Burlingame captures title

"I’ll tell you what — there has to be a baseball God,” said the 64-year-old Sciutto, who told his players afterward that he would be retiring after 14 years as Burlingame’s head coach. "It’s been a great ride. This is one of best group of kids I’ve had, and it’s been great coaching them this season. I’m certainly going to miss them.”

Talk about storybook endings. In winning the second school title in school history — Burlingame (24-6-1) also won the 2004 D-II championship — it did it in style, finishing the season on an 11-game winning streak and in the process knocking off a Palo Alto (29-4) squad that entered the contest having won 24 in a row.

The Vikings hadn’t lost in two and a half months, but they got off to an inauspicious start after the Panthers battered Palo Alto starter Scott Witte for five runs on six hits in the top of the first inning. The Vikings never fully recovered. Yes, they scored four times in the fifth — three of them courtesy of two no-doubt-about-it home runs — but the reality was they dug themselves a hole too deep to come out of. Especially with Zac Grotz on the mound.

The junior right-hander tossed three shutout innings of relief to earn the save and preserve the win for starter D.J. Sharabi, who threw four solid innings before running into trouble in the fifth. That’s when Palo Alto’s powerful lineup finally got going, as Conor Raftery led off with a solo homer over the fence in left field.

Witte followed with a walk before Joc Pederson hit a massive shot to right to cut the Vikings’ deficit to 7-3. After a Christoph Bono walk, Sciutto summoned Grotz out of the bullpen to stop the bleeding. Grotz was making his first appearance of the postseason, called upon to pitch in one of the most pivotal moments of the game.

No pressure or anything.

But just like he did for most of the season, Grotz delivered. The Vikings scored only one more run in the inning, and Grotz shut them down the rest of the way. Also a standout athlete on Burlingame’s basketball team, Grotz helped seal the outcome by doing something that is fundamental in nature but that many players sometimes forget — cover an open base. Palo Alto had a runner at first with one out in the last of the seventh when Will Glazier lifted a fly ball to shallow right field.

A hard-charging and fully-extended Armanino dove head-first to make an impressive catch, then threw to Grotz who was alertly covering first for a game-ending double play. Soon bedlam erupted, as the Panthers formed a dogpile just to the right of the mound. The final play was sweet redemption for Grotz, who was the team’s No. 2 starter for most of the year until he struggled a bit toward the end of the regular-season. But in the biggest moment of the year, Grotz delivered.

"The final play went by so fast, but it felt like I was going in slow motion,” Grotz said. "I saw all the guys (Armanino, first baseman Chris Blanton and second baseman Nick Martinez) go after it, so I knew I had to cover first. I didn’t think Forrest would see me right away, but he got up and made a perfect throw. That’s the way to end a game. We started it big and ended it big.”

No kidding. The Panthers delivered a serious blow in the first, highlighted by a two-run triple from Ryan Bender and two-run double from Saamy Phan, both with two outs. Talk about hitting in the clutch. All seven of Burlingame’s runs came with two outs, as did seven of its 12 hits.

Nik Gutierrez paced the Panthers’ offense with three singles and three RBIs, while Blanton and Mitch Foley finished with two hits each. That was plenty enough for Sharabi and Grotz, who combined to limit Palo Alto to just five hits. Sharabi set the tone with four solid innings, and when he got into trouble, Grotz was able to slam the door.

"I can’t say enough about Zac Grotz,” Sciutto said. "He was getting hit pretty well (toward the end of the league season), and we didn’t let him pitch much (in the playoffs). But I told him to be ready a couple of days ago (because he might come in at an important moment).”

Grotz relied mostly on a steady diet of fastballs. A talented athlete who mixes physical talent with guile, Grotz mixed in a couple of off-speed pitches to keep the Palo Alto hitters off-balance. In the end it was good enough to bring home Burlingame its second CCS championship, and in the process send Sciutto riding off into the sunset.