When a team wins 30 consecutive games it has to be good and it needs to have the baseball gods on its side.
In Pacific Grove's case, it brings its own baseball god on the bus, along with the bats, balls and helmets.
That came to light Tuesday after the Breakers pounded Robert Louis Stevenson 10-3 in the Central Coast Section Division III semifinals. They will now meet Menlo on Saturday in the finals at San Jose Municipal Stadium at a time to be determined.
After the blowout the Breakers were spotted spiriting their very own baseball idol -- a disfigured baseball they call "Jobu" -- out of the first-base dugout. They also had candles, another important element in their mysterious pre-game sacrament.
Very superstitious, as Stevie Wonder once sang.
"Jobu is the all-knowing baseball god," Pacific Grove star Wes Carswell said. "He makes ground balls take bad hops for us and good hops for them. I don't know what else to say. Jobu's the man. He makes us win."
Added Carswell: "The candles -- we have our little ritual that we really can't speak about, but they do play a role. Last year in the playoffs Jobu found us at Harbor. We just looked down and we saw this baseball that looked like it had hair. We got him and drew a face on him and now he's here. We haven't lost with him yet, so we think there's something here."
As Carswell spoke, he stroked the hair (or stuffings) of Jobu. The Breakers also have a wood stand they place the idol on ... nice to see the Pacific Grove woodshop courses are not going to waste.
"Jobu is as big as anything on this team," Breakers coach Gil Ruiz said. "I let the (kids) run with that. I never said no to that. Whatever makes it fun. When they found that it made it fun. There's no photos (allowed) of Jobu either."
While good luck charms are fun, so is winning, and that's all the Breakers have done since their last defeat, May 2 of last season, to Stevenson. That may as well have been 1965 because since then Pacific Grove has outscored the Pirates by a combined 35-7 in four games, including Tuesday's romp.
The Breakers sent 10 men to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, scoring six times. Conyal Cody, Jordan O'Donnell and Chris Fife had run-scoring singles in the inning and Pacific Grove also benefited from two walks, two stolen bases and the first of four Stevenson errors.
The Breakers added a run in the second when Cody scored on a wild pitch and two more in the third inning, highlighted by Dean Boerner's run-scoring single.
Meantime, Pacific Grove starter Chris Clements (14-0) was stellar, no-hitting Stevenson through four innings before being relieved. The Pirates didn't manage a hit until Paul Edwards' single up the middle in the fifth.
The game seemed headed for a mercy rule conclusion until Ruiz began pinch-hitting liberally in the fourth inning and the Breakers stopped running at will.
To Stevenson's credit, it fought back. The Pirates scored three in the fifth off relief pitcher Carswell, who was betrayed by three Breaker errors. The runs snapped Pacific Grove's streak of 42 consecutive scoreless innings. Brad Powers had a run-scoring single for the Pirates in the inning.
For Stevenson (18-10) the end of the season isn't fatal; it had only two seniors on its roster and should be stout in 2014. Reflecting upon the season, it can remember upset, post-season victories against Scotts Valley and St. Francis Catholic.
"Pacific Grove is a great ballclub," Stevenson coach Paul Wilcox said. "They have the pitching, they hit the ball well and they execute everything well. They're a hard team to beat. We knew we had our hands full. We didn't expect to play as well as we did this year but, hey, look at us -- we're right here."
Pacific Grove out-hit Stevenson 12-3. Carswell, Boerner and O'Donnell all had two hits for Pacific Grove (30-0) and Dan Boatman had a run-scoring single in the fifth.
Now it's onto the championship game for the Breakers and their assorted candles and talismans. Pacific Grove is not only seeking back-to-back section titles, but is also trying to become the first team in CCS history to go unbeaten while winning a section championship.
"It feels really good," O'Donnell said. "We're ready for the championship. It's another game, and we want to win."
*****
John Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@Prep2Prep.com and followed on Twitter @PrepCat
