Central Catholic baseball earns second win in 24 hours, advances to NorCal Final
The Central Catholic baseball team has played two games in 24 hours with its season on the line.
At 4 p.m. Tuesday, the Raiders kicked off their CIF Northern California Division III Regional title defense against Atascadero. By 5:30, starting pitcher Adrian Garcia had thrown his final pitch, striking out the Greyhounds’ last batter in a 12-0 five-inning win.
That night, the No. 2 Raiders (24-9) found out that they would have to turn around and do it all again Wednesday morning. Their opponent, No. 6 Justin-Siena of Napa (18-11) which upset third-seed King’s Academy in its first round game, had graduation weekend activities scheduled for Thursday.
Central Catholic agreed to move it up a day, hosting the Braves Wednesday at 11:30 a.m.
Eighteen hours after their first round game ended, their regional semifinals game started. TP Wentworth earned the start and was, once again, brilliant. He pitched his second no-hitter this season, earned his fourth complete game shutout and struck out 14 batters. Sophomore Kayden McHenry scored the team’s only run in the fourth inning as the Raiders beat the Braves, 1-0.
At 1:25 p.m., Wentworth delivered the last pitch of the game, a swinging third strike in the dirt that catcher Fernando Alaniz fired to McHenry at first to finish the game.
Two games, two wins, two shutouts by two pitchers to send them back to the regional championship game. In one 24-hour span.
“It just shows our toughness,” Wentworth said of winning two games in 24 hours. “We’re senior heavy so I think we know what to do. Last year we made the run and it really helps us know what we need to do to get it done. … I think we’re clicking when we need to be.”
The Raiders are in the D-III NorCal final for the second straight season. Last year, they beat Oakmont for the title. They fell to the Vikings in this year’s section title game but could meet up with them again in Saturday’s final. Oakmont is the No. 1 seed in the NorCal bracket while the Raiders are the two-seed.
Wednesday didn’t look like Tuesday’s offensive explosion where Central Catholic produced eight total hits, two extra-base hits and drew seven walks. But not every game is the same. The ability to win a one-run game where they collect just four hits, Raiders coach Danny Ayala says, is what playoff baseball is about.
“That’s championship baseball,” he said. “When you come out, you just gotta score more runs, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1-0. When you get into dogfights and you play nothing but high-level baseball, they’re low-scoring games. We have a lot of experience with it and our boys just kept going. They played really hard every pitch.”
McHenry led the way with two hits with a double. Wentworth and Garcia recorded the team’s other base knocks.
After three scoreless innings, McHenry came across to score. He singled to right field and advanced to second after a sacrifice bunt by Trace Hernandez. With Joe Farinha at bat, McHenry advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored after the catcher threw the ball over the third baseman’s head.
“I didn’t know I was going to score, I was just trying to move up a base,” McHenry said. “I tried to run as fast as I could, but I didn’t really know. I was just looking at coach and he told me to go, so I went for it.”
One run was all Wentworth needed to earn his 10th win this season. The Braves put runners on second base a handful of times but Wentworth and the Raiders worked out of the innings.
“Him just walking on campus to the kid has been in every spotlight and and in every national ranking. He’s had to handle himself a lot differently than most other kids.” Ayala said of Wentworth who was named VOL MVP in football, basketball and baseball. “He’s a great kid, he’s a great teammate. All the things everybody says but he’s also a competitor. He wants to win not only for himself, but his teammates and the program and the school and the coaches. I mean, he’s just a really special individual.”
The Raiders have to wait a day before finding out their championship opponent. No. 1 Oakmont and No. 5 Christopher of Gilroy play Thursday at 4 p.m. If the Vikings win, the Raiders travel to Roseville Saturday for the championship. If Christopher wins, the Raiders host. It’s not lost on them that the chance to play Oakmont for the third time in two postseasons is a real possibility.
“I think that sparked us,” Wentworth said of the section final loss to Oakmont. “I think we were a little complacent, a little too confident and I think it just got our energy going again. Hopefully we get them again.”
