Santa Clara wins first CCS baseball title in school history as Drew Diffenderfer fires one-hitter

SANTA CLARA — The Santa Clara baseball team felt slighted by its seeding in the Central Coast Section Division IV baseball bracket. 

The Bruins finished the regular season 24-3 and were seeded No. 8. But all the Bruins could do about it was go out and play. 

They did it well. Santa Clara finished off a stirring run through the D-IV bracket as Drew Diffenderfer flirted with a no-hitter in the championship game, shutting down No. 2 St. Francis SCP as the Bruins won 8-0 at Santa Clara University. 

It is Santa Clara’s first section title since the CCS began holding baseball championships in 1967. It is the Bruins’ first overall since at least 1915. Santa Clara High was founded in 1872.

“We showed that we didn’t belong in D-IV or being the eighth seed,” Diffenderfer said. “We proved everyone wrong, proved everyone who put us in the eight seed wrong.”

Santa Clara’s coach was grateful for the perceived slight. 

“I thank everyone in that room who put us number eight, because we felt we were feeling ourselves a little bit at 24-3,” Pedro Martinez said. “I needed some bulletin board material for us. And I thank all those guys in that room who doubted us.”

To reach the championship, Santa Clara beat both top seed Carlmont and No. 5 Branham. Both games went into nine innings.

It was clear from the early innings on Friday that Santa Clara belonged in the title game. Diffenderfer had a perfect game through four innings, and the way he was throwing, it became a matter of whether he’d get enough run support. 

The Bruins’ bats came through in the fifth inning. Santa Clara loaded the bases with no one out, then John Kepner ripped a double to left-center to clear the bases. 

Kepner scored on a double by Charles Conley to put Santa Clara up 4-0, and Diffenderfer could finally relax.

“It was great,” he said. “A lot of help. Gave me a lot more confidence on the mound, took a lot of pressure off.” 

Diffenderfer helped his own cause in the sixth, hitting a two-run single to right to put the Bruins up 7-0. At that point, the conversation turned to whether he could finish the no-hitter. 

He lost the perfect game on an error in the fifth. And in the bottom of the sixth, another error extended the inning, enabling Noah Magana to break up the no-no with a single to left. 

But Diffenderfer kept his focus and finished off a one-hit shutout in the seventh, stamping this Santa Clara team into the history books.

“We didn’t have too much after me,” Diffenderfer said of the Bruins’ pitching staff. “So I was just trying to go the whole game by any means necessary, and that meant throwing as many strikes as possible.”

It was the best pitching performance of his life, and it came at the perfect time. 

“He’s battled through a lot,” Martinez said. “He came back from injury. We brought him back about a month and a half ago, worked his way up for this moment. We figured he’d be fresh for the playoffs. He was phenomenal. We knew we were gonna face a juggernaut in their pitcher. We needed a guy to put zeros up, and he did. He did incredible.”

Santa Clara will make more history next week by playing its first game in the CIF NorCal regional tournament. But the Bruins will be savoring this win for a long time to come. 

“It’s one of a kind, never going to be recreated,” Diffenderfer said. “That feeling of winning a championship, capping off the season, that was so important to me, in my senior year especially. It felt amazing.”

Regardless of what happens in NorCals, Santa Clara has arrived in the South Bay baseball scene.

“This is special for me, because I did it as a player,” Martinez said. “I went to Wilcox, part of that 2004 team, and now to do it as a coach in this pretty small fraternity of those who get the first one in the school’s history, words can’t describe it. All those guys who’ve been in this program who fought hard and couldn’t get this done, I’m glad we could do it for them. 

“We belong. For the first time in history, Santa Clara High School belongs in the conversation in baseball.”