Palo Alto High School’s baseball team triumphed over Wilcox 3-2 today at Paly in the first round of the league tournament. The Vikings won the series two games to one and will now advance to the championship next week.
Kevin Kannappan (’12) started on the mound for the Vikings and struck out the first two batters of the first inning. After walking the third hitter, the Vikings ended a scoreless inning by catching a flyout.
Jack Witte (’12) started off in Vikings’ lineup with a double to centerfield. Alec Wong (’12) followed Witte with a sacrifice bunt that advanced Witte to third base. After Ozzy Braff (’12) grounded out, Christian Lonsky (’12) hit a line drive to right field sending Witte home to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.
The Vikings had a quick three outs in the top of the second inning with two groundouts and a strikeout by Kannappan. On offense, Paly was also unable to score in the third inning.
Runs proved to be coming at a premium as both teams were held scoreless until the fourth inning.
With two outs for Wilcox in the top of the fourth inning, #17 hit a home run to tie the game at one all.
In the bottom of the fourth the Vikings answered with a Braff triple that brought home another run for the Vikings giving them a 2-1 lead.
In the top of the fifth, Kannappan held the Chargers to another scoreless inning.
For the Vikings, Justin Grey (’12) hit a single to left field. Witte preceeded Grey with a double that roled to the fence, giving Grey enough time to circle the diamond and score.
In the sixth inning Jack Cleasby (’14) made a diving catch for the first out. The second batter for Wilcox smacked a homerun bringing the score to 3-2. To continue the Chargers’ momentum, the next two batters hit a double and a single. With the situation looking bleak for the Vikings, Kannappan was able to strike out the next Wilcox hitter to end the inning in exciting fashion.
Lonsky opened up the bottom of the sixth with a hit for the Vikings. With Sam Dodson (’13) pinch running for Lonsky, Michael Strong (’13) took the plate. Both Strong and Austin Poore (’13) were walked, loading the bases for the Vikings. With one out Clay Carey (’12) came to the plate and hit a fly ball to right field. The Charger right fielder caught the ball and beamed a throw to the catcher, who tagged out Dodson as he raced for home.
In the final inning, Witte took the mound for the Vikings and with two strikeouts, Paly clenched the game and series.
Coach Raich was proud of his team’s performance today and attributes their success to strong defense.
“[Kannappan] did a great job for us on the mound and we played tremendous defense,” Coach Eric Raich said. “We had great disciplined at bats and situational hitting – everybody played a key role in that game especially having two key guys out like Boyd and Dickerson.”
The team will face either Saratoga or Los Altos next week in the next round of the tournament.
