Siwinski’s Gem Eliminates Padres

St. Ignatius’ senior southpaw pitched a gem to eliminate his rivals.

This one was personal.

Not only did the St. Ignatius Wildcats secure a trip to the CIF Northern California Playoffs for a second consecutive year, they also ended rival Serra’s season with a 2-0 win in Saturday’s CCS Division I Quarterfinal.

“All of our seniors played with those guys in Starting Line Up,” head coach Brian Pollzzie said, after his team shut out a Padres side that entered the day averaging 10.3 runs per game at home. “There’s a lot of familiarity. A lot of our guys had the opportunity to go to Serra, and they picked SI.”

Left-handed senior Will Siwinski held the Padres scoreless over six innings, and after he allowed an Ian Armstrong bloop single to open the seventh, Hillsborough native Archer Horn came in to try to close it out. The sophomore allowed a single up the middle to Pepperdine commit Joey Damelio, but fanned the next three batters to end the game and Serra’s season.

“He went in there and kept his composure,” Pollzzie said of Horn, a sophomore who’s already committed to Stanford. “I’ve coached a lot of games here where weird stuff happens late, so to get out of here with a win, I’m proud of our guys.”

There was some “weird stuff” in the top of the seventh when seventh-seeded St. Ignatius (19-9) threatened to add an insurance run. The Wildcats loaded the bases with nobody out, but reliever Davis Minton got Evann Smith to pop out on the first pitch. AJ Wineinger followed with a grounder to the hole that Serra shortstop Michael Perazzo nabbed with a diving backhand, but beat out a double play at first.

Except Horn was called for obstruction on his slide into second. Wineinger was out at first, and Minton escaped the jam.

Between the double play and the back-to-back singles in the bottom of the seventh, it looked as if Serra (22-7) was going to prolong its season with a miracle rally. But Horn slammed the door, putting an end to a campaign that saw the Padres take home a share of the WCAL crown.

“I just love how this group showed up ready to work every single day. They always felt like they underachieved (in prior years), and that was something that motivated them from day one,” first-year head coach Mat Keplinger said. “Something that Serra prides itself on is the brotherhood, and these guys are definitely brothers. These guys will be in each other’s weddings.”

The Padres, who entered the day 11-0 at home, simply had no answer for Siwinski. He struck out six and allowed just two hits, a Jake Downing single in the third and Armstrong’s bloop that fell between second baseman Makai Susor and right fielder DJ Delaney. Armstrong also reached when he was hit by a pitch with one out in the fourth, and Sammy Rivas worked a two-out walk in the second. Just two runners reached second for Serra all day; Aaron Minton ran for Armstrong and stole second with two outs in the fourth, and Armstrong was on second in the seventh after Damelio’s single.

Siwinski fanned six, and the outfield of Rocco Giometti, Emmet Johnson III and Delaney handled a quarter of fly balls on an afternoon with swirling, unpredictable winds.

“He kept us off-balance throughout the day,” Keplinger said. “We were just kinda caught in between pitches. I don’t think we were quite sure if we wanted to hit the fastball or the breaking ball, and he got himself into plus counts all day.”

Making his final start as a Padre, Saint Mary’s commit Sam Kretsch limited the Wildcats to one run over five innings despite allowing six hits and three walks. Four of those hits came in the third inning, but Rivas fired an outfield assist to stop Johnson between first and second. The inning’s lone run came on a Horn RBI single after Giometti’s ringing double to center. Smith’s wind-aided double to left put men on second and third, but Kretsch got Wineinger to ground out to second to end the threat.

Wineinger led off the top of the sixth with a single against Davis Minton, took second on Chase Gordon’s sacrifice bunt and gave way to pinch-runner Dominic Camarillo, who scored on Delaney’s two-out single up the middle, an insurance run that Siwinski didn’t even need.

“We saw that they had lost six games before today, and four or five of them were against left-handed pitchers,” Pollzzie said of the decision to pitch Siwinski. “They kind of seemed like a team of destiny this year, but this is our 10th playoff game in the last two years. I think our experience really helped us out.”

The Wildcats will meet another set of Padres on Wednesday when they take on No. 6 Carmel (23-5) at Excite Ballpark in San Jose.