NCS baseball playoffs: St. Mary’s-Berkeley advances to face top seed Cardinal Newman
Matteo Copp's HR helps power Benicia to a first-round win. El Cerrito loses to Windsor in a walk-off. St. Joseph Notre Dame's Daniel Velichko pitches a five-inning one-hitter.
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Division III
Bumped up to Division III for the North Coast Section playoffs after capturing the Division IV championship last season, St. Mary’s-Berkeley is off to a strong start.
The Panthers opened the playoffs on Wednesday with a 6-1 victory over ninth-seeded Montgomery-Santa Rosa as Max Barnett-Abrams and Caven Croom each had two hits and an RBI and Eli Fogelman allowed one unearned run in a complete-game gem.
Mateo Morales added a hit and knocked in two runs.
St. Mary’s scored two in the first and four in the second as it improved to 15-8-1.
Montgomery finished 14-11.
The victory sets up a quarterfinal game against another Santa Rosa school on Saturday as St. Mary’s travels to play top-seeded Cardinal Newman, which had an opening-round bye after going 24-1 in the regular season.
St. Mary’s had lost three in a row and four of five before winning Wednesday.
Division II
No. 7 Benicia 12, No. 10 American Canyon 7
Matteo Copp homered and Jacob French and Jake Matteson drove in three runs apiece to lead Benicia to a first-round victory at home over American Canyon.
The Panthers scored three in the first and seven in the third to build a 10-0 cushion.
Three outs from losing by the 10-run mercy rule, American Canyon erupted for six in the fifth but couldn’t get closer as it finished 13-14.
Benicia (14-10-1) will play at second-seeded Windsor in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
No. 2 Windsor 2, No. 15 El Cerrito 1
Max Garcia’s one-out single in the visitor’s half of the sixth pulled El Cerrito even.
An inning later, Windsor ended the Gauchos’ season in walk-off fashion as Brayden Colletto’s single to left drove in the winning run from third with nobody out.
Treico Holland allowed one run in six innings for El Cerrito (14-7-1). Carson Dillon pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts for Windsor (19-7).
No. 3 Marin Catholic 9, No. 14 Washington-Fremont 1
Washington’s bid for an upset imploded when Marin Catholic, playing at home, scored six runs in the fifth to break open what was a two-run game.
Joseph Dutra had a hit and knocked in Washington’s only run as the Huskies finished the season 15-10.
Jake Lyall and Carl Schmidt each homered and drove in two runs for Marin Catholic (20-6), which will play host to No. 6 seed Maria Carrillo on Saturday.
Division IV
No. 2 St. Joseph Notre Dame 10, No. 15 Fremont Christian 0 (5 innings)
Daniel Velichko pitched a five-inning one-hitter with 11 strikeouts and Thomas Cooke and Joshua Vonnegut each finished with three RBIs as SJND — last season’s Division IV runner-up — cruised past Fremont Christian in a first-round game.
SJND led 6-0 after four innings and ended the game with four runs in the fifth.
The Pilots (20-4-1) will play No. 7 seed Del Norte in the quarterfinals on Saturday at the College of Alameda.
Fremont Christian finished 17-3.