By Craig Wentz

Town Crier Correspondent

Prep Baseball Playoffs

The St. Francis High baseball team hoped to close out its impressive postseason run with a Central Coast Section Division I championship last Saturday at Municipal Stadium in San Jose.

The Lancers faced fellow West Catholic Athletic League member Mitty in the title game, played after the Town Crier went to press. A follow-up story on the game will appear in next week’s issue.

Saturday’s game wasn’t expected to be an easy one for the ninth-seeded Lancers (22-9-1). St. Francis went 0-3 against No. 2 Mitty (28-5) during the regular season. The Monarchs beat the Lancers by scores of 3-2, 8-7 and 4-2.

“We’re hoping we can pull the trigger against Mitty,” St. Francis coach Chris Bradford said prior to Saturday’s contest. “Our pitching has been outstanding and we’re getting the clutch hit.”

St. Francis, which was seeking its fourth CCS crown, lost five one-run games in WCAL play and seven total this year.

But in the playoffs, the Lancers have won convincingly.

In their May 23 semifinal game at Muni Stadium, St. Francis whipped No. 5 Gilroy (19-10) by a 7-3 score.

Senior right-hander Adam Turrey (9-1) pitched a complete game, allowing six hits. He had a no-hitter going through 4 1/3 innings. Turrey, who is an impressive 16-2 over the past two seasons, helped his cause by driving in a pair of runs against Gilroy.

The Lancers sealed the victory in the fifth inning, tallying six runs and sending 12 batters to the plate.

Dan Graviano homered for St. Francis and teammates Chet Kasper, Josh Lansford and Jonathan Barsi each collected two hits. Kasper and Manan Mehta both doubled for the Lancers, who rapped out 11 hits.

In the other semifinal game that day, Mitty nipped No. 3 Serra (22-11) 9-8 by scoring the game-winning run on an error in the eighth inning.

Mitty led 8-3 in the fifth, only to witness the Padres tally five unanswered runs to send the game into extra innings.