De La Salle wins the inaugural CIF NorCal Division I regional title, erasing a three-run deficit in the final inning.
CONCORD — The last out against De La Salle in a playoff baseball game is never easy. No team has done it in seven years.And like all the others, the Lancers left the field in defeat. This one stung the visitors from Mountain View, who brought Cal-Hi Sports’ No. 1 state ranking to the lumpy and dusty field De La Salle calls home for the final game of the season.
“It’s unbelievable,” Dungo said. “It felt surreal. When I touched first base and I saw my teammate cross home plate, it was all that we worked for — summer, fall and during the season.” Two errors and a hit batter loaded the bases for De La Salle with nobody out. Chriss’ single cut the margin to 7-5. Elias Rubio’s groundout to shortstop made it 7-6 and left runners at second and third with one out.When the count reached two strikes, the senior remembered all the coaching from David Jeans through the years.
“It goes both ways sometimes,” Jeans said. “But it is a home-field advantage. That’s part of trying to get the No. 1 seed.”St. Francis coach Matt Maguire, classy in defeat, refused to blame the outcome on De La Salle’s field, which accounted for at least four bad hops.CONCORD, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 4: De La Salle baseball team celebrates their California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Division I championship after Ethan Dungo hit a two-run walk-off against St.
Randall breezed through the first three innings — nine up, nine down — and De La Salle took a 1-0 lead in the first inning courtesy of a bad hop. De La Salle responded to Griffth’s catch with two immediate runs. Kai Smith’s bad-hop double to left was followed by Chriss’ bad-hop single that made it 2-1. Dungo’s sacrifice fly to center widened the advantage to 3-1.Wyatt King’s two-run single tied the score 3-3 and Max Ross’ two-run homer over the right-field fence gave the Lancers a 5-3 lead and ended the day for Randall.