Prep baseball: Tam edges San Marin in thriller, advances to NCS semis

The rivalry between two of the top teams in the MCAL could not be contained to the regular season. There had to be another go-around. After splitting their two-game series in the final week of the MCAL season, Tam and San Marin high schools were both eager for Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinal showdown in the North Coast Section Division II playoffs.

The sixth-seeded Red-tailed Hawks (19-8) took the rubber match, 1-0, in a dramatic finish against the No. 3 Mustangs (17-11) to advance to Wednesday’s NCS semifinals. Tam will host the game at 4 p.m. against No. 15 Rancho Cotate, a 12-10 winner over No. 7 Livermore on Saturday.

“I’ve never played at this high level before in the semifinals, so it’s really exciting,” said Tam reliever Hank Ballard, who was celebrating the win on his 17th birthday. Ballard faced five batters, striking out one.

The last time the Hawks visited Mark Whitburn Field, they lost 1-0 as the Mustangs clinched the regular-season pennant in the final week of the regular season. Tam beat the Mustangs 7-2 in Mill Valley two days later.

“We got a lot of motivation from the MCAL playoffs and not coming out well on that end.” said Tam coach Patrick Collins-Bride, whose team lost to eventual champion Redwood in the MCAL semifinals. “We felt really confident after the regular-season series against San Marin. We were ready to score again.”

After six scoreless innings, the Red-tailed Hawks’ Tito Fierstein laid down a grounder to third with two outs and beat the throw to first in a photo finish to plate Josh Goldman for the winning run in the top of the seventh.

The Mustangs were in position to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh with Joey Cipollina on third and two outs. Matthew Baldino hit a short chopper and Ballard made the throw to first in time to secure the win for the Hawks and end the Mustangs’ run.

“We had a heck of a season,” San Marin head coach Jamie Vattuone said, whose team faced MCAL rivals in the first two rounds of NCS play. “We did some things we haven’t done before.”

Left-hander Scott Olinger got the start for the Hawks and threw three scoreless innings with four hits, including a double by the Mustangs’ Daniel Rolovich. Middle reliever Jackson Van Til struck out three batters and walked two, while he allowed three hits.

“I think our guys were more confident and looser than before,” Collins-Bride said. “This is NCS and if this happened to be our last game, we were going to play the way we wanted to play and we were going to go out the way we wanted to go out.”

San Marin starter Tanner O’Keefe was solid as he faced 24 batters through six innings with six strikeouts and five hits. O’Keefe ran up a full count against Tam’s Dara Zolfaghari to start the seventh inning, but his sixth pitch hit Zolfaghari in the thigh. With Zolfaghari wincing as he headed to first base, Collins-Bride made the call for a fresh set of legs — courtesy runner Josh Goldman.

The Mustangs gave the ball to senior Sean McGrath to close out the game and he struck out the first two batters he faced. Goldman then made a daring charge to steal second base, and then took third on an overthrow to second from the catcher.

Goldman took off for home as soon as Fierstein connected on the first pitch he saw. Fierstein charged to first to narrowly beat the throw by a matter of inches. The Mustangs appealed the call at first, but Fierstein was ruled safe and the Hawks were on the board.

“That was on Josh Goldman,” Collins-Bride said. “He’s been our courtesy runner all year. He had the green light to steal second. He took a gamble and he got it.”

Tam had its scoring opportunities earlier in the game, but couldn’t capitalize against O’Keefe, who was backed by a tough San Marin defense.

Sophomore catcher Anthony Murphy and senior shortstop Cooper Kift shone bright in Tam’s defensive gem to frustrate the Mustangs, who had runners at third base on three occasions, but came up a few feet short each time.

“We made some mistakes, and one close call that went against us hurt us,” Vattuone said. “We did them some favors.”

McGrath, a fourth-year varsity player, is heading to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next season. He anchors San Marin’s core of graduating seniors that includes Hugh Brady, O’Keefe, Cipollina, Tyler Keehn and Trevor Krejdovsky.

“They’ve been a special group,” Vattuone said. “I met them the summer after their eighth grade when they were asking me to hit some balls with them. They have been an amazing group and I’m going to miss them. But we have some players returning and some players coming up — some of their brothers, who are hungry to show what they can do.”