By Craig Wentz
Town Crier Correspondent
Prep Baseball Playoffs
Local high school baseball teams endured mixed results in the early rounds of the Central Coast Section playoffs last week.
While Los Altos and Gunn highs saw their seasons end, St. Francis marched into the CCS Division I semifinals.
Ninth-seed St. Francis (21-9-1) advanced to the semifinals after knocking off top-seed Wilcox (25-4) by a 9-4 score last Saturday at Santa Clara University’s Buck Shaw Stadium.
The Lancers battle No. 5 Gilroy (19-9) at 4 p.m. today at Municipal Stadium in San Jose for the right to play for the championship against either No. 2 Mitty (27-5) or No. 3 Serra (22-10). The title game is scheduled for Saturday at Municipal Stadium.
In the first round of the playoffs on May 16, St. Francis took care of No. 8 Salinas 7-3 at Salinas Muni.
Adam Turrey sparkled from the mound, upping his record to 8-1.
The Lancers produced 11 hits, including two each from Josh Lansford, Jonathan Barsi, Mike Ribero and Dan Graviano. Dan McCarthy added a double and had two RBIs. Graviano also drove in a pair of runs.
While St. Francis has exceeded expectations, Gunn failed to live up to expectations in a surprising first-round loss.
No. 3 Gunn had as many hits (four) as errors in an 11-1 mercy-rule loss to No. 14 South San Francisco last Thursday at Baylands Athletic Center in Palo Alto.
The Titans, who came into the game averaging nearly eight hits a game and an impressive .321 batting average, couldn’t keep up with South San Francisco starter Travis Butts (8-0). The Peninsula Athletic League MVP kept hard-hitting Gunn off balance all afternoon with an accurate fastball and a dropping curve.
South San Francisco jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Gunn starter Ray Hunter (5-3) and iced the game with nine runs in the fifth.
Max Kautz tallied Gunn’s lone run on a solo homer to left-center field in the fifth. Chris Backer and Justin Shifrin each belted doubles for the Titans.
The Titans return all but four players next season, losing starting outfielders Nick Tanaka, Jeff Zweig and Kyle Jaros and reserve infielder Andy Bradshaw to graduation. Pitching should again be a strength in 2002 with starters Hunter, Jon Dishotsky and Greg Matson coming back.
Los Altos, on the other hand, will graduate 10 players - including seven starters - from a team that finished second in the SCVAL El Camino Division and reached the playoffs for the first time under fifth-year coach Sandy Wihtol.
The 12th-seeded Eagles (15-15) fell 7-3 to No. 5 Santa Cruz last Thursday in the opening round of the Division II playoffs.
Visiting Los Altos never led in the contest and got as close as 4-2 in the fourth inning. The Cardinals (21-5) put the game out of reach by scoring single runs in their final three at-bats.
Raul Ontiveros notched two of the Eagles’ five hits and Matt Kramer added a double.
