SAN JOSE – Rocco Muccilli picked a great time for his first home run of the season.
Valley Christian was trailing Serra 2-0 entering the bottom of the fourth. Brock Ketelsen lined a two-run double to tie the score and Muccilli stepped to the plate with two out and Ketelsen on second.
The senior hit a high drive over the fence in left-center.
“Rounding the bases I was pretty excited,” Muccilli said. “It was a fastball inside. My mindset was stay loose, get a pitch I could handle, be relaxed and just put a good swing on the ball.’
His blast made it a 4-2 lead and the Warriors held on for a 4-3 victory Thursday in the championship game of the West Catholic Athletic League tournament.
An unexpected hero?
“Rock’s been a leader on the team all year,” Valley Christian coach John Diatte said. “He’s made himself better with every practice. For that to happen is more of just a process of him working hard.”
Valley Christian (26-4) and Serra (22-6) both went 11-3 during the regular season and tied for first place, making them WCAL co-champions. Valley Christian already had the tiebreaker for the league’s top postseason seed, something that would not have changed even if Serra had won the league tournament.
Nevertheless, winning the WCAL tournament was a cause for a big celebration by the Valley Christian players.
“This means so much,” Ketelsen said. “I mean this team’s worked so hard, gone through a ton of trials and tribulations this year. Just to have this win is a big thing for our team.’
“The tournament’s a fun way to really get you into playoff baseball mode,” Serra coach Mat Keplinger said. “Today was a great game, very competitive between two really good teams. One-run game, what else can you ask for. Hats off to them and I’m really proud of us. Coming on the road here is not easy.”
Quinten Marsh gave up a two-run home run to Jake Downing in the third inning, but held the Padres to those two runs in the six innings he worked.
“Quinten’s been money for us from the day he stepped on our campus,” Diatte said. “A quality kid who competes well. You’ve got to love the guys who want to get out there and want the ball and want to compete.”
Marsh, a junior left-hander committed to Stanford, improved to 9-3 on the season.
“The key for me was trusting our bats,” he said “I knew if I gave up two it’s not the end of the world because we’re going to score more than that. My focus today was trusting my fastball, getting those early, and my changeup was working near the end as well.”
Alex Kim came on to pitch the seventh inning. He allowed a one-out single to pinch hitter Ian Armstrong and a two-out RBI base hit to Downing before ending the game with a strikeout for his third save of the season.
Marsh benefited from a great diving catch in center field by his brother, Tatum Marsh, also a Stanford commit, and by another terrific catch in left by Hunter Fujimoto.
“I thought their outfield play was unbelievable,” Keplinger said. “That was probably the difference in the game.”
Downing knocked in all three Serra runs to raise his batting average to .388 and give him 27 RBIs in 28 games this season.
Both teams will now look ahead to the Central Coast Section playoffs, most likely as the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in Division I.
“The likelihood is we’ll have to play them once or twice more,” Diatte said with a laugh. “The fact we’re playing better baseball right now is the key. We’re starting to hit the ball a little better and right now is the time to be peaking.”
“Our ultimate goals are still right in front of us,” Keplinger said.
