Menlo School holds off Santa Clara’s final rally, wins NorCal D-IV title

SANTA CLARA Something had to give Two incredibly hot teams met Saturday with the CIF Northern California Division IV title on the line Central Coast Section Division V champion Menlo School had won of its last CCS Division IV champion Santa Clara had won in a row It came down to a one-run affair The visitors from Atherton broke up a scoreless battle with two runs in the fourth and made them stand up in a - domination Not without particular heart palpitations Menlo School celebrates after winning against Santa Clara during the CIF NorCal Division IV championship battle at Santa Clara High School in Santa Clara Calif on Saturday June Shae Hammond Bay Area News Group Santa Clara had pulled off multiple astonishing comebacks throughout the season And when the Bruins down a run put two runners on after two were out in the bottom of the seventh the possibility was right there that they might do it again Connor Houle who had two hits in his first three at-bats hit a grounder that Menlo shortstop Jack Freehill momentarily bobbled but recovered in time to flip to second base for the game-ending force out While the Bruins were the comeback kids Menlo was used to winning the close ones We re - in one-run games Menlo coach David Trujillo announced We re used to this situation and longed it no other way Santa Clara used staff ace Drew Diffenderfer Thursday in an - win over West Valley-Cottonwood in the NorCal semifinals The Bruins started Jaxton Chao against Menlo He pitched three shutout innings before the Knights put together a rally in the fourth KC Chavinson hit a one-out single to get it started Then freshman Zach Roeder perfectly executed the hit and run grounding the ball through the vacated second base position to put runners on first and third We work on that all practice we inevitably have a round with the hit and run and I just tried to do my best to execute it Roeder mentioned Ben Salama flew out to right field with Chavinson scoring the first run Roeder stole second his second stolen base of the event and scored on a single by another freshman Fletcher Cahill Menlo School's Jackson Flanagan pitches against Santa Clara in the first inning during the CIF NorCal Division IV championship meeting at Santa Clara High School in Santa Clara Calif on Saturday June Shae Hammond Bay Area News Group No starter Jackson Flanagan - went the first four innings for Menlo allowing two hits no walks and striking out one But that was as far as he was allowed to go after pitching six innings Tuesday in a - win over Las Lomas Freshman Liam Widner pitched a scoreless fifth before Santa Clara broke through in the sixth scoring a run on three singles from Houle Andrew Traffas and Diffenderfer Traffas hit one with home-run distance that curved foul earlier in his at-bat Shortstop Jack Freehill came in and got the third out on a fly out to left John Kepner relieved Chao for Santa Clara in the sixth and retired all six batters he faced in two innings Santa Clara came to bat in the bottom of the seventh against Salama Menlo s closer hoping for one more come-from-behind supremacy Salama set down the first two batters he faced before Zach Gallegos reached when Menlo s shortstop was unable to get a handle on his sharply-hit grounder Chao got on after a pitch ticked off his helmet before the force out at second ended the meeting He s our leader Trujillo explained of Salama He s one of the best arms we ve got Menlo - won its first NorCal championship after losing to Woodland Christian - in the Division V final last year We made it to the NorCal championship last year but lost so our mindset this year was not only to win CCS but to come back to NorCals and win this time Freehill revealed We moved up a division and won It s an amazing feeling The Knights were - at one point this season playing Serra and Los Gatos the first two games of the season certainly contributed to the slow start before winning of their final games After the opening NorCal playoff win over Las Lomas Menlo went to Woodland Christian the same crew it lost to last year in the D-V final and led - in the eighth inning when the tournament was called due to darkness The organization drove home and then back to the Sacramento area on Friday to record three outs to end the match Then it was the short trip down to Santa Clara on Saturday with the title on the line Santa Clara s Jaxton Chao pitches against Menlo School in the first inning during the CIF NorCal Division IV championship challenge at Santa Clara High School in Santa Clara Calif on Saturday June Shae Hammond Bay Area News Group An unforgettable season came to an end with a tough loss for Santa Clara Related Articles Back on top Once again De La Salle rallies with three runs in seventh to win rd NorCal title in th year of competition CIF NorCal roundup St Francis baseball Liberty San Leandro softball fall in title games In first career start Serra closer Nate Hui pitches complete-game shutout as Padres reach NorCal championship De La Salle earns gritty win over St Mary s-Stockton to advance to NorCal D final St Francis scores late to edge Acalanes in pitching duel reach NorCal final A championship like this between two great teams comes down to fundamentals Santa Clara coach Pedro Martinez revealed This day they were better than us so tip your hat Nothing to be sad about We accomplished so much at Santa Clara Several Santa Clara players will continue their careers at local district colleges Traffas and Chao are headed to Ohlone Kepner and Diffenderfer will play at West Valley catcher Charles Conley at Gavilan We yearned to prove a lot of people wrong Kepner noted A lot of people didn t believe we d be good enough to win the league let alone win a CCS title let alone make it this far He reflected on how much it hurt to come up just short It s pretty painful Kepler stated You sit there and think about all the sacrifices people made for this club Everyone stepped up when they had to everyone stayed ready and just the brotherhood we had The memories we made and all the fun times we had Now it s over but even if we d won it would ve been over I love all these guys so much Menlo School's Jack Freehill catches a ground ball against Santa Clara in the third inning during the CIF NorCal Division IV championship tournament at Santa Clara High School in Santa Clara Calif on Saturday June Shae Hammond Bay Area News Group Menlo School's Fletcher Cahill stands on base after hitting a single against Santa Clara during the CIF NorCal Division IV championship contest at Santa Clara High School in Santa Clara Calif on Saturday June Shae Hammond Bay Area News Group Menlo School's KC Chavinson slides in safe against Santa Clara s Charles Conley in the second inning during the CIF NorCal Division IV championship encounter at Santa Clara High School in Santa Clara Calif on Saturday June Shae Hammond Bay Area News Group Menlo School's KC Chavinson and Menlo School's Jack Freehill celebrate after getting the last out against Santa Clara s Jaxton Chao in the seventh inning during the CIF NorCal Division IV championship contest at Santa Clara High School in Santa Clara Calif on Saturday June Shae Hammond Bay Area News Group