Varsity boys baseball beats Wilcox, extends season

The Eagles defeated Wilcox High School 8-4 in a must-win game that increased the team’s chances to make CCS.

Had the team lost, its season would have ended. But a pair of juniors provided late-game heroics for the Eagles, Mat Snider with his bat and Mitch Kehlet with his pitching.

With the score tied at four runs each in the sixth inning, Mat launched a two-out two-run home run over the right field fence to give the Eagles the lead.

“[The home run] was pretty crazy, I definitely didn’t think it was out,” Mat said. Mat finished the game four for four.

But Mat’s homerun would have meant nothing without Mitch’s pitching. After relieving starting pitcher senior Keegan Kliman, who allowed four runs and nine hits, with two outs in the fourth inning, Mitch pitched three and a third scoreless innings.

Twice, though, he escaped jams thanks to his team’s fielding. With Wilcox runners in scoring position, the Eagles managed to get double plays by catching line drives in the infield and throwing out Wilcox base runners who couldn’t return to their base in time.

Captain senior Austin O’Such provided early offense with three RBIs and captain senior Danny Auerbach came through in the seventh with a two RBI single, padding the Eagles’ lead.

Mitch then closed the game with two flyballs and struck out the final Wilcox batter.

The victory ties the Eagles’ record for fourth place in De Anza league play with Homestead High school. However, despite splitting the season series, Homestead holds the tie breaker against the Eagles. Only the top 4 teams in De Anza are guaranteed CCS berths, but the Eagles will probably have enough points to recieve an at-large bid. In past years, the lowest seeded CCS team has had high 30s CCS points, and the Eagles can now finish with no less than 41.

Between now and the CCS selection meeting on Saturday, May 15, the Eagles will compete in league playoffs, which do not factor heavily into CCS selection.