This wasn't Little Bighorn or anything, but the odds were stacked against the Sacred Heart Prep baseball team on Saturday.
Pacific Grove, heading into the game, had won 35 consecutive games over a two-year span and had not trailed in 59 consecutive innings, allowing just one run along the way.
Those trends continued under a bright sun in Atherton, as Pacific Grove defeated Sacred Heart Prep 4-0 in a Central Coast Section Division III quarterfinal game.
"I knew we were going to have to play near perfect," SHP coach Gregg Franceschi said. "When you get to CCS, they're all good teams. It's tough because the opportunities aren't really there to jump on a lot of mistakes. They're still high school players and there are going to be mistakes made out there, but unfortunately they were able to capitalize on a few more than we were."
Pacific Grove now advances to the semifinals where it will seek the program's 37th consecutive victory, meeting Mission Trail Athletic League rival Robert Louis Stevenson on Tuesday at San Jose Municipal Stadium. Stevenson was the last team to defeat the Breakers, 3-1 on May 2 of last season, but has lost to Pacific Grove three times this season by a combined score of 25-4.
Pacific Grove (29-0) took a 2-0 lead against No. 7 seed SHP (19-10) in the third inning after center fielder Dean Boerner led off with an infield single and then stole second base. Breaker pitcher Conyal Cody then walked and Boerner stole third base. Boerner scored when Gator third baseman Casey McDonald bobbled a groundball hit by Dan Burschinger.
The Breakers weren't done. Right fielder Kevin Russo beat out a bunt, then another run came home when third baseman Anthony Coppla hit a grounder to shortstop that resulted in a force-out at second base, with Coppla beating out the throw to first base.
Despite the runs yielded, Gator senior pitcher Will Nahmens was effective, allowing just six hits, striking out five and allowing one walk. All four of Pacific Grove's runs were unearned.
"We're fast and we run well," Pacific Grove coach Gil Ruiz said. "We take advantage of mistakes."
Meantime, Cody stood tall, repeatedly working out of jams to keep putting up zeroes. He allowed only three hits, struck out 11 and walked four, using a hard fastball and effective slider as his out pitches.
"I felt good," Cody said. "Just the walks held me down, but once I started trusting my defense, they made plays behind me."
Cody said the Breakers aren't preoccupied with the program's winning streak.
"If you ask anybody on this team, we don't know what number this is," he said. "We just go game by game and play together as a team. We don't worry about the streak at all."
But the Breaker fans are cognizant of it, at least a little bit.
"I'm amazed at how grounded they are," said Cody's mother Marcia Cody, a Menlo-Atherton High grad. "They're able to stay focused for each game."
Pacific Grove added two more runs in the sixth after Cody hit a double to left field and then went to third on Kevin Teskey's single. One out later, Russo grounded to shortstop Daniel Cody whose throw home was accurate, but eluded the grasp of Gator catcher Mike Covell. Coppla's subsequent squeeze bunt then brought home Teskey to make it 4-0.
Cody then set down SHP in order in the seventh to move the Breakers into the quarters.
If Pacific Grove is at all giddy about its quest, it's not showing it.
"It's another baseball game," Ruiz said. "We'll get a little bit excited Tuesday. That's just how we see it. There's no jumping up and down. We just like playing baseball."
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John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@Prep2Prep.com and followed on Twitter @PrepCat
