CCS baseball playoffs: Santa Teresa wins Division IV title with another shutout

CCS Division IV baseball championship: Saints conclude CCS playoffs with 27-inning scoreless streak, D-IV title

SAN JOSE — No one can score off these guys.

Santa Teresa concluded the Central Coast Section playoffs with a 27-inning scoreless streak.

The Saints were coming off a remarkable 14-inning shutout of Leland in the Division IV semifinals, a game in which the team’s two top starting pitchers went seven innings apiece. So Anthony Dela Cruz was called upon to take the mound in the biggest game in program history.

Dela Cruz hadn’t pitched more than four innings in a game this season, but all he did Saturday was throw seven innings of four-hit shutout baseball as Santa Teresa won the first CCS baseball championship in school history with a 2-0 win over Palma at Excite Ballpark.

“He’s been our closer at times during the year,” Santa Teresa coach Patrick Hawk said. “He’s been our number three starter when we’ve had a three-game week and I knew this kind of competition, this moment would not be too big for him.”

Santa Teresa, the No. 8 seed, beat No. 1 Wilcox 5-2 in eight innings in the quarterfinals, holding the Chargers scoreless the final six innings of that game. Then that crazy 14-inning shutout over No. 4 Leland, and finally seven more scoreless innings in the championship game against No. 2 Palma.

“I was nervous but I put it behind me,” Dela Cruz said. “I focused on my fastball and slider combination. It was my best stuff all year.”

The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth. Robert Palomino led off with a single, his first of two hits. The next two batters made outs before Riley Breton extended the inning by drawing a walk. Then catcher Diego Flores ripped a double to left that brought home both runners.

“They were playing super far over to the right side so there was big daylight down the left-field line,” Flores said. “My plan was to go up there and pull something down the line. He gave me off-speed 0-2. I sat on it and gave it a ride.”

That was all Dela Cruz needed. He finished with two walks and six strikeouts.

So what got into this staff that allowed it to throw 27 consecutive scoreless innings in the CCS playoffs?

“I think it was the intensity level,” Flores said. “Everybody was way more locked in, put everything together at the right time. Doesn’t matter what you do in the regular season. Now I’m looking forward to regionals.”

Santa Teresa (17-13) captured its first CCS championship after finishing in eighth place in the 10-team Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

“Oh, definitely,” Hawk said when asked if Mt. Hamilton Division play toughened his team. “You’ve got Branham and Leigh playing for their respective championships. Live Oak came up just a little short. I think it shows what the best baseball division in the Bay Area was like.”