LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Cougars and Mats are Champions


Lamorinda's Campolindo and Miramonte won the NCS titles in their respective divisions. Photo Doug Kohen

Starting on May 26, the Acalanes, Campolindo, and Miramonte varsity baseball teams began their respective runs through the NCS playoffs. Campolindo took the second seed in Division II while the Dons and Matadors took the seven and one seeds respectively, both in Division III.

Acalanes started its run on the 26th, heading up to Arcata to take on the tenth seeded Arcata Tigers, only to lose 7-4. With the loss, Acalanes was eliminated. Despite pulling out to a 1-0 lead early in the top of the first, the Dons could not hold on and Arcata answered with three runs in the bottom of the second. "It was a rough game for us with the travel up there and the rough weather. Despite some pretty bad play at times in the game, I feel like we still competed hard until the end and gave ourselves the best chance to win. Unfortunately we just couldn't pull it out in the end" said senior pitcher John Treat. Treat went 5 and 2/3 innings, and recorded four strikeouts in the losing effort. Acalanes ends its season at 15-10, 5-7 in DFAL play.

Defending NCS champions Miramonte felt confident going into this year's playoffs, and were awarded the top seed in division III. Their seed gave them a bye until Friday, May 28th. The Mats completely dismantled the ninth-seeded Novato at home in a blow-out win, 20-3. A week later, on June 2nd, the red-hot Matadors faced fourth-seeded Sir Francis Drake, also at Miramonte, where the Mats handled the Pirates 5-2.

"I think we're feeling pretty good for Saturday...we're coming off two big wins and we haven't been making very many mistakes in the field so hopefully we can keep that going and try to make it two years in a row," remarked Matador senior catcher and captain Kevin Paulsen.

The win gave the Matadors a spot in the NCS final at Saint Mary's College on June 5th against second-seeded El Cerrito at Luis Guisto Field.

In the title game, the two teams battled hard, with both defenses shining. There was no score at the end of the game and it was called after the bottom of the tenth. It was continued until Monday, June 7th at 4:00. At press time word came in that, after 15 innings, Miramonte emerged victorious 3-0 to take the title.

The cross-town rivals and DFAL champions, Campolindo Cougars, were given the number two seed in Division II. Coach Max Luckhurst's Cougars opened the playoffs at home on Wednesday, May 26th, after it was postponed due to rain the day before. On that day, Campolindo came back from down 3-1 to take down 15th Ukiah, 5-3. Sophomore utility/pitcher James Marvel's two-run homer put the Cougars up, 5-3. Just two days later on May 28th, the Cougars shut out seventh-seeded Rancho Cotate 4-0 in front of their home crowd. The win set the Cougars up for a date with third-seeded Redwood on June 2nd.

"We are all confident in each other that we can get the job done, I think if we take care of the little things and keep an aggressive approach good things will happen," commented Campo senior infielder Michael Kathan on his team's performance thus far.

Kathan was right, as Campo went on to beat Redwood 6-2 on a big third inning for the Cougars, plus a solo homerun by senior first baseman Chris Killeen in the seventh inning. The win put the Cougars in the June 5th NCS title game at Saint Mary's against fourth seeded Alameda.

In the final, the Cougars and Hornets played hard. Starting in the second inning, Campolindo completely took over the game, en route to a 7-0 win over Alameda to capture the NCS title. Sophomore pitcher James Marvel put on an amazing performance, yielding only one hit for Campo.