By Greg Hancock
 R. Alan Hwang/special to the town crier Los Altos starting pitcher Devin Matthews earned the win Saturday against Saratoga. |
Down four runs in the first inning, the Los Altos High baseball team rallied to beat Saratoga 8-6 Saturday and remain atop the SCVAL El Camino Division standings.
By winning two of their final three games, the Eagles can secure the league title, ahead of hard-charging Santa Clara. Los Altos (13-2 league, 15-6-2 overall) was scheduled to play a doubleheader against Homestead Tuesday and visit Monta Vista at 3:30 p.m. Thursday to close out the regular season.
“We want (the league title) and we’re not going to let anything get in our way,” said starting pitcher Devin Matthews, who earned the win Saturday.
Matthews survived a rocky start to improve to 3-1 in league. After getting out Saratoga’s first batter, an error opened the floodgates. The Falcons (7-7 league) produced five straight hits en route to its four runs.
“In the first inning, I was trying to throw hard and do too much,” Matthews said. “After that, I settled down and threw strikes.”
That, he did. The junior walked only one batter in his six-plus innings. This included a four-inning stretch in which he retired 11 batters in a row, a streak ended by Bo Nielson’s solo home run to left centerfield with one out in the fifth.
“It’s a really good feeling out there on the mound to know that even after I gave up those four runs in the first inning that we were going to come back to make it a close game,” Matthews said.
Los Altos’ comeback started in the second when Matthews drew a bases-loaded walk to force in a run. The Eagles scored two more in the third, thanks to Kellen McColl’s two-run homer to left.
After Saratoga scored in the top of the fifth, Los Altos countered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 5.
The Falcons regained the lead with a run in the sixth, but it didn’t last long. Los Altos scored three times in its half of the inning to go ahead for good. After tying the game on Rob Falconer’s homer, the Eagles scored on Kyle Tachibana’s triple and Jason Craine’s double.
Los Altos totaled 12 hits on the afternoon, with eight starters notching at least one hit. Craine went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, while fellow junior McColl was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
“This team is really competitive,” Matthews said. “We know we can hit the ball.”
Matthews sat down in the seventh after giving up a leadoff double to Bo Nielson. Coach Sandy Wihtol brought in Isaac Wilhelm to close the game and the junior retired the next three batters - via a popup and two ground balls - to earn the save.
