Baseball defeats Tomales in NCS Quarterfinals

"Baseball gives you every chance to be great. Then it puts every pressure on you to prove that you haven't got what it takes. It never takes away that chance,and it never eases up on the pressure."  Joe Garagiola, Catcher & Announcer

"Let him hit it - you've got fielders behind you."  Alexander Cartwright, baseball pioneer, 1846.

On Tuesday CPS defeated Anderson Valley, from the heart of the Mendocino wine country, and on Saturday, CPS faced Tomales in the NCS quarter-finals, in the organic dairy capital of Northern California. To reach Tomales the team and fans alike wended their way through green pastures and barns to the small town of Tomales. The high school baseball field is perched
on a small hillock, and the grass was clumpy,much like our poor Oakland fields, and the day was overcast with damp
Pacific air - more like early spring than the glorious sunshine of Memorial Day weekend.

In the first inning Cole's hard smash froze the first baseman, and then he promptly stole second.  Matt walked, and

Gabe hit a high chopper up the middle, and in the shortstop's futile attempt to complete a double play his throw sailed down
the right field line. Cole jogged home for a 1-0 lead. PG took the mound against Tomales and immediately showed he has his best slow and slower stuff, nibbling on the corners and crossing up a hard-hitting Tomales team, reminding me of Preacher Roe's classic utterance, "My three pitches: my change, my change off my change, my change off my change off my change." In the first play of the game Matt fielded a difficult soft grounder for an out - he has routinely taken away a hit or two game.  On a deep fly to right, Rourke drifted back, the Pacific wind batted it down, and he came in perfectly for the catch. After a walk the runner advanced to second, and on an overthrow to first, Tomales tied the score 1-1.  

 CPS failed to score in top of the second,in spite of Rourke's solid single to left, and it became apparent that the Tomales pitcher, who CPS faced in the Robert Graves Tournament, had been terribly fatigued when they scored easily against him in the April game. The senior pitcher threw as hard or harder than the best pitchers the Cougars saw all year, and had a wicked breaking pitch - which he held like a knuckle curve and broke a foot to the outside of right handed hitters.  In the bottom of the second, after a walk, Justin grabbed a line drive and made a perfect feed to Matt covering for a double play.  Matt's hit in the top of third led to nothing, and Zane recorded all three outs on a soft liner and pop-ups swirling in the wind. The Tomales pitcher sailed through the 4th with two more strikeouts and would record a dozen whiffs on the day. Several CPS drives were caught up in the wind in a great pitching duel.

 The bottom of the fourth proved pivotal and prescient.  With one out a Tomales player hit a towering fly down the right field line for a triple.  The Tomales coach called for the suicide squeeze and PG threw a low and away strike which the hitter missed on the bunt try. Gabe backhanded the pitch and ran down the stranded Tomales runner,  and he threw to Kristian who chased the runner toward home into the covering PG for a 2-5-1 put out - flawless execution. Kristian added the punch to the stomach to Tomales by digging out a hard smash to end the inning.  In the top of the fifth Cole, walked and stole second.  Kristian sliced a drive toward the right field corner,  and the Tomales outfielder missed the back handed catch and Cole scored to give CPS a 2-1 lead.

 PG pitched a great four innings, allowing one unearned run,and Gabe shed his catcher's gear to relieve in the fifth, Rouke moved to catcher and Felipe moved to right field.  After one out, Gabe walked a Tomales hitter, and the next hitter flew to left.  Cole
raced to the ball, made the catch, and threw an arching rainbow to Zane to double off the runner to end the inning.  CPS did not score in the 6th, and Gabe retired the side in the bottom of the 6th, including a strikeout and another acrobatic play by Matt.  CPS did not score in the seventh against the Tomales pitcher who was magnificent and showed a big heart out there on the mound.

 In the bottom of the 7th CPS was nursing a 2-1 lead, and had successfully been handling the pressure all afternoon.  The first batter hit a fly to center and the damp air had been a friend to the pitchers all day. Alex made a great drop-step: one out. Gabe got ahead of the second batter and I heard one of the Dad's, "Throw the curve."  Gabe obliged and dropped a curve at the knees on the inside of the plate:  two outs.  The eight batter in the Tomales line-up looked like a cross between Boog Powell and a middle linebacker.   He hit a fastball to deep left, Cole stepped back against the fence three hundred feet away,and the ball landed like a feather into his glove: three outs and a Cougar 2-1 win in the NCS quarterfinal.

 The game was played in an hour and thirty eight minutes.  The offense manufactured two runs (Cole  stole two bases and scored twice) and the defense was a tower of strength. PG pitched four artful innings for the win, and Gabe earned the gritty save, giving up no hits in three innings of relief.  In a game like this the team that makes the least errors and executes better, wins, and CPS now advances to the semi-finals against the number two seed,  International,  on Tuesday at 4:00 at Skyline College in San Francisco.    by Bruce Feingold