By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
SAN FRANCISCO – Lowell senior Evan Brydon hoped for four bases, planned on three and by the time he reached third he had just the numeral one in mind - another San Francisco Section championship.
Oh, there was one other thing.
“Dog pile,” he said.
The 6-foot-2, 175-pound left hander had just turned on a Roland Maxie fastball and sent a towering drive that landed just short of the wall in right field at AT&T Park in the sixth inning on Thursday.
On a sweltering early evening at the Giants’ radiant home park, Brydon capped off a brilliant day with a booming RBI triple, all but clinching Lowell’s 8-4 victory over Washington in the San Francisco Section championship baseball game.
Brydon not only was 3-for-4 with a pair of runs and RBIs, but he was the winning pitcher, overcoming a rocky start by allowing eight hits, one walk, two hit batsmen, one earned run while striking out seven in six innings.
It helped the Cardinals (24-6-1) to their second straight and 14th section crown, the last 11 under coach John Donahue who won his 580th game. Lowell has won five of the last seven, seven of the last 10 and 10 of the last 14 crowns.
“I got all of it but I knew it wasn’t going out,” Brydon said of his sixth-inning smash. “It’s 421 feet out there to the deepest part. I was hoping but really thinking triple all the way.”
Standing at third – he later scored on a Max Schumm fielder’s choice to make it 8-4 – Brydon said it was a vision he’ll never forget.
“It’s my senior year, we’re at a major league park, it’s a beautiful night and we’re about to win another championship,” he said. “It just doesn’t get any better.”
Well, it got a little better three outs later, when Schumm relieved Brydon and retired the side in order to set off a celebratory dog pile at the pitcher’s mound.
“I told (Brydon) before (the top of the seventh) I wanted to land on him,” said Lowell third baseman Michael Lazarus, who reached base all four at-bats and scored three runs. “But when Max took the mound I told him I was coming after him. It was wild.”
It was better than wild, said senior shortstop Max Newman, who had a two-run double to key a key four-run uprising in the fourth.
“To think about winning another championship and the players all before us and the Lowell mystique – it sends chills down your spine,” he said. “We’ve have visualized the dog pile all year. There’s no better feeling in the world.”
LOWELL DOMINANCE
Athletes are pretty used to it around the Lowell campus.
Not only do the Cardinal dominate in baseball, but there are few schools that dominate a single league the way Lowell controls the Academic Athletic Association.
Of the 20 sports completed in 2007-08 thus far, Lowell had claimed 14 AAA round-robin or playoff titles with a staggering combined record of 149-4.
The baseball team cruised to a 14-0 AAA regular season mark and outscored foes 198-19. Yet they still entered level-headed, according to Donohue, noting his team barely pulled out a 5-4 win over Washington on the last day of the regular season.
The Eagles, coached by Rob Jung, had also been in the title game at AT&T Park the previous three years, defeating Lowell 16-4 in 2006.
“Washington is more than capable,” Donahue said. “They beat us in this game two years ago, they have solid players and are extremely well coached.”
They also have one of the Bay Area’s most feared hitters in O’Koyea Dickson, a 5-10, 220-pound first baseman and four-year starter who cracked a memorable home run out of AT&T in 2006.
He came into Thursday’s game hitting a team-best .570 (49 of 86) with 11 doubles, six triples, four home runs and 41 runs.
“He has to go down as one of the best pure hitters ever to play at this school,’ Fung said.
Dickson, a right-hand hitter, went 2-for-2, including a scorching run-scoring double to right field in the second.
But he was walked twice, including once intentionally in the sixth inning with two runners on, two out and Lowell leading 6-4. Runners were at first and second but Brydon’s first delivery to Dickson was in the dirt and bounced away from catcher Louis Buchbinder.
The runners moved up, leaving first base open. Donohue ordered a walk to Dickson and Brydon got cleanup hitter and losing pitcher Thomas Mara to foul out to Lazarus.
Brydon’s wild pitch might have been his best, or at least smartest pitch, all day. He threw 118 pitches overall.
“Lowell walked me my whole career,” Dickson said. “I just wish they would have challenged me in that situation.”
Said Jung: “I don’t blame them for walking him. I would have too. It was a no-brainer.”
WASHINGTON JUMPS OUT
Washington got to Brydon in the top of the first when catcher Jacky Hoang singled home Steven Lin, who was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a groundout.
