No three-peat for Menlo baseball in CCS

By Andrew Preimesberger

Palo Alto Online Sports

There will be no three-peat for the Menlo School baseball team, which saw that dream of a third straight Central Coast Section Division III title disappear in a 10-6 loss to No. 9 seed Pacific Grove in the section finals at San Jose Municipal Stadium Saturday evening.

The second-seeded Knights finished its season at 22-8 while the Breakers captured their third section crown, the first since 1999, to cap a 20-10 season.

The Knights bats looked solid in the first inning when senior Freddy Avis belted a triple over the out-stretched arm of the Pacific Grove right fielder. Avis would later score on a bases-loaded walk by Will King. A sacrifice fly by Austin Marcus made it 2-0 after the first inning.

The Knights looked in control in the third after scoring two more runs on an RBI double by Marcus and and RBI single by Sam Crowder.

Momentum, however, swung in the other direction for Menlo in the bottom of the fourth inning when Pacific Grove scored six runs on three hits. Walks were costly for the Knights, as they totaled nine for the game — three coming in the fourth inning. The rally led the Breakers to a 6-4 lead.

Menlo responded to the deficit when Avis led off the fourth with a towering home run over the right-field fence for a 6-5 game.

Menlo tied the game at 6 in the fifth inning on a walk to Marcus, a bloop single to right by Carson Badger and a fielder’s choice by Graham Stratford, which scored Marcus. Avis nearly hit another homer, but the fly ball drifted down the right-field line and landed foul in the bullpen. Avis wound up striking out.

Despite getting back in the game, the momentum shift for Menlo was short-lived after starting pitcher Jake Batchelder had to leave the game — reaching his five-inning limit after pitching five frames in an 8-2 semifinal win over Monte Vista Christian in the semifinals.

Menlo head coach Craig Schoof, however, couldn’t bring in Avis to close out the Breakers. Avis, who couldn’t pitch in the semifinals due to illness and tightness in his throwing arm, was still unavailable for anything but DH duty.

Schoof was forced to bring in Marcus, his junior starting catcher. While Marcus had thrown a one-hitter with 13 strikeouts in the quarterfinals, he had limited pitching experience. And this, after all, was the biggest game of his career.

Marcus started the sixth and gave up a leadoff single. It got worse for Marcus after that with a stolen base, some walks and a sacrifice fly that gave Pacific Grove an 8-6 lead.

Menlo tried to bounce back in the bottom of the sixth when Chris Zeisler walked with one out. On a grounder by Batchelder, however, Zeisler was called for obstruction as he slid into second base. Batchelder also was called out on the play, ending a potential threat. Schoof came out to protest, but to no avail.

Marcus continued to struggle with his control in the seventh, loading the bases. A walk and another balk call made it 10-6 and Menlo’s dream was over.

It was a tough finish for the Knights, who lost senior Dylan Mayer earlier in the season to a broken ankle. Injuries to Mikey Diekroeger and Adam Greenstein forced Schoof to bring up some players from the frosh-soph team, forcing them to learn on the fly.

Not having Avis available to pitch also was crucial. The Stanford-bound senior, who throws in the 90-4 mph range, had been the winning pitcher in Menlo’s past two championship games and could have been again had he been available.

“In all honesty this is the most proud I’ve ever been of a team,” said Schoof. “To go through all that adversity and all the expectations – it’s tough.”

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