St. Francis on Tuesday afternoon at home. Prior to a 6-0 loss to Serra on Friday, St. Francis’ only loss in league this season had been to Bellarmine.
“All I asked of these guys was to play hard from the first pitch on. Have emotion, have energy,” said pitching coach Brian Vieira, who led the Bells into battle Friday with head coach Mike Rodriguez missing the game due to a family commitment. “I was proud of them, that’s the first thing I told them after the game. From the first pitch to the last pitch, they played hard, they had energy, they were in the game.”
