Two more baserunning blunders threatened to end Patrick Henry High School’s baseball season.
After losing a run Tuesday after video evidence proved the home-plate umpire correct on a controversial call, the Patriots had a runner thrown out at third and another picked off Wednesday in a must-win Open Division semifinal game with Eastlake.
Then, in the fifth inning, Henry executed to perfection, scoring twice and holding on for a 2-0 win over No. 7-seeded Eastlake. The sixth-seeded Patriots (21-9-2) advance to Friday’s San Diego Section championship game against unbeaten and top-seeded Granite Hills at 7:30 p.m. at San Diego State.
Eastlake finishes 20-10-1.
“We beat ourselves Tuesday,” said Patrick Henry coach Sheldon Watkins. “We had to figure out a way to scratch out a run, then we make two more base-running errors. Then we did everything right.”
Sal Gagliano opened the bottom of the fifth with a double to left field. Watkins then had Skyler Stewart, the No. 9 hitter, bunt. Stewart fouled off two attempts before getting a two-strike sacrifice down, moving Gagliano to third.
“That’s my spot. Moving guys is what I do,” Stewart said. “I was confident I’d get it down.”
With Gagliano on third, Alex Mestman made it 1-0 with a sacrifice fly to left.
“I just wanted to put a good swing on the ball,” Mestman said. “That was a huge run sitting on third. I had to get him home.”
Preston Conklin followed with a single to left, then used his speed to go first to third on an infield error with Ian Brooke reaching first.
With clean-up hitter Cody Cappelletti at the plate, Watkins let the count go to two strikes before he put on a leave-early, double-steal attempt.
Brooke took off, Eastlake threw over to first, and Conklin came flying home before Brooke was tagged out.
“Speed is my game,” Conklin said. “Getting that second run against a team as good as Eastlake was huge. So I took a chance and made it to third on the error. We made two more base-running mistakes, so I had to make it. Once we had runners on first and third and the count went to two strikes to Cody, I knew coach would put something on.
“We were able to take advantage of that situation. And our pitching was really good.”
Cappelletti and Max Tello of Eastlake matched zeros for four innings. But it was Cappelletti who threw a three-hit shutout. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter to improve to 6-2 and drop his ERA to 0.55.
A Saint Mary’s commit, Cappelletti now has 68 strikeouts in 63 1/3 innings.
Tello allowed just five hits over six innings with one of the runs unearned.
“I had a good fastball early, then was able to control my slider late in the game,” Cappelletti said. “This was a big game, a must-win game, and I love it. There was no holding back.”
Eastlake got just two runners as far as second base.
Henry’s seniors, which include Conklin, Stewart, Cappelletti, graduate Thursday night. Graduation, they promise, will not detract from the championship game.
“We graduate Thursday night, so we’ll practice Thursday morning,” Conklin said. “We play Friday night, so we’ll have some time to recover. We need to be smart. We knew in winter ball (that) this team had a chance to play for a championship. Now here we are.
“Graduation is a big deal, but so is playing for a championship.”
