NorCal Baseball Quarterfinals: SI Wins With Chip on Shoulder

Unhappy with their seed, the Wildcats took it out on San Marin.

The St. Ignatius Wildcats entered Tuesday’s Northern California Division II Quarterfinal with a chip on their shoulders.

Having reached the CCS Division I Championship Game and having already won the Northern California Division II Championship last year, they were ready to take the next step and face the best of the best in Division I.

The seeding committee thought otherwise and once again placed the Wildcats in Division II, this time as the second seed.

It only motivated them further, inspiring the offense to pummel the San Marin Mustangs for six early runs in a 6-3 victory.

“It’s a little unfortunate. D-1 was one of our goals,” said sophomore shortstop Archer Horn, who drove in runs in each of his first two plate appearances. “But D-2 is still great, and we want to win back-to-back. We’re going into this just trying to beat everyone.”

His groundout in the first inning plated Emmett Johnson III, and after the bottom of the order set the table in the second, his bases-loaded walk scored Patrick Ruane as part of a three-run rally.

Despite the early outburst, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for St. Ignatius (21-10). The Mustangs, led by the trio of Texas commit Cole Chamberlain, Cal Poly commit Sean McGrath and Ohio State commit Anthony Scheppler, scored three runs off Chase Gordon in four innings, highlighted by Scheppler’s long two-run opposite-field homer. But Spencer Guido, who had pitched just 6 1/3 innings before Tuesday, retired all nine batters he faced to close out the game.

Photo: Ethan Kassel

“In a three-game week for NorCal, you need some pitchers to step up that maybe didn’t throw a ton during the season, and Spencer did that,” head coach Brian Pollzzie said. “He stayed ready, and that’s not easy. He was our closer at the start of the year, had a little injury, and he came back.”

Tasked with the top of the order in the seventh, Guido finished the Mustangs off by striking out Joey Cipollina swinging, getting Chamberlain to ground out to second and retiring McGrath on a flyout to center.

“That was Spencer at his finest,” Horn said. “His slider’s amazing and his changeup was really, really good today.”

Makai Susor and Ruane hit back-to-back one-out singles to start the rally in the second, and after Johnson walked to load the bases, a wild pitch moved all three runners up 90 feet, scoring Susor. Rocco Giometti walked to reload the bases, and both Horn and Evann Smith drew free passes to each bring in runs and stretch the lead to 4-0.

San Marin (22-9) cut the lead in half on Scheppler’s long lefty-on-lefty homer in the third after McGrath’s one-out walk, but the Wildcats fired back in the bottom half. DJ Delaney singled, stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Susor’s sac fly, and Ruane followed with a walk and stolen base. Johnson followed with SI’s seventh walk of the afternoon, and when Giometti hit a grounder to second for a potential double play, the shortstop’s throw to first bounced, and Ruane sped around third to make it a four-run lead.

The Mustangs scored their final run on Chamberlain’s RBI single in the fourth inning after Daniel Rolovich had led the inning off with a walk. It was the 45th and final RBI of his season, and the 95th of his high school career.

Tanner O’Keefe threw 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief for the visitors, allowing just two hits.