Sobrato falls 4-1 in CCS title game
SAN JOSE — With their parting gift, the CIF-Central Coast Section runner-up trophy, in hand, the Sobrato Bulldogs gathered their things, walked slowly out of the visitors dugout in San Jose Municipal Stadium, and closed the book on their greatest season without a sound.
There were no tears. There no smiles — just vacant complacency after their 4-1 loss to the top-seeded team in Saturday’s Division II final. Across the diamond, the Los Gatos Wildcats celebrated their first CCS championship since 2006, a prize they set out to win before the season.
The Bulldogs just wanted to make the playoffs. They finished second in the Mount Hamilton Division, earned a No. 2 seed and advanced farther than any other team in school history.
Not bad for a fifth-year program.
“We’re not disappointed. We’re happy,” starting pitcher Chris Bradley said. “It was a huge season, huge.”
Against a team as fundamentally seamless as the De Anza Athletic League champion Wildcats (28-5 overall), there was only so much Sobrato could do. The doughty Bulldogs (20-14) made few mistakes in an error-free performance, but were held in check by Los Gatos’ ace, Kevin Corey, and out-smallballed.
“It’s tough to end the season like that,” said Sobrato coach Ulises “Shorty” Gutierrez, who guided his team to consecutive playoffs and 20-win seasons. “You never want to lose, but our guys know they did better than what the scoreboard shows.”
The Wildcats amassed 11 hits, including four to start the fourth inning. They scored twice on squeeze bunts by Ryan McGee and Corey Lanagan in the third and fourth innings, respectively.
“They just kept putting the ball in play. They were putting it in, and we weren’t,” senior first baseman Andrew Commons said. “They capitalized; we couldn’t. We couldn’t get our guys in. Their pitcher kept us off balance the entire game. He’s a competitor.”
Sobrato had four lead-off hits, matching its amount of runners left on base. The Bulldogs left men in scoring position in the fourth and had a runner at third with one out in the sixth before Corey induced back-to-back groundouts.
“We just didn’t hit. We couldn’t get the clutch hits,” Chris Bradley said. “We had plenty of opportunities to score, but we just weren’t efficient. We didn’t come through.”
Pounding the inside corner, Corey (2-0) struck out four and scattered eight hits on the way to his 12th victory of the season.
“It was my best start,” he said. “I just had to stay calm and throw strikes.”
Chris Bradley (1-1) collected two strikeouts and no walks in his sixth complete game. The junior lefty retired his first seven batters before Matt Horton lined a triple off the wall in left-center field. McGee’s squeeze came next.
“They put pressure on. They applied pressure,” Gutierrez said. “Obviously, they played the short game well and that allowed them to get a couple hits out there. That opens up the hitting.”
Senior catcher Shea Adams doubled to start the fourth and advanced to third on Chris Bradley’s singled into left field. Chris Bradley was thrown out trying to reach second, but Adams crossed home on Billy Birrell’s sacrifice fly to center. Ryan Williams kept the rally going with a double down the left-field line, and Bryan Bradley singled and swipped second. Both were stranded.
Adams finished 3-for-3 batting, and Bryan Bradley was 2 for 3 with a pair of stolen bases.
“We gave it our best. They were just better today,” Adams said. “Chris was hitting his spots. He was hitting his pitches, but they were prepared for it.”
Corey led off with a double in the bottom half and scored on Travis Bonner’s go-ahead single up the middle. Jason Shepardson followed with a bloop single to right, and Lanagan bunted home Bonner to make it 3-1.
Shepardson and Lanagan had two hits apiece.
“We talk about having to have a small-ball personality on the team, and sometimes we were, and sometimes we weren’t,” Los Gatos coach Brad Sanfilippo said. “I think that was probably our best way to get it done today. The big thing was, we executed. We got it done against a very good pitcher and a very good Sobrato team.”
The Wildcats had men at the corners with one out in the fifth, but second baseman Tim Andrade turned a double play with Commons to end the threat. Shepardson scored another insurance run on Curtis Breidenthal’s single an inning later.
Adams and Bryan Bradley had respective singles to start the sixth and seventh, but Corey finessed his way through both jams, securing the Wildcats’ second CCS title in program history.
“They definitely earned it,” Gutierrez said. “We told our guys only one team can walk away winning their last game, and we did everything we could to be that team.”
