CCS baseball playoffs: Palma falls in Division III semifinals
SALNAS — There is no preparation for the abruptness of a season coming to a close. Processing it minutes after a game is painstaking for one dugout.
“Trying to process it right now is tough,” Palma baseball coach Brian Neff said. “These kids have put so much into this. The dedication, the improvements. Right now, it really hurts.”
Leaving the potential tying run on base in the seventh inning, the Chieftains will be turning in uniforms Monday after falling 8-7 to Christopher in the Central Coast Section Division III semifinals at Hartnell College.
The two former Gabilan Division rivals were meeting for the second time this spring, with Christopher opening the year with a 12-4 win over Palma back on February 22.
“We had some learning curves this year,” Neff said. “We have some inexperience at some positions. We will convene next week and talk about what we did well and what we need to improve upon. But we’re definitely pointing in the right direction.”
Seeded No. 3 in the tournament, Palma finished the season 17-13. Its last section title came during the 2009 season while in Division III.
“A lot of these kids have been going at it for 10 months,” Neff said. “You don’t plan on your season ending early. It stinks.”
Returning to the finals for the second time in three years, Christopher (18-8) will continue its Gabilan Division tour through the playoffs, as it will face Hollister — 13-0 winners over Pioneer — on Saturday in the championship game in San Jose.
In two postseason games, the No. 8 seeded Balers have outscored the opposition 24-0, knocking off the No. 1 and No. 4 seeded teams.
On the heels of a 5-4 walk-off win over Westmont last Saturday, the Chieftains took that momentum into the semifinals by producing two runs in the top of the first with RBI coming from Manny Dorantes and Kaleb Shannon.
The lead, however, was brief as the No. 2 seeded Cougars answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning, tacking on a another run in the second to open up a four-run cushion.
“Our Achillies heel all year is we haven’t been able to throw strikes at a consistent rate,” Neff said. “That’s kind of led to our undoing. We don’t have guys that have logged a lot of high school innings.”
A two-run single from the hot-hitting Shannon cut the deficit to two in the fourth, before the Mount Hamilton Athletic League runner-ups answered with a pair of their own, with the aid of a pair of throwing errors.
“What killed us in the end is we made five errors,” Neff said. “That’s super uncharacterized of us. We’ve taken care of the baseball this year. We made some costly mistakes. We had a hard time playing catch.”
The Chieftains stung the ball at the plate the entire game. Even their outs were hit hard as Johnny Carnazzo’s third hit of the game drove in a run in the fifth, followed by Rocco Razzeca run-scoring single.
Yet, having the bases loaded in the sixth with one out and manufacturing just one run on a single from Aiden Velez took the wind out of their sales as Christopher induced a double-play to end the threat.
“If I was to ever bet money, I would have believed we would have taken the lead,” Neff said. “The ball was hit hard. It was just hit right at the shortstop.”
Even Palma’s last out to end the game was a sharply hit line drive into the glove of a Christopher player.
The Chieftains finished with 16 hits with Carnazzo, Bubba Martinez and the Cal bound Dorantes each collecting three hits. Razzeca, Shannon and Andre Medina all finished with a pair.
