It seemed that the Bellarmine baseball team was unbeatable, that is until the Palo Alto Vikings edged out the host Bells by a score of 6-4 Saturday afternoon. One of the hottest teams in Northern California, Bellarmine dropped out of the CCS race with the loss, losing to Palo Alto in the quarterfinals for the second year in a row.
A team with normally dominant pitching, Bellarmine has shut out a total of 15 opponents this season. The six runs surrendered Saturday represented the first time the Bells have surrendered more than three runs since their last defeat, an 8-5 loss to Serra on April 16.
Leading 4-3 heading into the sixth inning, the entire Bellarmine defense allowed Palo Alto to seize control of the game. The Vikings started the inning with a pair of hits against reliever Kevin Crane. Senior Mitch White relieved Crane and allowed both inherited runners to score, with one of the runs scoring on a balk.
Bellarmine also committed an error as Palo Alto pushed across three runs to take a 6-4 lead into the bottom of the sixth.
Palo Alto’s offensive charge was lead by senior Isaac Feldstein, who homered in the first inning off Bells starter Sam Fontaine, and finished the day 1-for-4 with three RBIs, reaching base three of the four times he came to the plate. The Vikings left fielder has been a major contributor for his team throughout the season, batting .402 with four home runs and 26 RBIs.
“I was feeling really comfortable at the plate, and just trying to stay within myself,” said Feldstein. “Tried to stay on top of it, and got under one, but it left the yard so that’s cool.”
Other producers for Palo Alto included junior Jack Cleasby, who went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored, and senior James Foug, who was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored.
Junior Alec Iniguez was the offensive standout for Bellarmine, going 2-for-3 with a stolen base and two runs scored. Center fielder Joey Persons also came through for the Bells with a 1-for-3 performance, posting a double, RBI, a walk and a run scored. Finally, shortstop Scotty Jarvis notched a pair of base hits and an RBI for Bellarmine in his 2-for-3 performance.
Danny Erlich started on the mound for Palo Alto, lasting just three innings and yielding three runs and six hits. Reliever Chris Smith shut down Bellarmine from the fifth inning on, not allowing a run in his three innings of work.
“We mix and match our pitchers. We knew they were going to play short game and they were tremendous at executing it. We figured let's not let them get one clean look on a guy, that was our plan,” said Palo Alto Coach Erick Raich. “We said 'hey, lets see what we can get out of Danny [Erlich], use Rohit [Ramkumar] to bridge, to Chris Smith', and Chris did a great job coming in and throwing up three goose eggs on a really hot team.”
On the other hand, Bellarmine’s pitching did not do as well as it normally does, nor as well as coach Mike Rodriguez would have liked.
“Unfortunately we need to play great defense and pitch really well to win, and unfortunately our pitching wasn’t as good as it has been," Rodriguez said. "And then our defense made a couple errors that were pretty costly."
With the win, Palo Alto advances to the CCS Division I semifinals against St. Francis Wednesday at Municipal Stadium. Raich shared his plan of attack for taking on the Lancers.
“A lot of it is trying to find a way to put pressure on them. We’ll have to sit down as a coaching staff and get whatever notes we can get on them and go from there.”
