CONCORD, Calif. — Northern California's biggest, most talked about high school sports moment of 2021-22 was the stunning once-and-for-all conclusion of an unfathomable 30-year, 318-game unbeaten football streak by De La Salle on Sept. 10.
How fitting that the two schools would meet again, this time on a baseball diamond, in Northern California's final sporting event of the school year on Saturday.
Even more fitting for believers in the "turnabout fair game" mantra,
De La Salle (Concord) shocked the Lancers 7-6 with an improbable late rally of its own, a four-run, final-at bat push. It was capped by a high-bounding, two-run, two-strike, one-out single from
Ethan Dungo to claim the inaugural CIF Northern California Division I championship before a jammed pack crowd around Koch Baseball Diamond.
Two of four Saint Francis errors keyed the rally and Dungo's chopper bounced off a lip on the mound and over the head of shortstop
Duncan Elias, scoring
Kai Smith and
Donovan Chriss with the tying and winning run, starting a wild celebration and dog pile of Dungo behind the mound.
The top-seeded Spartans finished 27-6 after winning their fifth straight North Coast Section and seventh since head coach David Jeans took over in 2012.
"When I hit it, I thought it was just an easy ground ball," Dungo said. "But it hit the lip and went over the shortstop. Just rounding first base and seeing my teammate (Chriss) score the winning run was a surreal feeling. We've been working hard since the summer and it was a great feeling to get it done."
It wasn't a 30-year streak, but Saint Francis (31-5), ranked 15th nationally by MaxPreps, was on quite a roll with 10 straight wins coming in and 26 of 28 since a 5-0 home loss to De La Salle on April 12.
A.J. Bianchina, who reached on an error in the seventh and scored De La Salle's second run of the rally, was the only Spartan football player on the baseball roster. He said he was playing for several of his football teammates. The range of emotions between the two events were extreme, Bianchina said.
"I remember after the St. Francis loss we were in the locker room," he said. "Everything was dead. No one was talking. There were tears in people's eyes.
"Then we came out and won today and it was pure joy. We deserved that. We put in the work. I'm very happy we pulled through. It felt great."
Jeans, a former assistant football coach at De La Salle for 12 years, said "We try to stick together as a school. There were a lot of football players here cheering us on today. To get a little revenge, it's nice. That's a big thing. We're all in this together. … It's the brotherhood."
Saint Francis is a tight community also, rich in sports and diamond success. The school's softball team won the NorCal Division I title earlier in the day. The Lancers also won a NorCal boys volleyball title in the spring.
The baseball squad, battle-tested in the rugged West Catholic Athletic League, overcame early miscues on a hard infield and uneven outfield, 3.2 innings of perfect pitching from UCLA commit
Cal Randall and a 3-1 deficit to score five unanswered runs.
Four came in the fifth on a two-run single by
Wyatt King and a two-run homer by
Max Ross to go up 5-3. An insurance run in the seventh on a run-scoring single from
Ryan Lee made it 6-3 and St. Francis appeared to have its second big sporting win over the Spartans sewn up.
But
Cade Cushing reached on an infielder and Bianchina's ensuing comebacker was thrown low by reliever
Will Bonini to second base, putting two runners on.
After Smith was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Chriss lined his third single to make it 6-4 and
Ellias Rubio's RBI groundout, made it 6-5, but left two in scoring position.
Bonini got two quick strikes on Dungo, who had earlier added a sacrifice fly. "With two strikes, I had my two-strike approach," he said. "I got to get my foot down early. Hold the hands. And let the defense make the play."
Said Jeans: "Obviously I wasn't thinking we'd come back to win. … We just stick with the game plan. It's one pitch at a time. It's kind of what we do at De La Salle. Just trust the process. Give yourself a chance and we got lucky. … We did a phenomenal job of two-strike swinging and Dungo did it at the end."
St. Francis coach Matt Maguire couldn't have been more gracious in defeat. Besides the four errors, a couple more could have been ruled, but the poor field conditions were considered. Maguire wouldn't go there.
"No excuses, you got to make plays," he said. "It's not a revolutionary statement to say we made way too many mistakes right from the very beginning. Base-running. Fielding, all that kind of stuff. It was one of those days. A bad day to have a bad day. But we still had a chance. It says a lot about the character of this team. Even when we had a bad day we had a chance to win.
"Everything steamrolled and it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, but I told them, what they've done is remarkable. They had a great, great season. Super proud of them and they should walk out of here with their heads up."
Somewhat lost among the miscues, the comebacks and final walk-off was a spectacular catch in right field by De La Salle junior
Tanner Griffith.
With runners at second and third in the fourth and a run in,
Tyson Smith lined a screamer to right field that seemed destined to skip to the fence. Instead Griffith, playing toward right-center, got a great jump, sprinted hard and made a fully-extended diving grab, an inch above the grass.
Those two runs might have eventually put the game out of reach.
"I just gave it my all and I got there," said Griffith, a 5-foot-9, 155-pounder who reached three times and scored a run. "Right off the bat I knew it was going to be close. … I just put my body on the line for my guys. I just wanted to do whatever it takes to get this win. … It was a crazy moment. I loved it."
So did Jeans.
"Tanner Griffith is one of those guys who goes unnoticed. He doesn't meet the eye test," he said. "He's got an on-base percentage of .500. He makes plays like that every day at practice. I wasn't surprised (with the catch), but I was excited."
Griffith diminutive nature fits what Jeans called the No. 1 team he's coached in terms of "grietiest and leadership," he said.
"We've had some pretty good teams in the past."
The Spartans graduate 27 seniors on a massive roster of 37. Getting the inaugural NorCal title was big. Especially against a team like the Lancers, who had split the previous 10 games with the Spartans since 2012.
"It means a lot I'm not going to lie," Jeans said. "It's a huge tournament. It's all of Northern California. There's a lot of great teams and to play someone out of your area for the championship, it was a great high school baseball game. … They're really good and well coached. ... They're the No. 1 team in California for a reason. Hopefully we end up with a shot at No. 1."
