LIVERMORE — After a grueling game that stretched across two days, two fields, two cities and two counties, Granada ended one of the longest post-season high school baseball winning streaks in state history when A.J. Martinez hit a run-scoring single in the bottom of the 14th to beat De La Salle 1-0 on Saturday.
Martinez’s heroic moment ended the Concord powerhouse’s 33-game playoff run that began in 2016 while lifting his own team to his first section crown.
“These are the moments I dream of,” Martinez said. “I’m just happy I came up big for the team here.”
The North Section Division I championship that Granada captured on its home field was the pinnacle of coach Corrigan Willis’ 16 seasons leading the Livermore school’s program
“It was an emotional win,” Willis said. “We had some great teams, but this team definitely pulled for each other. They were super selfless and talented, but they were very deserving of getting an NCS championship, which is not easy against a great team like De La Salle.”
Nobody in the NCS or NorCal playoffs had beaten De La Salle since the College Park team led by current big leaguer Christian Encarnacion-Strand did it in 2015.
“Everyone thinks it’s easy for us, but it’s not,” De La Salle coach David Jeans said on Saturday. “Every game is hard. Give credit to those guys. They did a heck of a job.”
It clearly wasn’t easy for either side.
After 10 dramatic innings on Friday without either side scoring, the teams wanted to keep playing. But with darkness fast approaching at the game’s original site, Monte Vista High School in Danville, the umpires said no.
The game was moved to Granada on Saturday because there wasn’t staffing available to prepare the field at Monte Vista.
As the top seed, Granada was given the option by the NCS to host the conclusion of what will no doubt be remembered as a classic game.
The Livermore school accepted.
With records, accolades and history on the line, the game lived up to all the hype.
“I have a hard time putting words together on how to describe this game,” Willis said Friday. “There was just a lot of solid pitching. There were a lot of big moments. A lot of big-difference plays were made, and that’s where we’re at now. We’re going into the 11th inning tomorrow.”
De La Salle’s RJ Meyn pitched eight hitless innings, striking out six. Granada ace Jake Sekany was on the mound for nine innings, allowing just two hits and also striking out six.
The East Bay powerhouses, who typically are explosive offensively, were limited to a combined five hits.
Both teams had their fair share of chances to put runs on the board, but elite defense and superb pitching prevented either from taking a lead.
In the fourth inning, Granada had runners on first and third with one out. But Meyn got out of the jam by retiring the next two batters.
In the sixth, De La Salle had two on and two outs with power-hitter Alec Blair at the plate. Sekany pitched a breaking ball low in the zone and Blair hit a pop-up to second base, which ultimately ended the Spartans’ half of the inning.
After Meyn retired three straight batters in the bottom of the seventh, the game went to extra innings, where more drama ensued.
With one out in the ninth, the Matadors loaded the bases. The Spartans moved up their infielders in hopes of turning the double play.
Granada’s Peyton Richards hit a bouncer to second baseman Hank Tripaldi, who threw the ball to shortstop Tyler Spangler for the force out at second. Spangler then threw out Richards in a bang-bang play to first baseman Sean Stafford to keep the score tied.
When asked if he thought Richards was safe, Willis smiled and nodded before saying, “Yes.”
De La Salle coach David Jeans said, “I didn’t really see it, but I asked and the umpires said it was close. Stafford does a great job at first. He’s a senior. I’ve seen worse calls, let’s put it that way.”
When neither side scored in the 10th inning, NCS officials met with the umpires and administrators from both schools to discuss whether the game should continue.
Although both teams wanted to keep playing, the section decided that it wouldn’t be fair if one side hit while it was getting dark and the other hit under brighter conditions Saturday afternoon — assuming a full inning couldn’t be completed before the scheduled 8:19 p.m. sunset in Danville.
The section preferred to continue with a clean inning, not in the middle of one.
Saturday’s continuation picked up where the teams left off 17 hours earlier.
Stanford commit Parker Warner pitched all four innings on the mound on Saturday. He allowed just one hit.
De La Salle pitcher Tommy Curran was just as good as he walked two batters and didn’t allow a hit until giving up two in the decisive 14th inning.
The Spartans had a chance to score themselves in the 14th.
Senior Hank Tripaldi hit a lead-off single to start the inning. Two at-bats later, third baseman Jamie Mullin hit a double, giving De La Salle runners on second and third with one out.
But Warner got the Matadors out of the jam by retiring the next two batters.
With one out in the bottom half of the 14th, Warner reached first base on a fielding error. In the next at-bat, junior Mikey Boyd hit a single to put two runners on.
After Curran retired another batter, the Spartans needed just one more out to end the inning.
That’s when Martinez stepped up in a big way.
With the count at 0-1, Martinez smacked the ball into center field deep enough for Warner to sprint home from second to finally put an end to what could be the greatest NCS championship game in history.
“I’m not surprised it was A.J.,” Willis said. “He earned that moment right there, there’s no doubt about it.”
Both teams could see each other again next week as Granada and De La Salle are expected to be high seeds in the NorCal playoffs.
The Spartans will be looking for their third consecutive regional title. Granada has never advanced to NorCals.
But on Saturday, the Matadors just wanted to soak in their epic triumph.
“I wouldn’t want to do this with another group of guys,” Warner said. “Winning this is going to go down in history and we’ll finally be able to hang the banner.”
