Jesuit tops Granite Bay to win SFL crown

What could have been. Granite Bay High School's baseball team, a young group which started five sophomores out of the 10 players who started Monday's game against Jesuit, struggled early in the game and fell behind 6-0 after four innings, made a miraculous comeback to tie the game at six in the bottom of the seventh inning before losing 11-8 in eight innings. The team committed three or four errors depending on how you scored the game, which led to three (or four) unearned runs which ultimately was the difference in the game. "We gave them a lot of free stuff today; it was like a buy one get one free today," Granite Bay coach Pat Esposito said. "We didn't show up for the first three innings. We had guys that won't lay out for a ball. I mean you're playing for the championship. You have to win two games. You're right there. What you have to understand is you have to play like there's no tomorrow and if you don't, what winds up happening is you get back on your heels." Unfortunately for the Grizzlies, they had a terrible start to the game, as they allowed three runs to the Marauders. The first batter of the game reached on a Granite Bay error, which was a sign of things to come. Starting pitcher Cole Griffin then walked the next batter, another bad sign. Parker Lipp, one of six seniors in Jesuit's lineup, then singled in a run. A wild pitch put runners on second and third before a sacrifice fly by Chase Tanner put the Marauders in front 2-0. A little infield squibber by Jonah Glover then made it 3-0 Marauders. All three RBIs came off the bats of Jesuit seniors. In the second inning, another error led to another run, as Sammy Kane grounded out to score Sam Beck, who had reached on a Granite Bay error. Meanwhile, Jesuit starting pitcher Dillon Pratt cruised through the early parts of the game. The first 10 batters he faced he retired, eight on ground balls with one strikeout and a pop out. Through three innings he had probably only thrown 25-30 pitches. Granite Bay's first hit didn't come until Ryan Miller singled with one out in the fourth inning. In fact, the Grizzlies third hit of the game didn't come until the sixth inning and at that point Jesuit's No. 9 hitter, Tayt Jackson, another senior, had three hits all by himself. Jesuit tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning on RBI hits from Jordan Walczykowski and Lipp to take a commanding 6-0 lead. Miraculously, the Grizzlies picked themselves off the grass and made a game of it late. In the bottom of the sixth inning down to their last five outs, Andrew Jones doubled, Miller followed with an RBI single before Isaac Schroeder homered the opposite way down the right-field line to cut the Jesuit lead in half, 6-3. In the bottom of the seventh, pinch-hitter Dylan Tetz was hit by a pitch and Connor Boese followed with a double, which drove in Tetz and brought the Grizzlies within two runs. Zach Uhler and JC Peterson both struck out, as the Grizzlies were down to their last out. Up steps Jones, who hit a towering home run to left field to complete the Granite Bay comeback, tying the score at six. The Marauders scored five runs in the top of the eighth inning, all with two outs, on a two-run single from Walczykowski followed by a three-run home run from Tanner. The Grizzlies scored two in the bottom of the inning with a two-run blast, the team's third home run in the last three innings, off the bat of Noah Paul before the Marauders ended the game and thereby claimed the Sierra Foothill League championship. "I have to give our guys some credit because they made it interesting," Esposito said. "They came back and got fired up and did some stuff and we got back into it. We could have won it if one more guy would have gotten on base before Jones hits the home run. I'm not upset for me, I'm disappointed for our guys because they controlled their own destiny. "Tomorrow we've got to go over there and save face and try to beat them so we can keep where we are in the standings. We're tied with either Del Oro or Folsom (Del Oro) so it could come down to Thursday's game."