CCS DV baseball finals: Monterey succumbs to top seed Menlo
SAN JOSE — Finding your identity means understanding your strengths. Attention to detail meant growing pains for a program with six and sometimes seven underclassmen in the lineup.
Yet, Monterey came into the postseason battle-tested, confident it could rise to the occasion after going 5-2 in its last seven one-run battles.
“I don’t think anyone thought we’d be in this position a month ago,” Monterey baseball coach Michael Groves said. “I told the kids we have been beaten up. We’ve gone through the Gabilan Division. But we are battle-tested and resilient.”
Finding itself in another one-run meeting seemed fitting. Leaving the bases loaded in the sixth inning, however, was costly as the Toreadores fell 5-4 Thursday to top seed Menlo in the Central Coast Section Division V finals at Excite Park in San Jose.
“This is a team where you’re teaching every second of every practice and game,” Groves said. “They’re learning skills that they have not really practiced. Little things like cuts off, taking an extra base. Those are the things you learn with time over practice.”
Of the 18 players that Groves — who has 800 plus wins and 39 postseason appearances — had on his playoff roster, only three were seniors.
Monterey was one of four teams from the Gabilan Division playing for a section title, joining Hollister (DII), Carmel (DIII) and St. Francis of Watsonville (DIV).
“I feel like we missed an opportunity tonight,” Groves said.
Monterey, which was chasing its fifth CCS title — all in the last 22 years, reached the finals after knocking off Lincoln 6-2 and Harbor 4-1. It came into the battle riding a season high three-game winning streak.
The last time the Toreadores (12-18) and Menlo (21-8) played was in a tournament in 2013, with the Knights holding on for a 7-6 win.
Champions of the Peninsula Ocean Division, the Knights have won seven CCS titles. They’ll go into the State Northern California playoffs riding a nine-game winning streak.
Starring a 5-1 deficit in the sixth inning, the Toreadores manufactured runs with the aid of two hits batsman and a sacrifice fly by Luke Miramontes to close to within a run.
“We loaded the bases in the sixth and cut the lead to one with one out,” Groves said. “Getting that big hit has been a problem all year. We’ve been manufacturing runs all year. We are still learning how to hit line drives. I think eight of our outs were flyouts.”
The Toreadores, who never led in the game, tied it at one when Miramontes — who pitched them into the title game with a gem against Harbor and is one of Groves’ three seniors — singled home a run in the third inning.
Getting the leadoff batter on in each of the first four innings, Menlo pushed across three runs in the third and another in the fourth to build a 5-1 cushion.
Jacob Mewborn collected two hits for Monterey, while Mateo Marotta-Gallegos and Patrick Adams each drove in runs.
