Starting pitcher Kyle Sweeney sends Sacred Heart Prep baseball team to the Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division title

With the Bearcats’ win over the Dons three days ago, they stayed one game behind the Gators in the Ocean Division standings. But Sweeney and SHP were in no mood to share.

The junior southpaw handcuffed Woodside all game long, the Gators’ offense finally gave him some breathing room late and Sweeney went the distance as SHP clinched the crown with a 4-0 win in Atherton Thursday.

“I was super fired up,” Sweeney said. “I was texting all my friends that I get a chance to win it (the division title).”

Turns out a run in the bottom of the first inning would be all Sweeney needed, although he was appreciative of a three-run bottom of the fifth that gave SHP (12-2 PAL Ocean, 20-7 overall) complete control.

“It’s not an ideal way (of getting the win),” Sweeney said. “But the offense got going in the fifth.”

Sweeney was locked in from the beginning, throwing first-pitch strikes to eight of the first nine batters he faced. Only an error with two outs in the second prevented him from retiring the first nine Woodside batters in order.

“Getting ahead (in the count) is huge,” Sweeney said. “It gets me to my offspeed stuff. Gets me to my bread and butter.”

His curveball and changeup were both work in concert with his fastball to strike out nine batters, striking out at least one batter each inning. He pitched three hitless innings before Woodside’s Mateus Mokhtarani led off the fourth inning with a single to center. Sweeney proceeded to retire six of the next seven Wildcats batters, with John Tinson drawing a walk to lead off the fifth.

Sweeney retired the first two batters in the top of the seventh before Tinson yanked a double right down the left-field. That was followed by a Kyle Chad infield hit to put runners on the corner, but Sweeney ended things with a grounder to second base, getting the out at second and setting off a title-clinching celebration following Sweeney’s 88-pitch performance.

“Awesome effort from Kyle,” said SHP manager Sean McMillan.

Carter Ball pitched nearly as well for Woodside (13-12, 6-8). He allowed three earned runs while scattering eight hits. But the Gators managed to get to him early, as they plated a run in the bottom of the first inning, coming up with three hits.

None of which left the infield. Nico Pollioni led off the game with an infield hit, moving to second on a Chase Affrunti sacrifice bunt. Ball then got a strikeout and was looking to get out of the jam.

Colin Beim followed with what could have been an RBI single if not for a diving stop behind the second-base bag by Woodside shortstop Colby Fernandez. Beim got an infield hit and Pollioni had to stop at third. JP Durrett followed with a walk to bring up Isaac Aviles, who legged out a swinging bunt up the third-base line that enabled Pollioni to score for a 1-0 lead.

But Ball got a strikeout to end the inning with the bases loaded.

Ball settled in after that. He gave up a two-out flare to right to Pollioni in the bottom of the second and Beim picked up his second hit with a solid single to left in the third.

But the Gators finally got to Ball in the fifth, as he and his defense committed two physical errors — and made one mental mistake.

Pollioni led off the rally with a slow chopper along the third-base line that was fielded by Ball, who overthrew the ball at first base, enabling Pollioni to scamper to second for a two-base error. Affrunti followed and put down a sacrifice bunt up the third-base line. Ball, again, fielded it, but had no play because no one covered first base in time.

With runners on the corners and Drew Parker at the plate, McMillan started Afrrunti who broke for second, drew a throw and was tagged out.

Pollioni then broke from third and scored on the play on the backend of a delayed double steal to put the Gators up 2-0.

That cost Parker an RBI, as he followed with a double and went to third on Beim’s third hit of the game and his second infield hit to, again, put runners on the corners. Durrett then came through with a sacrifice fly to left to drive in Parker for a 3-0 Gators’ lead.

The final run of the inning came with Beim on third, having stole second and going to third on an Aviles single to bring up Quincy Quattlebaum.

A freshman making his varsity debut, Quattlebaum hit a slow grounder to the left side of the infield. The SHP third baseman couldn’t get to it, but shortstop Thomas Barton was backing him up. He got to the ball, but couldn’t field it cleanly and Quattlebaum was safe on an error, with Beim scoring and the inning ending on a base-running tag out at third.

“As long as we’re putting pressure on the defense, we have a shot,” McMillan said.

The win secured the Gators’ first PAL title since winning the 2023 Bay Division title, but it wasn’t easy. They could never quite shake San Mateo in the standings and the Gators needed a two-game sweep of the Bearcats earlier this month to finally put them in the rearview mirror.

“You win 12 games in a row and think you have a good lead,” McMillan said. “You just want to play good baseball every day.”