NorCal Baseball: Tempers Flare as Granada Completes Hat Trick Over De La Salle

Even without a walk-off, the third installment between the Matadors and Spartans was must-see theater.

There was no need for extra innings, no walk-off, no marathon affair split across two days at two different sites.

But Granada’s 5-0 win over De La Salle in the Northern California Division I Semifinals was still well worth the price of admission.

The overflow crowd, animosity between coaches and umpires and the absolute gem of a pitching performance from Granada’s Stanford commit, Parker Warner, made for must-see theater as the Matadors earned their third win over the Spartans to advance to the regional championship game on Saturday against St. Mary’s.

“He’s going to Stanford for a reason,” De La Salle head coach David Jeans said of Warner. “He throws three pitches for strikes and he spotted his fastball well.”

Warner struck out just two batters, one in the first inning and one in the seventh, but allowed just four hits. Not only did he go the entire day without issuing a walk, he faced just one three-ball count and only allowed one runner past first base.

“That’s how I always am,” Warner explained. “I attack guys. I’m aggressive early in counts trying to get weak contact. (Pitching) coach (Jason) Sekany does a great job with the pitching staff.”

He pitched with the lead after Riley Winchell beat out a potential double play in the bottom of the third, and Granada (31-1) went up 2-0 when Nathan Brown’s sac fly scored Peyton Richards in the bottom of the fourth. The Matadors broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs off a pair of Spartan errors.

“When you get into these kinds of games, that’s what decides things,” Jeans said.

It all added up to a comfortable win at a field that’s suddenly become known as “The Trailer Park.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek reference, not to the portables that sit beyond the fence in center field, but to a derisive chant from De La Salle fans when the teams met less than a week earlier for the NCS title.

Photo by: Ethan Kassel

“When we were at Monte Vista, we had two student sections going back and forth, and De La Salle started chanting it,” Warner said. “We took that name in.”

The moniker has been fully embraced by Granada’s fans in what’s become a top rivalry, even with the schools separated by 30 miles. As was the case for the NCS Championship game, it was an overflow crowd for the third and final installment between the two teams, with fans who didn’t want to pay the $9 watching from outside of the stadium gates and some finding perches beyond the outfield fences.

“It’s great for high school baseball,” Jeans said. “Sticking your neck out in high school baseball with thousands of people watching you is not easy, and I give the kids a lot of credit. They put their heart and soul out there. There’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and they have to go out there and perform. I thought both teams did well with that.”

The only time De La Salle (21-8) threatened to score at all against Warner came in the top of the third. No. 9 hitter Gavin Zikria notched a two-out infield single, and when Joe McGee followed with a bunt, catcher Tommy Brown’s throw sailed down the right field line. Zikria tried to score from first, but Richards dug it out of the corner, Winchell fired a perfect relay throw home and Brown atoned for his error just moments earlier with a clean tag.

Jeans had a lengthy, heated discussion with the umpires after the play, arguing that Zikria would have scored if not for interference when he rounded second base.

“Our runner ran into the shortstop completely,” Jeans said. “Our guy would have scored easily. They said he only had interference to third base, but I disagree with that.”

Brown then led off the bottom of the third with a triple past an ill-advised dive in left field and scored when Winchell beat out a potential 4-6-3 double play.

“We made a dive on a ball that we shouldn’t have dove on,” Jeans said of Brown’s triple.

Things fell apart for the Spartans in the fifth after Warner led off with a walk and Mikey Boyd was hit by a pitch. Tommy Curran recorded the final out of his high school career by inducing a forceout on a Winchell bunt attempt, but the red-hot A.J. Martinez greeted sophomore Landon Cook with a single to center to load the bases. Richards hit a grounder that would have drawn catcher’s interference, but it became a moot point after the Spartan catcher, who was left barehanded after Richards’ swing knocked his glove off, couldn’t handle a throw from third base.

Cook got Quinn Boyd to fly out to shallow left, but Winchell scored after a throw to try to double him up at third went off-kilter. Martinez scored the game’s final run shortly thereafter on a wild pitch.

Warner did the rest, finishing off the game with his second strikeout. While swings and misses were hard to come by, he made up for it by inducing eight groundouts.

“Having a great defense behind me, it’s easy,” Warner continued. “Mikey at third, Nate at short, Mago at second and Riley at first is a wall. I wouldn’t wanna have any other group of guys behind me.”

Granada will host St. Mary’s-Stockton (30-5) at 2 p.m. Saturday for the Northern California Division I Championship.