5/11: The Varsity Giants closed out their regular season schedule with a win today and are on a two-game winning streak. Redwood needed the win to secure third place in the MCAL and did so in commanding fashion, beating Branson at College of Marin 6-3.
Blake Cusick earned his third win of the year and dropped his MCAL ERA to .78 which ranks third among pitchers in the MCAL, after giving up just one earned run in six innings. Cusick gave up just five hits, struck out five and only walked one. Sophomore Kyle Felder closed out the game, pitching a scoreless seventh inning. Felder was the workhorse on the JV League Champion team, and led the team with twelve appearances while boasting a .70 ERA. Remarkably, in forty-nine innings of work, Felder struck out fifty-seven and walked just five.
The Giants still managed to commit a couple of errors in the field and both of the miscues resulted in runs for the Bulldogs. The Giants offense would do enough to compensate for the blunders, scoring two runs in the second, adding another in the third and fifth innings and posted two more in the sixth for the six run total.
Anthony Pomilia, Gregory Block, and Josh Katz had hits for the Giants with Luke Zlatunich, and Josh Cohen each had two hits. Jack Morkin, another Sophomore call-up added two hits himself to the Giants total. In his first Varsity at-bat, Morkin smoked a grounder to right, for his first hit of his Varsity career and scored later in the inning. Jack hit .350 for the Junior Varsity Giants, with four doubles and four triples. Morkin singled up the middle in his second at-bat, knocking in Luke Zlatunich for his first Varsity RBI. Pomilia and Block also had RBI’s with Josh Katz knocking in two runs for the Giants.
The Giants will need to win three straight in order to win their third MCAL Championship in a row. The journey begins on Tuesday when they will host the San Rafael Bulldogs at Moody Field at 4:30. The Bulldogs handed the Giants a tough loss under the lights in a game that was won in the bottom of the seventh on a walk-off error.
A Giants loss would end their consecutive MCAL Championship streak and the Giants will fight for a bid into the NCS Tournament. If the Giants win, they will play in a rematch battle with Marin Catholic under the lights at Albert Park on Thursday. Marin Catholic earned the #2 seed and the first round bye. Tam hosts San Marin on the other side of the draw on Tuesday with the winner facing the #1 seed, Drake, on Wednesday. The recently installed pitch count limits will be a huge factor for every team who has earned a bid into the MCAL Championship Playoffs.
