Junior provides heroics as ‘Balers advance to semifinals with
6-5 win
San Jose – You can bet that Bellarmine Prep hopes it doesn’t see Brian Haggett again anytime soon.
And because of what Haggett did Saturday, the defending Central Coast Section champion Bells won’t have to worry about the junior second baseman until next season.
Haggett – who beat Bellarmine Prep earlier this year with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh – provided the heroics again, blasting a ninth-inning, game-winning double to the wall to give the Haybalers a 6-5 win at PAL Stadium and send them to the Central Coast Section Division I semifinals.
“I don’t even know how it happened,” Haggett said.
The ‘Balers advance to face No. 10 Santa Teresa (15-11), which upset Serra 9-7 in the quarterfinals, at 4pm Wednesday at Municipal Stadium in San Jose. San Benito lost to Santa Teresa in the quarterfinals last year, but avenged that with a 13-0 home victory earlier this season.
But for the ‘Balers, there nearly wasn’t an opportunity to get the heroics from Haggett in the ninth.
San Benito entered the top of the seventh with a 3-2 lead, but the Bells (24-13) scored three runs off reliever Ronnie Fhurong to take the lead.
In the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and two outs, sophomore catcher Kyle Zozaya hit a bouncer to the shortstop. But Haggett, who had been intentionally walked to load the bases, beat the force play at second.
“Coach told me to get a good secondary and if there’s a high chopper, just beat it out,” Haggett said.
As the Bells reacted to the call, Justin Andrade raced all the way from second and dove home with the tying run.
“As soon as I rounded third I saw that they weren’t even looking at me,” Andrade said. “I was going in diving all the way.”
After a scoreless eighth and top of the ninth, Klauer led off the bottom of the ninth with a single. With one out and one strike on Haggett, he saw a fastball inside and clobbered it to right-center field. It hit on the warning track and momentarily there was a possibility of it bouncing over the fence for a ground-rule double. Instead, it hit off the top of the wall as Klauer easily scored ,and the bench erupted.
“This is what you call a great team effort,” coach Michael Luna said. “Every player contributed in some way.”
The pitching alone showed how much of a team effort it was. Medeiros started and allowed one run over the first three innings. Michael Garcia pitched the next two and gave up one run and one hit. Fhurong delivered a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth before the Bells got the go-ahead runs off him in the seventh. Miles Sanchez pitched 1 2/3 of scoreless relief and Jacob Eichhorn threw a scoreless ninth to get the win.
“I just said, ‘Who wants the ball next?,'” Luna said. “I told the pitchers it was there job to keep the game close and give us a chance to win and they did.”
Trailing 1-0 in the top of the third with two on, Bellarmine hit into an inning-ending triple play to help Medeiros stay out of trouble. The Bells added to the lead in the fourth with a run, but the ‘Balers stormed back in the bottom of the inning.
Zozaya reached on an error with one out and Zach Canez doubled. Bryan Scott walked to load the bases before Fhurong reached on another error to plate a run. Kevin Burley delivered a sacrifice fly to tie it and Justin Andrade hit a single down the third base line to give San Benito the lead.
“We were not going to let this be our last game,” said Andrade, a senior third baseman.
Bellarmine 010 100 300 – 5 9 3
San Benito 000 300 201 – 6 9 1
Couch, Lautmann (4), Hennessey (4) and Johnson. Medeiros, Garcia (4), Fhurong (6), Sanchez (7), Eichhorn (9) and Zozaya. WP – Eichhorn, LP – Hennessey.
RBI – James (B) 2, Felix (B) 2, Canha (B). Fhurong (SB), Burley (SB), Andrade (SB), Zozaya (SB), Haggett (SB). 2B – Canha, Johnson (B), Guthrie (B), Haggett, Canez (SB). HR – Felix (seventh inning, one on).
