Prep baseball: Marin Catholic blows out Tam, claims playoff spot
Senior center fielder Jayden Lee has not seen a lot of fastballs batting in the third slot for the always dangerous Marin Catholic High baseball team.
With a 2-0 count, however, in a must-win game for the Wildcats on Thursday, Lee teed up a fastball and sent a rocket over the left-field fence for a three-run homer in the third inning against visiting Tam.
Spearheaded by Lee’s five RBIs, Marin Catholic made sure of locking up the fourth and final seed in next week’s MCAL playoffs with a facile 20-6 victory against the Red-tailed Hawks on a blustery spring day in Larkspur.
“I’ve been hunting a lot of off-speed pitches. They have not been giving me a lot of fastballs this season,” said Lee, who drove in MC’s first run with a sharp single through the box in a seven-run first-inning outburst. “To be honest, I was just looking for a single up the middle. But sometimes you just get all of it. A couple of steps out of the box, I was pretty sure it was gone.”
As were the best hopes at an upset victory for the Red-tailed Hawks, who trailed by only three runs entering the bottom of the third.
The Wildcats (12-11, 10-6 MCAL) needed a victory Thursday coupled with an Archie Williams’ loss to lock down the final playoff spot and avoid a one-game playoff against the Peregrine Falcons, whose season ended Thursday with a 7-0 loss to first-place Redwood.
“Even after we found out Archie Williams lost, we knew it was better to keep adding on to our lead today and take care of our own business,” Lee said. “We were not wanting to play an extra game.”
The Wildcats play at Redwood at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the single-elimination playoffs.
Tam actually jumped to a 2-0 lead without a hit in its first at-bats against MC starting pitcher Jack McGovern, who lasted three-plus innings, scattering five hits and allowing three earned runs.
“I thought Jack did a good job today,” MC coach Jesse Foppert. “He did what we needed him to do.”
A pair of walks, a double-steal and a throwing error in the infield led to a couple of unearned runs for the Hawks in the first.
The signs, however, were fairly evident early on that it was going to be a long day for Tam pitchers when starter Eli Solem plunked the first two batters he faced. In all, five different Tam pitchers allowed seven hit-by pitches in six innings.
Lee’s run-scoring single was the tip of the iceberg in the first for the Wildcats in the first, who sent 12 batters to the plate and added six more runs.
One of the big hits of the inning was a run-scoring triple up the right-center field power alley from leadoff batter Carter Capobianco in his second at-bat of the frame.
Tam stayed feisty and in contention in the early innings. The Hawks strung three consecutive singles to start the third, including Solem’s run-scoring, bouncing single to left field. Tam added another run in the inning on MC’s third error of the game.
But just when the Hawks were feeling good about a possible comeback, Lee’s long ball dampened their spirits – although Tam did score two more on a Devin Curtis two-run single in the fourth.
In the meantime, MC rallied for a five-spot in the fourth to put the game out of reach. The inning was highlighted by consecutive RBIs from Carson Davis, Lee and Jake Lyall. Ricky Kampmann put a bow on it with a two-run pinch-hit single.
Not to be overshadowed by the 14-hit attack were a couple of relief pitchers who were lights out for the Wildcats.
Toby Richards retired all seven batters he faced and notched three strikeouts. Gavin Simurdiak pitched the seventh and struck out the side as the duo combined to retire the final 10 Tam batters in order.
“We played with a lot of energy today and we’ve been playing that way most of the season,” Foppert said. “We haven’t always got the results we wanted because there were not a lot of games where we did all three – play defense, pitch and hit.”