The Santa Clara Bruins gave the home crowd everything the team had on Saturday, but came up just short in the NorCal Division IV title game. Hosting a Menlo School team that had been there many times before, the Bruins gave the Knights heart palpitations until the very end.
On the hill, Jaxton Chao pitched three shutout innings before Menlo managed to break the zero-zero tie in the fourth. The Knights would score two runs before Chao pitched his way out of it. He logged another inning for the Bruins before John Kepner came into the game in relief.
At the plate, the Bruins rallied in the bottom of the fifth inning and managed to cut Menlo’s lead to one. The home team threatened again in the bottom of the seventh, hoping for a two-on, two-out rally. But it was not to be. Menlo managed to get the final out of the game and the Bruins lost 2-1.
While the loss was disappointing, Bruins Manager Pedro Martinez can’t help but admire everything his team has accomplished this year.
“That last loss, it’s a tough one, because we won a 20-game win streak. But it didn’t diminish the fact of what we accomplished this season,” said Martinez. “We won our school’s first CCS title. We won a record 29 games, a school record 29 games. We had a league MVP for the first time since 2005, and so many other accolades. In the reality of the whole thing, what we did was pretty special.”
The road wasn’t always easy for the Bruins, who had to deal with injuries throughout the season. Martinez says players stepped up when it mattered, and that helped the team create such a magical season.
“We were definitely blessed with some arms this year. We had two power pitchers, and we were just going to ride that, but midway through the year, our best arm [Drew Diffenderfer] had an injury that set him up for a month and a half. So we had things we weren’t planning for,” said Martinez. “We had two seniors step up, Jaxton Chau and Jonathan Young, and a junior, Bruce Gibson, who ate up innings for us. None of this is possible without those three guys stepping up. Obviously, our other arm is John Kepner … all four of these guys stepped up in huge spots for us and allowed us to continue to not miss a beat.”
Diffenderfer was on the mound for the Bruins on Thursday, in the NorCal Division IV semifinals. Diffenderfer helped shut out West Valley-Cottonwood and led Santa Clara to the finals against Menlo.
With the team’s CCS victory, the Bruins will move up to Division III next season. Martinez isn’t ready to look that far ahead. He wants to let his players savor their success for the time being.
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