Carlmont Scots lose wild one in CCS baseball opener on Palo Alto’s dramatic walk-off

The elimination loss to end Carlmont’s season featured some wild swings on the scoreboard. Paly took a 9-2 lead into the sixth inning, only to see Carlmont rally for eight runs to surge ahead 10-9. But the Vikings reveled in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run single from Charlie Bates to celebrate with a walk-off.

“Our guys love to rise to the occasion,” Palo Alto manager Greg Fukuhara said. “We have a lot of respect for that ballclub over there and what they bring. But we believe a lot in ourselves also.”

The win was a matter of survival in more ways than one. Not only does Palo Alto advance to the CCS Division I semifinals. In reaching the semis, the Vikings are guaranteed a chance to continue their season after the CCS tournament, as the top four placers in Division I earn invites to the inaugural CIF Northern California baseball tournament starting in June.

The Nor Cal playoffs were at the heart of the issue with Carlmont manager Ryan Hamilton opting to use his top two starting pitchers Saturday in Tripp Garrish and Colton Fisher.

Garrish departed in the fourth inning due to injury with a muscle strain in his pitching elbow, Hamilton said. That’s when Hamilton turned to Fisher who, optimally, would have served as a starting pitcher in the semifinals. The Scots played 28 games this season. Garrish and Fisher combined to start 20 of them.

“The strategy going into today was win today, get into Nor Cals,” Hamilton said. “So, we were all hands on deck, no matter what, and next game we were going to figure it out. We were going for this game.”

Garrish scuffled through four-plus innings of work, with Paly scoring in each of the first five innings. Carlmont’s senior left-hander allowed seven runs on eight hits, while two dropped infield pop-ups during the Vikings’ go-ahead two-run second inning proved costly

Meanwhile, Palo Alto starting pitcher Sam Papp overcame a first-inning run — on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Garrish — by setting down nine straight Carlmont batters. The junior right-hander wouldn’t allow another runner until Garrish led off the fourth inning on a challenge fastball to cut Paly’s lead to 4-2. The Vikings added four more runs in the bottom of the inning to make it 8-2.

Papp was ultimately charged with seven runs through 5 1/3 innings, with Fukuhara sticking with him through allowing one run to score on an Aidan Kurt RBI single to load the bases for the Scots.

“I’ve got a lot of trust in Sam,” Fukuhara said, “and he told me he wanted the ball. I think he was only at 65 pitches at the time, which is pretty low. So, I trust our guys. I wanted him to try to clean up his own mess.”

Carlmont senior Carson Vance capitalized, though, knocking Papp out of the game by knocking a grand slam over the left-center field wall to cut the lead to 9-7.

“I think we just had a moment and we had to realize: ‘You know, we can win this game,’” Vance said of his team staring down the barrel of a 9-2 deficit. “We’re the underdogs but we trust ourselves and we want to play a good game. And that’s what happened.”

Facing the Palo Alto bullpen, Jack Wiessinger and Brady Greene each singled, before Fukuhara turned to a second reliever. Carlmont No. 9 hitter Tyler Pechetti then delivered a two-run single to tie it. Pinch-runner Zach McLaughlin would later score on a go-ahead RBI single by Tanner Van Why.

“I don’t think there was any doubt at any time in the dugout that we were going to win the game,” Hamilton said.

Fisher worked into the seventh after setting down the side in order in the sixth. Not only was it the only 1-2-3 inning for Scots pitchers all day, it was the only inning in which Palo Alto didn’t score.

After a leadoff single to start the seventh by Paly’s No. 9 hitter, Zach Hayward, the Scots turned to Pechetti to try to close it out. It was a tall order though, as he faced the top of the Vikings’ order, starting with blue-chip high school prospect Henry Bolte, who stepped to the plate a triple shy of the cycle, having previously doubled, homered and singled.

Bolte didn’t get a chance to swing the bat, taking a four-pitch walk. No. 2 hitter Xavier Esquer then popped out to set the stage for the left-handed hitting Bates, who hit a smash back through the middle for the game-winner.

“We thought we were in a good spot to go 9-1-2 (in the batting order), and get that first 9-hitter out, and get that first out would be huge,” Carlmont catcher Jack Vanoncini said. “Ty pitched his ass off. … One up the middle, that’s baseball. It’s going to happen. We made it to the final out and that’s all you can do.”

Things got testy in the late innings though, with Pepp and Palo Alto’s winning reliever Danny Peters drilling three Carlmont batters, including the often chirpy Vanoncini twice, and Vance, who got hit squarely in the helmet in the seventh following his grand slam in the sixth.

Peters was previously hit by a pitch in the fourth, following his solo home run in the third.

“It’s all baseball at the end of the day,” Vanoncini said. “What stays on the field stays there. If they come aggressive against us, we’re Carlmont, we’re not backing down. … We don’t care. We’re going to come back and punch you in the throat. You saw what we did, we got that lead, and that’s Carlmont baseball. That’s what we do.”

Palo Alto (25-5) is now the only non-West Catholic Athletic League team remaining in the Division I tournament. The Vikings advance to play No. 2 Valley Christian Wednesday at Excite Ballpark (formerly San Jose Municipal Stadium) Wednesday at 4 p.m. The other Division I semifinal features No. 4 Bellarmine against No. 1 St. Francis at 7 p.m.

Carlmont (20-7-1) graduates a majority senior team, including seven of Saturday’s starters.

“We’re a family,” Vance said. “We’re going to always be together. Our JV team is going to come up and, we’ve created a culture here. This is family. Even with these loses, we’re all together still, really close, because we’re brothers. This is a brotherhood right here.”