NorCal regionals: St. Ignatius wins Division II baseball title; Live Oak cruises to D-V softball crown
Archer Horn, Beau Schaffer shut out Case Grande to lead St. Ignatius to regional championship.
Baseball
Division II final
St. Ignatius’ pitching is young, but that clearly hasn’t been an issue for the San Francisco school.
The Wildcats have a new trophy to prove it.
Two days after freshman Chase Gordon allowed one run in a complete-victory victory over Bellarmine, another freshman, Archer Horn, pitched five shutout innings on Saturday to help St. Ignatius beat host Casa Grande 3-0 in the NorCal Division II championship game in Petaluma.
Sophomore Beau Schaffer relieved Horn and pitched the final two innings to clinch the title.
Fourth-seeded St. Ignatius scored all the runs it needed in the first inning. Leonard Beatie’s bunt single knocked in Gus Parker to make it 1-0.
Niko Gomozias followed with a sacrifice fly to left to drive in Dominic Camarillo for a 2-0 advantage.
An inning later, Camarillo got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to stretch the margin to three.
Horn and Schaffer handled it from there, keeping Casa Grande off the scoreboard as the Wildcats improved to 20-12 while finishing the season with seven wins in their last eight games.
Patrick Ruane was the only SI player with multiple hits. He had two.
Case Grande had four hits.
Softball
Division V final
Live Oak cruised at home in Morgan Hill past North Salinas 13-3 to capture the NorCal Division V championship, the team’s second title in a week.
Last weekend, Live Oak won the Central Coast Section Division IV crown.
Among its many highlights Saturday, Live Oak got a two-run homer from senior Jordan Lara that gave the Acorns an 8-3 lead.
Counting the CCS playoffs, Live Oak outscored its five opponents 59-4.