Paly forces decisive game

San Carlos will get a mulligan, however. Having been the winner’s bracket champ, San Carlos needed to lose twice to Palo Alto to be denied the title. The two will face off again Friday night at 6 at Red Morton Park’s McGarvey Field in Redwood City.

Paly forced that “if necessary” game behind Zia’s pitching and aggressive base running. Despite scoring eight runs on nine hits, Paly managed just five RBIs for the game. But it got a couple of clutch hits and took advantage of wild pitches, passed balls and their speed on the bases as Palo Alto swiped 10 bags.

But it was Zia who was the star of the show. He gave up just two hits through the first four innings and despite getting roughed up in the fifth, giving up all three San Carlos runs, Zia closed with authority, retiring the final seven batters in a row. He finished off a rare seven-inning, complete game, on 92 of a possible 95 pitches.

“It was a lot of fun,” Zia said. “I wanted to finish what I started.”

He gave up a one-out triple to Carson Ettinger, but got back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat. He needed 11 pitches to get through the second, working around another San Carlos triple — this one off the bat of Matthew Harville — but, again, Zia got the strikeout the end the inning. He then needed a total of 20 pitches, combined, to get through the third and fourth innings.

“He did awesome. He threw strikes,” San Carlos manager Matt Miskelly said of Zia’s performance. “A seven-inning, complete game. That is amazing.”

Zia would go on to finish with nine strikeouts. Not bad for a pitcher who Palo Alto manager Felix Lo said was his No. 4 starter.

“Amazing. So much poise,” Lo said. “He throws a lot of strikes and lets his defense help behind him.”

Zia was put at ease early as he took the mound with a 1-0 lead after Paly opened the game with a run in its first at-bat. Leadoff hitter Micah Satterwaite set the tone for the game as he drew a walk, stole second and third, and score on a passed ball.

Paly had a chance to add more, but Nate Signorello-Katz, who reached on an infield hit, was cut down at the plate on a strike from centerfielder Harville for the second out of the inning. A groundout to first base kept the damage to a minimum.

Palo Alto extended its lead with a three-run third, with the bottom of the order doing the damage. With one out, Jade Choi reached on an error and Emmett Gruin singled to center. No. 12 hitter Issac Vanderlip then drove in a run with an infield hit before Zia, the No. 13 hitter, helped his own cause with an RBI groundout. Satterwaite capped the rally with a run-scoring single to put Palo Alto up 4-0.

Thoughts of a 10-run mercy rule game came into play in the fifth as Paly scored three more times to increase its lead to 8-0. Rayden Garcia tripled into the alley in right-center field leading off the fifth and he came home on a Rafa Ballagas infield hit.

Then, with runners on second and third, Vanderlip came through again for Palo Alto, lacing a two-run single to right.

San Carlos finally got to Zia in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs on four hits. Cole Kirk led off the inning with a single to left and stole third. He scored on Duke Watson’s single to right, moving to second on the throw home.

Sammy Beale had an infield hit and Harville drove in the second run of the inning on a groundout. Austin Lindberg drove in the final run of the night for San Carlos, bunting home Beale.

“I’m happy with our kids because they don’t give up,” Miskelly said. “We beat Palo Alto once (in the second round), they beat us once.”