CCS baseball playoffs: Valley Christian advances to Division I final as Quinten Marsh blanks St. Ignatius

SAN JOSE — Before the game Wednesday night, longtime Valley Christian coach John Diatte had a little advice for his sophomore pitcher, Quinten Marsh.

“You’ve just got to be good enough to be you,” Diatte said. “You don’t have to do anything extraordinary.”

“And then,” the coach added, “he goes out and does that.”

Marsh pitched a three-hitter with nine strikeouts and one walk to lead Valley to a 4-0 victory over St. Ignatius in the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs at Excite Ballpark.

The top-seeded Warriors, in the hunt for the program’s 11th section crown, will play Hollister on Saturday night at Excite for the title.

Valley scored all of its runs Wednesday in the first inning, taking advantage of five walks in the frame to cross the plate four times.

Chase Gordon took over from Archer Horn with two out in the first and needed one pitch to end an inning in which Valley had 10 at-bats.

The reliever gave his team a shot, pitching 5 1/3 scoreless innings.

But the first-inning damage was too much for SI to overcome and a perfect tone-setter for Marsh, who remembered being on the losing end in this round last season against Palo Alto.

“It helps a lot, knowing the guys are working for me,” he said. “Getting those runs helps take those nerves off.”

As the game unfolded, Marsh seemed to get stronger. He had no thoughts of coming out down the stretch.

“After the sixth, I told Coach that I wanted to go seven,” Marsh said. “He said I’m going to have a short leash so go out there with my best stuff. I let the rest of the tank out.”

What made Marsh so effective?

“He’s throwing three pitches for a strike,” Diatte said, referring to a fastball, slider and a changeup. “And any time in a high school game that you can throw three pitches for a strike, it’s going to be tough on the other group.”

Marsh struck out the side to begin the first, then had an extended break as the Warriors worked walk after walk after walk.

Carmelo Rivera led off the Valley first with a free pass. After a strikeout, PJ Moutzouridis singled deep in the hole at shortstop. Marsh then walked to load the bases and Michael Castaneda singled to left to drive in two.

A walk loaded the bases again and two more walks stretched the advantage to 4-0.

“It was a tough sky here tonight,” Diatte said. “Everything that was hit in the air was going to get gobbled up by the wind or gobbled up by the defense. So to get those runs early really put us in a good position to be positive the rest of the way.”

Now, the Bay Area’s top team will get ready for Hollister.

“It’s going to be a tough one,” Diatte said. “Hollister is playing really good. I know they’re really well-coached. We just need to make sure that we come ready to play.”