Six outs away.
That’s how close the Monta Vista baseball team came last Saturday to advancing to the Central Coast Section Division I semifinals, but a disastrous top of the sixth inning put an end to the Matadors’ dream of a CCS championship and to their season, as well.
The 11th-seeded Sequoia Cherokees, fresh from a first-round upset of the sixth-seeded Lincoln Lions, rallied for five runs in the sixth to beat the Mats 5-1. Sequoia was to have met seventh-ranked Pioneer in the semifinals with the winner of that contest advancing to the Division I title game against the survivor of the other semi match-up between 12th-seeded Milpitas and 16th-seeded Piedmont Hills, a team that stunned top-seeded North Salinas 2-1 in the opening round.
The Matadors could manage only three hits–two by Brendan Hughes–off of Sequoia’s Johnny Kelly, who raised his record to 5-1 with the win.
Monta Vista, which finished third in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division to earn an at-large berth in the section tourney, finished the year 17-12 overall.
The loss to Sequoia meant that Monta Vista seniors Tim Iwamoto, William Shih, Danny Takahashi, Sam Nastari, Sheldon McClelland and Kevin Nordby had all played their last high school baseball game.
Nastari finished his career at Monta Vista by leading the Matadors in hitting this season with an impressive .420 mark. He also topped the Mats in hits (34), doubles (11) and homers (1), while finishing second in runs-batted-in (17) to Norby, who knocked in a club-high 19. Iwamoto, who batted .323, and Hughes, who hit .312, were the only other Mats to top the .300 mark.
Monta Vista, the tournament’s 14th seed, opened the playoffs with a shocking 6-2 upset of third-seeded Christopher, despite committing four errors.
Cupertino, which had claimed the El Camino Division championship to earn the Division I third seed, was the victim of a 2-1 upset at the hand of 15th seed Independence in its tournament opener.
Sixer mound ace Jason Lin throttled the Pioneers on just three hits to pick up his 12th win in 13 decisions this year.
Cupertino senior Kyle Avvakumovits pitched equally well, limiting Independence to just five hits, but suffered the hard luck loss.
Senior Morgan Saenz delivered a run-scoring double in the last of the sixth inning to cut a 2-0 Sixer lead in half, but that was all the Pioneers could muster against Lin.
Cupertino ended the year with a 19-9 overall record, and will lose six seniors–Daniel Kono, Jason Silveira, Riley Waite, Alan Vigent, Saenz and Avvakumovits–to graduation.
