Newman tosses a gem but Wilcox is just a tad better

SANTA CLARA—The only way Jon Newman could have been better against Wilcox on Saturday is if he threw a perfect game.
Newman tossed 5.1 no-hit innings and only allowed one run through seven on two hits and two walks. He struck out three, but mostly let his defense go to work.
And for the most part, his defense helped him out.
Ultimately, the guy throwing for Wilcox was just a little bit better and his defense made one more play than Christopher’s defense.
It turned into a 1-0 loss for the Cougars to bow out of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs in a game for the ages.
“Wilcox is a good team and, you know, we’re a good team. In the playoffs, you expect a game like this,” said CHS coach Adam Perez. “You expect it was going to come down to a game of inches, and that’s what it was. We just ran out of time today to put a run on the board.”
Perez said all he could ask for was a chance to win the game at the end, which is what his team had until an insane double play dashed the Cougars’ hopes.
The two teams combined for three hits and 13 base runners in total.
Chargers’ pitcher Nathan Aggarwal went the distance, giving up one hit and two walks with two strikeouts.
Neither pitcher gave up a hit until the sixth inning and both sides had just one runner make it to third.
The difference was when Wilcox got a ball in the outfield to score a run.
Christopher had Jack Tomlinson on third with one out, but with the infield drawn in, Alex Ruiz hit a sharp grounder right to the short stop who threw out Tomlinson at the plate.
Then in the seventh inning with one out, Andrew Kachel drew a walk, bringing Mike Sanchez to the plate.
Sanchez took a 0-1 pitch back up the middle on a ball that more often than not, goes for a hit in high school.
But shortstop Paul Rosa made a diving stop just behind the bag at second and made a perfect feed to second baseman Jarrett Chapman.
Chapman then delivered a strike to first to get Sanchez by less than a step to end the game.
As the Cougars walked back to their dugout to collect their gear for the final time, the Chargers poured out of theirs with gloves and hats flying and plenty of cheers from their fans.
After the game, the Christopher dugout was quiet and not happy with missing a chance to keep its season alive.
Even so, coach Perez expressed his appreciation for every ounce of effort his boys gave on Saturday.
“We were right there all game long. I was happy and proud of our guys, the way they played, the way they fought, all 17 of us in the dugout,” Perez said. “If we were going to go down, we were going to go down swinging and that’s what we did in the end.”
Although Wilcox went down in order just twice in the game, the Chargers had limited opportunities in the game, finally making the best of one in the sixth inning.
Newman led off the game by hitting a batter, but quickly retired the side on a strikeout, fly ball and a ground out to second.
He walked a batter in the second with one out, but after a sacrifice bunt, Ethan Crawford made a brilliant stop at short to get out of the inning.
And when the defense faltered, as it did with errors in the third and fifth, Newman got the ground ball or liner he needed to escape trouble.
In the sixth inning, the luck finally ran out as a solid single to right turned into a runner on second with one out following a failed pickoff play.
After getting a fly ball out to right, Newman gave up a single to shallow left that allowed the runner to score from second.
Meanwhile, Christopher had opportunities with runners reaching with one or no outs in every inning except the first and fourth.
But in four out of the five innings that Christopher got a runner on, Wilcox turned a double play.
“I think the last play at the end sums it all up. That shortstop is elite, I think I can use that word,” Perez said. “He made a couple of double plays that I didn’t think they were going to have a chance to turn it. That last one was remarkable. Tip my cap to that guy. And to my catcher who hit into that, there was nothing you could do on that play.”
But it was Tomlinson who broke up the no-hit bid with a hard line drive that tipped off the first baseman’s glove who went diving after the ball, but didn’t have enough inches on his arm.
Tomlinson went to second on a wild pitch and Crawford got him to third on a sacrifice bunt.
Wilcox brought the infield in and Aggarwal got the ground ball he was looking for and there wasn’t anything Tomlinson could do.
Christopher finishes with a 16-12 overall record and a third place 9-9 mark in Gabilan Division play.
Christopher with the loss bade farewell to eight seniors, but should have a strong group coming back next season with eight players who saw significant time on the field this year, including Newman.
Perez was very complementary of his pitcher following the game.
“Today he was pretty electric with his stuff, keeping their bats off balance for most of the game and had a good defense behind him, for the most part,” Perez said. “The biggest thing we tell our pitchers is to give us a chance and he definitely did that today. He pitched good enough to get the W. That’s why it’s a tough pill to swallow when he pitches that good and we don’t come up on the winning side of that.”