STOCKTON – One more time, as it had done throughout the postseason, it appeared Archbishop Mitty would defy the odds.
Five innings of Thursday’s NorCal Division I semifinal playoff game between the Monarchs and host St. Mary’’s-Stockton were in the books. Mitty trailed 4-0. Then Makoa Sniffen belted a three-run homer. Two batters later, Andrew Saucedo reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second. Grayson Munoz singled him home. Tie ballgame.
The Monarchs weren’t through. Derek Allen doubled home Munoz. Allen came around to score on a wild pitch and an error. Mitty led 6-4 with only six outs to go to improve to 5-0 in the postseason and play for the NorCal title.
It wasn’t to be. St. Mary’s answered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, and Rams reliever Dax Hardcastle pitched a scoreless seventh despite allowing Mitty leadoff hitter Nico Rodriguez to open the inning with a single.
Final score: St. Mary’s 7, Mitty 6.
The second-seeded Rams (30-5) will take a 19-game win streak into the NorCal title game at 2 p.m. Saturday against No. 1 seed Granada in Livermore. The Matadors defeated De La Salle 5-0 in the other D-I semifinal Thursday. Mitty, seeded third, wound up the season 20-13-1.
There were tears as veteran Monarchs coach Brian Yocke met with his players in left field after the game. They weren’t tears of shame. Mitty left it all between the lines.
The Monarchs weren’t highly regarded coming into the Central Coast Section D-I playoffs. They were a ho-hum 16-12-1, with three defeats in four games before the postseason. But they won their first four playoff games by a combined scored of 33-10. That included a 7-5 upset over top seed Valley Christian.
Could they do it again? On a 90-plus degree afternoon in Stockton?
“It’s tough not being able to pull through for the seniors,” said an emotional Munoz, Mitty’s junior first baseman. “We gave it our all. Had the six-run inning. But they fought back. Put the pressure on. But we fought.”
Said Yocke, “I’m super proud, doing what we did to get here. I told them they can’t hang their heads.”
St. Mary’s built a 4-0 lead with two runs in the third and single runs in the fourth and fifth. That lead evaporated quickly. Connor Anderson opened the sixth with a single to center. Rodriguez walked. Then Sniffen crushed the first pitch from Rams starter Michael Quedens over the left field fence.
“Fastball middle,” Sniffen said of his homer. “He got me my first at-bat, but I saw him really well the second at-bat and just missed.”
Sniffen, who is headed to St. Mary’s College, struck out in the first and grounded sharply to second in the third. Then came the first-pitch homer in the sixth.
An inning later, with the Monarchs down by a run, Sniffen, the team’s RBI leader who entered the game with a .363 batting average, bunted Rodriguez into scoring position. But Hardcastle retired the next two Mitty hitters on a groundout and a strikeout to end the game.
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St. Mary’s has its own comeback story to tell in this playoffs. Earlier this week against Valley Christian, it rallied from two runs behind to beat the Warriors 4-3 in 10 innings.
“This is a really good team,” said Quedens, who is headed to Michigan to play baseball. “We do not quit. We came back today and Tuesday. We find a way to win. We’ve got one more. I hope we win that and bring the title home.”
Mitty’s Munoz credited the coaching staff for the team’s surprising success in the postseason.
“They talked about resiliency, this was a reset for us,” Munoz said. “The regular season didn’t matter anymore. I think this team left its legacy.”
