Clinging to a one-run lead heading into the top of the seventh inning of Wednesday’s Central Coast Section Division I Baseball Playoffs, Christopher High first-year skipper Adam Perez had a tough call to make.
His starting pitcher, senior Anthonee Bartholic, battled in and out of trouble through the first six frames against a feisty Milpitas lineup. His pitch count was high after striking out 10, but the hard-throwing righthander allowed only two hits and no earned runs.
“I wanted to stay in the game,” Bartholic said. “I worked hard all this season and just wanted to finish the game out.”
But Perez turned to another senior, reliever Darren Santos, just as the Cougars had did many times in the past, to close out the first-round game on their home field.
The visiting Trojans made them pay for it when senior Sam Robillos lined a bases-loaded, two-run shot off Santos’ glove into the outfield to take a 3-2 edge.
Christopher (18-10, 9-9) threatened in the bottom half of the seventh, with two on and one out, but could not push the tying run across in a gut-wrenching 3-2 playoff loss.
“With 13 seniors, it stings a lot for us, especially because we had some high hopes going into the playoffs,” said Perez, who stuck to his guns about the late pitching change. “I don’t second guess that at all. We have a lot of confidence in Santos….We had faith in him. We still think if we had the same situation we’d do the same thing tomorrow.”
Milpitas coach Chuy Zamudio backed his counterpart on the tough decision to pull Bartholic, who the Trojans (16-12-1, 6-8) managed only one extra base hit, a bunt single and five walks off through six innings.
“His pitch count was high. We were taking pitches to try to get to the pen, and sure enough we were fortunate to see a velocity that we’re use to seeing and we were able to hit him,” Zamudio said. “That is one of the best teams we’ve played all year and we play in a tough league with Palo Alto and Los Gatos, and that pitcher right there is the best we’ve faced.”
Milpitas lefty starter Anthony Tylij wasn’t too shabby himself, managing a rare feat when he was pulled with two outs in the fourth only to re-take the mound with one out in the seventh and close out the game.
“You hardly ever see that with the starter, but I said to him, ‘You want it?’ and he closed it out,” added Zamudio, who pulled out all the stops to advance to Saturday’s second round where they will face Gilroy High. “It’s just unfortunate in CCS that someone has to lose and today was just our day. I’ll tell you this, ‘The better team did not win today.’”
The Cougars jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a two-spot in the third inning on senior Nathan Fhurong’s sacrifice fly to right and the second run on a wild pitch that allowed senior Richie Rios to skirt home from third. Christopher threatened for more after a walk to senior Chris Spohr and a double-bagger down the third-base line by Anthony Rodriguez. However, Bartholic’s liner to center was caught to end the inning.
“We knew they were a dangerous team because they are very scrappy,” said Perez, who never felt comfortable with the slim lead. “You can tell they are well-coached and they execute and they showed that throughout the game…Those teams scare you when it’s a low-scoring game.”
But Bartholic continued to mow down Milpitas batters, but also pitched out of bases loaded jam in the third and escaped a suicide squeeze attempt with a runner on third in the fourth. On the latter, Bartholic whiffed a two-strike bunt attempt and then his defense erased the base-runner in a pickle between third and home.
“He’s really hit his stride this second half of the year,” said Perez of Bartholic who had pitched two complete games in his past two outings. “He became our guy down the stretch and, obviously, we wanted the ball in his hand in game one. He put us in position to get the ‘W’ and that’s all you can ask for.”
However, Bartholic’s shutout bid ended on a two-out, infield error in the fifth that allowed Milpitas to score its first run of the game and cut the deficit to 2-1.
The Trojans tried to scratch across the tying run in the sixth with a walk and a sacrifice bunt to put a runner in scoring position. But Bartholic fanned the next batter (his 10th of the game) and got the final out on a flyout to center.
“Just keep it together, try to work hard, stay down and get the outs,” said Bartholic of his mentality on the mound with runners on base. “It was a fun ride. Best team I’ve ever played for.”
In the Cougars’ half of the sixth, they threatened but could not capitalize on a first-and-third situation with two outs, setting the stage for the heart-stopping seventh frame.
The first two Milpitas batters reached with senior Nate Wilson taking a wild pitch off his helmet to get on and teammate Tyler Doan working a base on balls against Christopher’s Santos. After they advanced on a sacrifice bunt and another walk juiced the bases, Robillos connected on the game-winning base knock.
“I was just trying to relax up there. I’ve been in a slump,” Robillos said. “It was a fastball right down the middle.”
Robillos’ two-run single chased Santos in favor of senior Alec Cordova, who benefited from a slick play by Spohr on another suicide bunt attempt. This time, Spohr snagged the foul ball behind him and doubled the runner off third to send the Cougars up in the bottom of the seventh down only one.
Christopher did not go quietly either, as Spohr was hit by a pitch and Rodriguez found a hole with a bloop single to put two runners on with one out. That’s when Zamudio again turned to his starter, Tylij, who struck out the first batter he faced, walked the second to load the bases and then got senior Matt Adamkiewicz to fly out to right to end the game.
“It was a tough pill to swallow today,” Perez said. “It really is; more so because you don’t want it to end with these guys and you want to keep playing with your seniors.”
