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Longtime Menlo School baseball coach Craig Schoof knows the importance of spring break. It’s a week for his team to get out of town and face stiff competition in order to ready for the stretch drive of PAL Bay Division.
Last week at the Bishop Gorman tournament in Las Vegas, Menlo arguably faced the best competition and pitching it will see all season en route to an impressive 2-2 record and third-place finish in the Blue Division.
Moreover, Menlo took on the second-ranked prep team in the nation on its trip and returned to PAL Bay Division play on Wednesday brimming with confidence.
Menlo (4-1, 12-4) fought back from an early 2-0 deficit, then parlayed 13 hits and a strong pitching performance from senior Taylor Umphreys for a 10-5 triumph over Burlingame in Atherton.
The victory, coupled with Menlo-Atherton’s 9-1 thumping of previously unbeaten Capuchino, threw the division race into a two-way deadlock with Menlo and Capuchino atop the standings.
Menlo and Burlingame (1-3, 3-16) will tangle again on Friday at 7 p.m. at Washington Park in Burlingame, then the Knights host Terra Nova in a nonleague matchup on Saturday at 11 a.m.
“We saw some really good pitching in Las Vegas and we came out swinging the bats versus Burlingame,” said Schoof, who has taken his team to Las Vegas during spring break for a number of years. “The kids know they can play with anyone and Las Vegas reinforced that.”
In Las Vegas, Menlo scored five runs in the seventh inning to beat Lowell (San Francisco), defeated Campbell Hall in the Blue Division third place game, 7-2, and gave host Bishop Gorman everything it could handle in a 7-4 loss. Bishop Gorman is ranked by one poll as the second-ranked unit in America.
“The kids weren’t afraid of anyone in Las Vegas,” said Schoof. “But, we’re still not playing Menlo baseball which is pounding the strike zone, playing good defense and putting the pressure on the other team.”
Trailing 2-0 on Wednesday, Umphreys helped his cause in the bottom of the first with a two-run single to tie the game, 2-2. The Knights seized a 4-2 lead in the second on an RBI double from junior catcher Jack Mudd and a sacrifice fly from Stanford-bound centerfielder Jack Mosbacher.
The Knights grabbed a commanding 7-2 advantage in the third inning after sending seven batters to the plate. The big blows were RBI singles from Umphreys and senior second baseman Ryan Morris. Umphreys yielded six hits in five innings worked to improve his record to 4-0.
After giving up three hits, including a homer in the first frame, Umphreys settled down and surrendered just three hits in the next four innings.
Menlo committed five errors in the game, but banged out 12 hits as every starter registered at least one hit. Morris had three hits, while senior shortstop Kenny Diekroeger drilled a pair of doubles in two hits and reached base four times for the Knights.
Burlingame owned a 3-0 league record coming into Wednesday’s game, until it had to forfeit two league wins to league co-leader Capuchino (4-1) because of an “altered document” involving one of the Burlingame players.
Capuchino was sitting alone in the Bay Division until Wednesday’s blowout loss at Menlo-Atherton.
On the day he was accepted by UCLA, where he hopes to play baseball, the Bears’ Matt Mosher showed the Bruins they have a quality player. Mosher pitched six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and helped himself with two homers to pace the Bears (3-2, 14-5) past visiting Capuchino.
Peter Verhaar relieved Mosher in the seventh and struck out three while allowing the only run as the Bears won for the 11th time in 12 games.
The Bears flexed their muscles in the big way as Michael Masket slammed a homer in the second with Jeff Keller and Lee Bader joing Mosher with homers in the seven-run fifth inning. Ross Sylvester and Abe Arias both had doubles for M-A, which cracked 12 hits. Mosher and Sylvester had three hits while Masket added two.
M-A will visit Capuchino on Friday (3:30 p.m.) with an opportunity to move into a tie for second with the Mustangs with a victory.
In the SCVAL De Anza Division, Palo Alto stretched its unbeaten streak to seven games with a 9-4 victory over host Gunn on Wednesday. The Vikings (6-3, 9-6-1) are 6-0-1 over their past seven games.
Junior pitcher Steven Burk (5-1) settled down after giving up a two-run homer to Kyle Einfalt and an RBI single to Jake DeFrancesco in the first and scattered four hits over the remaining six innings, with solid defense protecting the Paly lead.
Michael Martin led Paly at the plate with three hits while junior Mike Rizza had two timely hits and sophomore Scott Witte contributed a single and double. Senior Will Goodspeed added to Paly’s 12-hit attack with two hits and an RBI.
Joc Pederson made several outstanding plays in centerfield to help Burk pick up the win. Gunn (0-7, 1-11) grabbed a 3-0 after two innings and trailed by only 4-3 entering the seventh before Paly exploded for four runs in the top of the inning.
The Titans go after their first league win on Friday against host Paly at 3:30 p.m.
In the Private Schools Athletic League, Eric Davila had two hits, drove in two runs and pitched a scoreless seventh inning to propel Sacred Heart Prep to an 8-0 victory over host St. Lawrence on Tuesday. Mike Olmstead tripled in two runs during a four-run fifth inning as the Gators improved to 2-0 in league (5-7 overall).
