Pacifica All-Stars fall short in Section 3 final

Facing Granada for the second time in the tournament Tuesday, Pacifica put a 8-0 drubbing on it to force a winner-take-all finale in the rubber match between the two teams Wednesday.

Unfortunately for Pacifica American, its offense dried up against Granada the third time around. Granada struggled to score as well, but got a sun-aided, two-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning to take the title with a 2-0 victory at Vallejo Mills Elementary School in Fremont Wednesday.

“Both teams competed at a high level,” said Pacifica manager Scott Nemes. “They (Granada) got two (runners) where they needed to be (across home plate).”

Granada started its rally with a walk by pinch-hitter Lane Curtin. He stole second and went to third on a passed ball. Marasco drew a two-out walk and stole second to put two in scoring position. Granada cleanup hitter Cole Cainey came to the plate and jumped on the first pitch of Pacifica starter Jason Balmy, hitting a line drive to the right-center field gap.

Pacifica center fielder DJ Delaney got to the ball in plenty of time, but he was looking directly into the late-afternoon sun and was blinded at the last second as the ball skipped past him for a two-run double.

“That’s how it goes sometimes,” Nemes said.

Pacifica certainly had its chances to push runs across as it had runners in scoring position in each of the first five innings. It stranded five runners in the first two innings combined, including the bases loaded in the second. It had a runner thrown out at the plate in the top of the third, and in its last best chance to score, wasted a leadoff double in the top of the fifth.

“We had chances. We had runners at second and third all game long,” Nemes said. “In the other games, we took advantage of some mistakes that Granada didn’t make.”

After beating Granada’s ace in the Tuesday’s game, Pacifica struggled against the one-two pitching punch of Tyler Palma for the first 3 2/3 innings and Joey Marasco, who shut the door over the final 2 1/3 innings. They combined to limit Pacifica to just five hits.

Balmy, who had two of his team’s hits, was just as dominant to match the Granada duo. After a laborious first inning that saw him allow two hits while throwing 25 pitches, Balmy settled down. He threw 17 in the second inning before combining for a total of 16 pitches over the next two innings.

“Both teams got runners on, but the pitchers did what they needed to do,” Nemes said.

Even the hit Balmy gave up that drove in both Granada runs was not a bad pitch. The hitter just put a good swing on it.

Pacifica dodged a bullet in the bottom of the first as Granada had runners on first and third with one out. The runner at first broke for second and as he drew the throw from Pacifica catcher Alex Wineinger, the runner at third broke for home.

The throw actually went directly to second baseman Reggie Fong, who fired a perfect strike back to Wineinger, who swept the tag on the base runner for the out. Balmy then got a strikeout to end the inning.

Granada returned the favor in third when it threw out a potential Pacifica run at the plate. Balmy, who singled up the middle with one out, went to second on a Brody Hatch walk and took third on a passed ball.

That brought up Austin Snead, who hit a fly ball to medium-deep, right-center field. Balmy broke for the plate as the catch was made, but he was nailed by the throw of Granada center fielder Seth Sanchez for an inning-ending double play.

“Both teams made big plays when they had to,” Nemes said. “In a game like this, it could have either way.”