Prep Baseball: Redwood hurlers hold off San Rafael in MCAL playoffs

It threatened to storm in Larkspur on Monday. San Rafael High also threatened to oust Redwood, the defending MCAL champ, from the playoffs in the first round.

Neither, however, came to be.

The weather stayed just dry enough for baseball and No. 3-seed Redwood did just enough to eliminate gritty No. 6-seed San Rafael 3-0 in the opening round of the MCAL playoffs.

For a time, the situation appeared almost dire for the Giants (16-8-1) as San Rafael starting pitcher Colby Jackson flirted with a no-hitter and did not allow a baserunner beyond first base for five innings.

Fortunately for the Giants, their pitching was up to the task.

Starter Jack Gurley scattered four hits in his four-inning stint, and southpaw Maxim Wells came in and threw two perfect innings.

That was enough motivation for the Giants to finally break through for some runs in the sixth inning.

No. 9 hitter Ethan Ferry started the rally with a walk.

Theo Trono ended Jackson’s no-hit bid with a bloop single over shortstop, putting runners at the corners.

One batter after the no-hitter ended, Sam Gersch erased the shutout with a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Ferry from third.

“Even though we didn’t have any hits, we took some pretty good swings and hit the ball hard several times,” said Gersch, who knocked three solid fly balls for outs in his three at-bats. “(Jackson) was working pretty fast and throwing a lot of strikes. He got into a good rhythm. But I knew we could finally get to him because we have actually been seeing the ball and hitting it well the last week or so.”

The Giants added two more runs in the frame. Miles Harrison laid down a perfectly placed suicide squeeze bunt to score Trono from third and Chase Johnson smashed a two-out run-scoring single to center.

The three-run uprising was more than enough for ace reliever Matthew Knauer, who needed only 15 pitches to close out the victory. Knauer struck out one and relied on his defense – which did not commit an error – for the other two outs.

“It’s the playoffs now – a fresh start,” Gersch said. “You need good pitching and good defense.”

The Bulldogs (13-13) loaded the bases with one out in the fourth and threatened to take the lead.

But Mikey Giannino’s hard grounder to shortstop turned into a double play when the umpire ruled baserunner interference on the runner going hard into second base on the play.

“Starting today, everybody was zero-and-zero. There were no batting averages and no ERAs,” Redwood coach Mike Firenzi said. “At this point of the season, you just want to win and move on.”

Redwood travels to Mill Valley for a second-round game Wednesday against No. 2-seed Tam, who, along with regular season champ San Marin, had a first-round bye.

Around the MCAL

Cooper Mitchell struck out three batters and walked two in a solid complete-game shutout effort as Marin Catholic advanced past Novato in Monday’s first round of the MCAL playoffs.

The Wildcats (13-11, 9-8 MCAL) scored twice in the opening frame when Wade Untermann drove in Jude Baker and Luke Martin. Both teams played lockdown ball after that. Novato pitcher Griffin Vorhaus rang up seven strikeouts in a complete-game six-hitter for the Hornets (16-9, 10-7).

Marin Catholic will face host San Marin (15-9) in Wednesday’s MCAL semifinals.