Cardinal Newman will face San Marin on Friday in the NCS Division 3 Championship at Newman. The #1 seeded Cardinals will host the #7 Mustangs who finished 5th in the tough Marin County League with a league record of 9-7 behind Archie Williams and are on a 5 game win streak. They finished 18-8-1, defeating Bishop O'Dowd and Los Lomas, and tying Maria Carrillo, all teams Newman faced and went 5-0 against. In the playoffs, San Marin faced the #10 Kennedy Titans and beat them 10-0 in 5 innings with Sophomore Anthony Scheppler leading the team, going 2 for 3 with a homer and 4 RBI. They then beat the #2 Bishop O'Dowd Dragons 7-3 with Scheppler going 3 for 4 with 2 RBI. They faced the #11 Albany Cougars in the Semis and beat them 7-5 with Sophomore Cole Chamberlain going 2 for 4 with 4 RBI. The Mustangs are a tough team with a great offense and should make the championship one to remember.
The Cardinals enter the game at 23-5 and are coming off back to back 5 inning games against Los Lomas and Campolindo. Against Campo, Newman had Mason Lerma on the mound and he pitched incredibly, only allowing 4 base runners and throwing 80 pitches over 5 shutout innings and striking out 9 batters. In the first inning, Nate Phelps hit a single but was called out when Anane Wilson reached on a fielder's choice. Brady Boyd got walked and with runners on first and second, Gavin Rognlien hit a shallow single and with his speed, Wilson beat out a perfect throw and scored. In the 2nd, Justice Brinson walked, Nate Phelps singled and Anane Wilson hit a shot off the wall and used his speed to run for a 2 RBI stand up triple. Brady Boyd came up and on the first pitch, he hit a moonshot over the wall in Left Field and rounded the bases to give Newman a 5-0 lead. Philip Jagard was brought in to pitch and on his 2nd pitch, Gavin Rognelien hit a line drive for a double to set Newman up for another run. Jack Lazark then did what he did in the first, he walked. Blake Bryson then hit a base hit and loaded the bases for Vero Poueu who hit a sac fly to deep right center, allowing Rognlien to score and Newman to take a 6-0 lead. Newman batted around and Cody Guy had a nice at bat but flew out to the 2nd baseman Nick Rogers. In the 3rd, Brinson grounded out, but Nate Phelps reached on a perfect bunt and Anane Wilson hit a single. Boyd then walked and the Cougars brought in Adrian Blumberg with the bases loaded. Rognlien hit a double on the 2nd pitch, clearing the bases and giving Newman a 9-0 lead. Lazark hit a double, knocking in Rognlien and giving Newman the 10 run lead. Bryson grounded out on an amazing play made by the shortstop Greg Palamountain, Poueu walked and Cody Guy grounded out on another amazing play made by Palamountain. In the 4th, Newman was finally cooled down by Zach Anderson who struck out 2 and only allowed 1 base runner. Lerma headed onto the mound in the 5th, 3 outs away from a mercy rule victory. Scott Linden was brought in to see if he could do anything to stop Lerma who was red hot on the mound and out of the 4 base runners he had allowed, none had survived. After he hit Rogers in the 2nd, he struck out the next two batters and picked off Rogers. The rest of the runners weren't allowed to go into scoring position and didn't come close to home plate. Linden was struck out, and Rittman came up but got struck out too. Michael Coane came up and was struck out for Lerma to get the win. Lerma was player of the game and Newman won 10-0 without some players due to sickness.
Against San Marin, Newman should have Landen Rota back from being sick and he should start for Newman against the Mustangs. We should see Colin McGrath, who has started for the Mustangs in every playoff game, on the hill for San Marin against the Cardinals. McGrath has a 2.96 ERA and is 4-1. Andrew Henderson also pitches for San Marin and has a 1.40 ERA and is 6-1 so he'll be available too. While Scheppler and Chamberlain both have 5 homers, Josh Martin leads the team with 6. Garrett Abell has 11 stolen bases for San Marin while Scheppler has 10 and Garrett's brother, Andrew, has 7. Josh Martin has a .506 batting average (Leads Team), a .600 on base percentage (Leads Team), 41 hits (Leads Team), a 1.000 fielding percentage (Leads Team), a .851 slugging percentage (Leads Team) and 10 doubles (Leads Team). The offensive diversity throughout the order will be a huge thing for them against such a good pitcher as Rota. On defense, they'll need to be spectacular to try to stop Newman's hot bats. It will be a good game at Cardinal Newman on Friday. Join us on NFHS Network or at https://cardinalnewmancardinals.com/sports/2021/11/8/video-live.aspx. You can also see the scores on hugosports360.com under the scores tab.