Cardinal Newman knocked off Ukiah 5-1 Friday at Recreation Park thanks to a strong offensive start and another impeccable outing from junior Josh Jannicelli. Jannicelli went 6 innings with 9 strikeouts, 2 walks and an earned run. Jannicelli was unbeatable per usual, only giving up 4 hits and holding Ukiah to a team batting average of .211. Jannicelli praised the CN team effort in an interview postgame, “I feel great. It was a great game. We hit the ball well, played great defense, I mean what more could you ask for as a pitcher?” Offensively, Newman surged in the first inning with Tanner Bradley leading off with a single. He stole a base an at bat later to get into scoring position. Jack Pezzolo then hit a double into the gap to bring home Bradley. Jacob Moreda was hit by a pitch two at-bats later to put runners on first and second with two outs. Isaac Phelps then came up and swung on the first pitch, obliterating the ball into deep left field and off the wall. Phelps cruised into third with a triple and just like that, Newman was up 3-0.
Ukiah pitcher Keny Lopez was able to clean it up and keep Newman scoreless until the 5th inning when Jacob Moreda led off the inning with a single and was moved to second when Isaac Phelps walked. Ukiah needed a quick inning after scoring in the 5th when Takoda Newman hit a soft line drive into right field that dropped and brought Gibbs home to cut the Newman lead to just 2. The Wildcats seemed like they would get themselves out of this jam when Moreda was caught leaning by Ukiah catcher Canyon Loflin who fired a great throw to second to pick him off. Loflin was on the Newman baserunners all night with his back picks and great throws to catch Newman baserunners stealing. He could catch Phelps, however, who took second on the next pitch. Charlie Slater then walked to put two runners on again for Newman with one out. Konnor Rodnick came up and hit a great base hit into left field to bring home Phelps and extend Newman’s lead back to 3. Lopez’s night ended there with the final statline of 4.1 IP, 1 K, 3 BB and 9 hits.
Ukiah brought in Talen Maxwell and got out of the inning on one pitch with Carson Meyer lining out to third and Charlie Slater getting tagged out on the base path. The Cardinals stayed active though and in the 6th inning added another run Aidan Wedge led off with a walk, Diego Boardman hit a base hit and Jack Pezzolo walked to load the bases. Sam Valenti came up and grounded a ball that looked like a base hit, but Brayden Beebe made a great stop and threw to second to retire Pezzolo, but Valenti beat the throw to first. Wedge scored and Newman went up by 4.
Tanner Bradley came in in the seventh to close things out for the Cardinals and fired 11 pitches, 10 of them being strikes and struck out the side in order, clinching the title for Newman. After the game, Bradley had this to say, “It feels good. I mean, the boys are playing well. We got much more ahead of us. We got NCS coming up. We’re just going to focus on that.” The Cardinals clinched the one seed in D2 and will host Vallejo on Wednesday at 5 PM.
Ukiah is the three seed in the NCS Division II Playoffs and will host Newark Memorial on Wednesday at 7 PM.
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