Lowell grabbed a 2-1 lead in the bottom half on an error, walk, single, RBI fielder’s choice by Nick Rosenheim and a sacrifice fly by Schumm. Washington avoided further trouble when right fielder Paul Duchene threw out Newman trying to score on a Brydon single.
An uncharacteristic two-out infield throwing error opened the door for a three-run rally by Washington in a second.
After Duchene reached, Lin was hit by a pitch for the second straight at-bat. Kevin Shue drilled a two-run double down the right field line and he scored on a single to right by Dickson.
“I thought we had them where we wanted,” Dickson said.
Said Lazarus: “We never lost confidence. We were down two runs but in the fourth inning it still felt like we were up two runs.”
They were by the end of the fourth thanks in part a botched foul popup.
A hit batsmen and walk followed by a sacrifice bunt by Adam Berke put runners in scoring position when Newman popped up a Mora offering. There was mis-communication between catcher Hoang and Dickson and at the last instance, Dickson threw out his glove and the ball popped out foul.
A couple pitches later, Newman blooped a ball down the right field line that went for a double and tied the game at 4-4.
After another hit batsman, Brydon had a bad-hop RBI single to right and Lazarus then scored on the front end of a double steal.
“You can’t give a team like that extra outs and expect to win,” Jung said of Newman’s popup. “You also can’t walk six and hit three batters and win either.”
Brydon settled down in the middle innings and his RBI triple and run in the sixth gave the Cardinals some breathing room.
Donahue and his coaching staff gave his team plenty of room during their celebration. They never left the dugout.
“They earned it and we wanted them to enjoy it,” he said. “Plus we didn’t want to get hurt.”
NOTES: The San Francisco Giants donate AT&T to the San Francisco Section every season for the championship game, usually played after a Giants’ afternoon game. There is no admission to the game and about 1,000 fans were on hand for the AAA showdown. … On Thursday, the Giants blew a 6-0 lead and lost 8-7 to the Houston Astros in a game that took 3 hours and 24 minutes. That pushed the section title game back to past 5 p.m. and the Giants had to turn the lights on for the boys after the fourth inning. “The Giants have been great to us over the years and that just showed how much they are always willing to accommodate us,” San Francisco Section Commissioner Don Collins said. “I’m sure that was an extra cost but the umpires asked for some extra lights and the Giants responded.” … Collins did a superb job squelching a couple of dicey situations between respective school cheering sections. “Kids thought they were being funny but that kind of humor can escalate,” Collins said. … Brydon had a pair of defensive gems behind him back-to-back in the third inning when right fielder Berke saved an extra base hit off the bat of Hoang with an over-the-shoulder grab. … Second basemen Derrick Figuerras then made a sensational running grab between two teammates in foul territory of a Glenn Valledor popup. ... Donohue praised his entire longtime staff, including Dave Lopez who after 25 years is stepping down to follow his son's playing career. ... Lowell advances to the TransBay Series against Oakland Section champion Skyline (Oakland) starting Saturday (1 p.m.) at Oakland McAfee Stadium. The best-of-three series continues Tuesday at USF.
Lowell 8, Washington 4
Washington 130 000 0 – 4 8 2
Lowell 204 002 x – 8 7 2
Thomas Mora, Roland Maxie (5) and Jacky Hoang; Evan Brydon, Max Schumm (7) and Louis Buchbinder. WP: Brydon (9-1). LP: Mora. 2B – Kevin Shue (W), O’Koyea Dickson (W), Max Newman (L). 3B – Brydon (L).
BATTING
Washington (ab-r-h-bi): Lin 2-2-1-0, Shue 4-1-3-2, Dickson 2-0-2-1, Mora 4-0-0-0, Hoang 4-0-1-1, Valledor 4-0-0-0, Bowdry 4-0-1-0, Maxie 3-0-0-0, Duchene 3-1-0-0. Totals 30-4-8-4.
Lowell: Newman 4-1-1-2, Lazarus 0-3-0-0, Brydon 4-2-3-2, Rosenheim 4-0-0-1, Schumm 2-0-0-2, Buchbinder 4-0-1-0, Leininger 2-1-0-0, Figuerras 2-1-1-0, Berke 2-0-1-0. Totals 24-8-7-7.
E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com
