Padres denied WCAL tourney championship

Valley Christian took the tournament crown Thursday at Schott Stadium, handing the Padres a 6-1 loss. The Warriors overcame a 1-0 deficit with back-to-back three-run innings, rallying in each the fifth and the sixth after a glut of defensive miscues by Serra opened the door.

“We got sloppy defensively, and we haven’t been like that all year,” Serra manager Chris Houle said. “Unfortunately we picked a bad night to have a bad defensive inning. And you can’t do that against good teams. They’ll take advantage of it.”

The Padres’ defense imploded in the fifth, committing three errors and two passed balls in the frame. The play that stung the most was a liner off the glove of first baseman Ryan Sutter that was ruled an RBI single off the bat of Eddie Park. Had Sutter gloved it, though, with the runner Coleman Brigman at second base running on the play, it would have been a sure rally-killing double play.

“It’s a tough play, no doubt,” Houle said. “There was a couple plays like that that we’ve been making all year, and we didn’t make them tonight. Sometimes that happens.”

Instead, Valley Christian took the lead on the play, and went on to score three runs in the inning, two of which were unearned.

The benefactor was Valley Christian starting pitcher Kevin Pence, who settled in to fire a four-hitter to earn the complete-game victory. The senior right-hander struck out six, including the final batter of the game, Serra junior Omar Barraza, after walking the previous batter Kyle Leventhal.

Following the walk, Valley Christian manager John Diatte took a walk to the mound to check on his starting pitcher. Pence thought he was getting the hook. But that wasn’t the case.

“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty pissed when he was walking out,” Pence said. “I wanted the CG. I wanted to finish it. And he looks at me and says: ‘Pence, why are you so upset? Why do you look so mad? I’m just coming out here to talk to you.’ And that kind of got me loosened up. I got me a deep breath and got in my zone.”

Serra starting pitcher Drew Dowd battled through five innings of work, pitching through jams in each of the first four. Valley Christian had at least one runner in scoring position in every inning against Serra’s sophomore left-hander, but got serious help from Leventhal in left field to escape trouble in the first.

On a shot driven into left-center field by Nick Marinconz, Leventhal got a great jump and tracked the ball as the booming fly hung up just enough. Leventhal left his feet to make an all-out diving nab — to a chorus of oohs and aahs from the crowd — to not only rob Marinconz from extra bases, but to keep Valley Christian off the board.

“Great catch,” Houle said. “Just a phenomenal catch. That’s the kind of stuff we’ve been doing and, unfortunately, just a few innings later we just couldn’t make all those defensive plays.”

Dowd went on to pitch around Valley Christian runners at second base in each the second and third innings, then came up with a clutch strikeout with runners at the corners and two outs in the fourth.

“I thought [Dowd] was great,” Houle said. “He did what he needed to do. He kept us in the game, letting the defense work. I thought he was great. That’s a big stage for him to come in, and he gave us good innings. We just couldn’t quite support him.”

The fifth inning that saw Serra come undone started with a simple chopper over the middle by No. 9 hitter Jack McGrew. Padres shortstop J.J. Ota charged to attempt a do-or-die bare-hander, but couldn’t come up with it, allowing McGrew to reach on an infield single.

Then the wheels came off.

McGrew moved to second on a passed ball. He then scored the tying run when Coleman Brigman hit a sharp chopper to second that Marek Palladino failed to glove on a backhand for Serra’s first error of the frame. Park followed with the sharp liner off Sutter’s glove that made its way into the outfield for an RBI knock. Park then advanced to second on a pickoff play that saw Dowd throw behind him at first. Serra had Park dead to rights at second, but Sutter made an errant throw to put another Valley Christian runner in scoring position. A costly passed ball moved Park to third, setting up a sacrifice fly from cleanup hitter Jonathan Camrot to give Valley Christian a 3-1 lead.

With Sutter on in relief to start the sixth, Valley Christian scored three more runs. A walk to Dawson Brigman, followed by a sacrifice bunt by pinch hitter Ryan Swing, set up another run on Serra’s fourth error of the game. This time a routine bounder to third base with Jack Damelio committing a throwing error, allowing Dawson Brigman to score. A double by Coleman Brigman set up a two-run double by Park to cap the night’s scoring.

Serra got a spark to start the seventh inning when Sutter came within inches of knocking one over the left-field wall. His soaring line drive hit just under the yellow line at the top of the fence, though, and he settled for a double.

The Padres had already enjoyed one comeback in the tournament, rallying past Bellarmine Wednesday night for a 2-1 win. Serra entered the seventh of that one trailing 1-0, but an RBI double by Leventhal followed by a game-winning single by Palladino gave the Padres a thrilling win, and a surge of momentum going into Thursday’s championship.

“We felt great,” Palladino said. “We felt confident. Playing a tough team like Bellarmine … we were living it up last night.”

Any thoughts of a miracle comeback against Valley Christian were stifled in the following at-bat though when Noah Marcelo shot a liner to right field that was caught by Valley’s Steven Zobac. Serra’s pinch runner reacted to the play by running off the crack of the bat, allowing for Zobac to double him off, setting the stage for two batters later and Valley Christian’s emotional celebration in the middle of the diamond.

“That’s the happiest moment of my life,” Pence said. “I love all these guys. We worked so hard for this. And this game is all about revenge, and we took it to them.”

Serra had defeated Valley Christian twice in the regular season. Although the two teams finished with identical records in WCAL round-robin play, the Padres earned the regular-season WCAL crown by virtue of defeating Valley Christian in both WCAL regular-season matchups. With the Warriors winning the WCAL tournament championship, Serra and Valley Christian are considered co-WCAL champions.

“We’re just ready to wipe that one right off the board and come back ready to play for CCS,” Palladino said. “We’re ready to dominate. And we’ll probably see Valley Christian again. So, we’ll be ready for them.”

Neither team in a lock for the CCS Open Division tournament, however, which has been paired down to eight teams this season. In previous years, the Open Division bracket was composed of 16 teams.

“I don’t know what to expect, to be totally honest,” Houle said. “Because of the eight teams in the Open, it’s really kind of a crap shoot because it’s going to depend on champions and co-champions in the other A-leagues too. … If there’s more than eight [outright A-league] champions, my belief is they’re simply going to go on CCS points at that point. So, there could be up to 10. There could be only six or seven. … If we didn’t have enough points compared to some of the other co-champs, then obviously we’d get moved down into Division I or Division II.”