NCS baseball playoffs: Foothill’s big inning turns back Benicia in D-I game
PLEASANTON — Foothill broke the game open with a six-run fourth inning and went on to a 10-4 win Friday over Benicia in a North Coast Section Division I quarterfinal.
Benicia scored a run in the top of the first without the benefit of a hit. Foothill responded with two in the bottom half, taking advantage of two walks and three Benicia errors.
The score remained 2-1 until the fourth when Foothill sent 10 batters to the plate. Tanner Tarpley brought home the first run in the inning, drawing a bases-loaded walk. Landon Comerford singled home a run. Hudson Flora hit a sacrifice fly and freshman shortstop Aiden Tavares doubled home two runs to cap the outburst.
“They got up early, we ignored the noise and then we pounded them,” Foothill coach Zeke Palma said. “We do what we do. We hit, we pitch and we play good defense. It all came together today.”
Comerford’s two-run double in the fifth made it 10-1.
Left-handed starter Jack Fowler had breezed to that point, striking out seven and allowing just that one unearned run in the first. Benicia loaded the bases with one out in the sixth and Palma went to the bullpen, bringing Jackson Hoban in to pitch.
Benicia catcher Carlos Lagraespada greeted him with a hard-hit grounder that took a high hop over the shortstop’s head and into left-center for a two-run double. The Panthers added a run in the seventh on an RBI ground out by Matteo Bivian before Hoban recorded the final out.
No. 3 seed Foothill (21-6) will play at No. 2 De La Salle on Tuesday. The Falcons lost twice to DLS in East Bay Athletic League play.
“We’re going to come hungry, we’re going to come hard and fast and I cannot wait,” said Comerford, who went 3-for-4 Friday with three RBIs, batting out of the cleanup spot in the lineup. “Both times we played we were really competitive. We’ve just got to come with more confidence, play all seven innings. Faced with adversity it’s just a matter of how we respond.”
Fowler, who is headed to Pepperdine to play college baseball, went 5 ⅓ innings, allowing four hits, two earned runs and struck out seven. He also is looking forward to the matchup with De La Salle.
“Third time is the charm,” Fowler said. “Right time to get them again. We’ve seen them twice, seen both their arms, just got to attack them now. Nothing to lose for us.”
Benicia, the second-place finisher in the Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division and No. 6 seed in the D-I playoffs, saw its season come to an end at 17-9. Leadoff batter Peyton Rowles had two hits, including a double. Ayden Thompson, pinch-hitting in the top of the seventh, also hit a double.