By Craig Wentz

Town Crier Correspondent

CCS Baseball Championship

The St. Francis High baseball team suffered its share of close losses during the regular season, including three setbacks to West Catholic Athletic League rival Mitty.

On May 26, the Lancers finally enjoyed a narrow win to claim the Central Coast Section Division I crown.

Thanks to the brilliant pitching of left-hander Matt Hollywood and clutch hitting, No. 9 St. Francis (23-9-1) turned the tables on No. 2 Mitty (28-6) in a 3-2 championship triumph at San Jose’s Municipal Stadium.

It was the Lancers’ lone win in four tries against Mitty this season.

“Our pitching was just unbelievable,” said longtime St. Francis coach Chris Bradford. “The character of the team showed through.”

St. Francis, which placed fourth in the WCAL, outscored its four playoff opponents 26-12 and defeated three of the top five Division I seeds en route to the title.

This marked the fourth CCS title for Bradford, who also won championships in 1981, ‘83 and ‘95.

Hollywood (8-3) allowed six hits and yielded just one earned run in the complete-game win and kept the hard-hitting Monarchs off balance all afternoon. The game marked Hollywood’s ninth complete game of the season.

The senior picked up a key win earlier in the tournament with a 9-4 victory over top-seed Wilcox in the quarterfinals. Senior Adam Turrey (9-1) registered the other two tournament wins for the Lancers.

In the CCS championship, St. Francis broke through for the game’s first runs in the second inning.

Mike Ribero hit a critical double that drove in two runs, putting the Lancers up 2-0.

Fellow junior Jonathan Barsi gave St. Francis a 3-1 advantage in the fourth by scoring on a wild pitch.

That was all the help Hollywood would need.

Sophomore infielder Josh Lansford led St. Francis by reaching base in all four trips to the plate, getting two hits and walking twice.

St. Francis lost seven one-run games during the season, five in the competitive WCAL.

In Mitty’s three wins over the Lancers this season, two were by a single run.

St. Francis loses six seniors to graduation, including its stellar one-two pitching punch of Hollywood and Turrey.

But the Lancers expect to return 14 players from a unit that understands no matter how things turned out in the regular season, everything can come together in the playoffs.