LIVERMORE — Last week’s North Coast Section final between Granada and De La Salle was a classic.
But this time around, it was much different.
In the third matchup between the East Bay powerhouses, Thursday afternoon in Livermore, there was no drama or suspense. No extra innings or controversial calls. And the game finished before sundown.
In what was a master class performance on the mound from Parker Warner, top-seeded Granada blanked No. 4 De La Salle 5-0 in the NorCal semifinals to advance to the title game on Saturday at home against St. Mary’s-Stockton.
Warner pitched a complete game shutout, allowing just five hits and striking out two, as Granada improved to 31-1.
“I knew putting Parker on the bump, the moment wasn’t going to be too big for him,” said Granada coach Corrigan Willis. “He might have only struck out two but he was pounding the zone, throwing pitches for strikes. We’ve been playing good defense all year, so when that happens, I like our chances.”
After winning the past two NorCal Division I championships, De La Salle couldn’t generate any offense once again against Granada, which held the Spartans without a single run in 21 innings the past two games.
A team-wide sickness forced some of De La Salle’s key starters to miss Thursday’s game, including power-hitting junior Alec Blair.
“A lot of these guys I had since sophom*ore year,” De La Salle coach David Jeans said. “I’ve won two championships with them and we didn’t get it done today, but that’s OK. That’s high school baseball. … We tip our cap to Granada.”
After watching senior left-handed pitcher RJ Meyn throw eight scoreless innings in the NCS final last week, many believed he would be the one to step on the mound on Thursday for De La Salle (21-8).
But Jeans said he didn’t want to push the Santa Clara commit six days after Meyn threw more than 100 pitches.
“There’s a bigger picture besides high school baseball, and he’s got a future at Santa Clara,” Jeans said. “ If I run him out there today and he does something to his arm because he’s trying to be the guy and help the team, that’s where I have to step in and make a decision.”
Granada held a 2-0 lead after four innings, but broke the game open in the fifth after taking advantage of some untimely De La Salle errors.
With the bases loaded and one out, Peyton Richards hit a ground ball that would have been a routine out at first base. But De La Salle overthrew first and allowed Mikey Boyd to score from third, extending the Granada lead to 3-0.
In the next at-bat, Quinn Boyd flew out and the Spartans threw the ball to the cut-off man at shortstop to halt the tag runner at third from advancing to home. But De La Salle overthrew the catcher, which allowed Riley Winchell to score to give the Matadors a four-run cushion.
Later in the inning, second baseman A.J. Martinez capped off Granada’s outburst by scoring from third on a passed ball to make it 5-0.
“We wanted to get the game over with,” said catcher Tommy Brown. “De La Salle was pitching us backwards the whole game, so we had to just wait for our pitch and they gave us a couple. They made a couple mistakes and we executed on those.”
In the last two games, De La Salle has committed eight errors, three of which came on Thursday.
While Granada capitalized on De La Salle miscues, the Matadors’ defense played a near-flawless game.
Warner didn’t have to strike out many batters as he let his defense do a majority of the work. The Stanford commit approached the game knowing he was going to try to get ahead in the count and trust his backline when he put the ball in play.
“I was trying to get as many outs as early as I can early in the count and I feel like I did that today,” Warner said. “It’s great having a defense like I have behind me. They’ve been solid all year and I wouldn’t want to have any other group of guys back there.”
When Warner retired the final batter of the game, the packed stands at Granada’s field gave the Matadors a standing ovation. Groups of kids lined up near the Granada dugout to snag autographs from their favorite players.
The Matadors have 10 shutouts this season and held 19 of 32 opponents to one run or fewer. Granada will be the first public school to reach the NorCal Division I final when it plays St. Mary’s on Saturday. The tournament is in its third season.
“It means a lot to be the first team to do this in school history,” Martinez said. “This is good momentum going into the championship game, but we all know the job is not finished. We have one more to get through.”
