AT&T Park perfect backdrop for Lowell's 19th San Francisco Section baseball title

SAN FRANCISCO — AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, was indeed Lowell (San Francisco) junior Craig Colen's field of dreams on Tuesday.

The ball off the end Washington (San Francisco) cleanup hitter Kai Moody's bat popped up just over the mound, prompting Colen to yell louder than he ever had in his life.

"It was mine and I wasn't going to let anyone else get it," Colen said.

Colen squeezed the final out of his team's 4-3, eight-inning San Francisco Section/Academic Athletic Association championship victory at AT&T Park, which was fitting. The 6-foot-2½, 175-pound junior had entered the game in the third with his team trailing 3-1 and mowed down the Eagles (12-15), allowing just one hit while striking out eight over six scoreless innings.

A sacrifice fly by Anthony Aguirre scored sophomore second baseman Matthew Schivo (two hits, reached base five times) with the go-ahead run in the top half of the eighth.

And after a two-out single by Zach Dair, Colen (6-3) induced the final out, giving Lowell (19-9) its second-straight and 19th SFS title.

Colen likely would have started but he threw 105 pitches in a 5-1 semifinal win Thursday over Balboa.

When two walks, a fielder's choice and booming two-run double by losing pitcher Sean Mathews off Matt Read led to three runs in the second, Lowell coach John Donohue (707 wins) went to Colen in the third.

"Coach told me before the game to be ready and I was," Colen said. "I had been dreaming of what it would be like to pitch off the mountain where the big leaguers play. ... It was better than the dream."

Said Schivo: "As soon as (Colen) came in I knew they weren't going to score again."

Lowell, which outhit Washington 9-2, got a run back in the fourth when Lincoln Chapman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and another in the sixth on an RBI double from No. 9 hitter Justin Talbott.

In the eighth, Schivo led off with a double, moved to third on an infield single by Talbott and one out later scored on Aguirre's medium-deep fly to right. Right-fielder Mike Andrewjeski's throw was in time but up the first base line. Schivo slid home with the eventual game-winner.

"I was so happy when I crossed," Schivo said. "I knew it would be close."

Close was the operative word with these two teams, which split four games, all decided by one run. It was Washington's 19th title game appearance in 20 years under coach Rob Fung. The Eagles, who committed four errors, have won six times.

"It's great to get here, but definitely feels better to be on the other end," Fung said. "This team got better as the season went on. But our defense didn't play well enough to beat a team like Lowell."

Asked if winning ever gets old, Donohue said: "Absolutely not. As soon as we walked into this place everyone had goose bumps."

Indeed, playing at a Major League ball park is a thrill for all the players. Normally, the SFS title game is played after a Giants afternoon game in early May. But with San Francisco on the road, the Giants still kept their obligation to donate the field and staff to San Francisco's only public school league.

If reaching the league playoff finals isn't enough incentive, playing at AT&T certainly is. Especially so for Colen, whose family owns partial season tickets to the Giants. They sit right behind the team's bullpen.

On Tuesday Colen, who didn't play in last year's game because of a broken right tibia that kept him out of baseball for seven months, got a much closer view of the game.

"This was a childhood dream getting to play here," he said. "For us to win, to squeeze the last out and celebrate with all my great friends and teammates was amazing."