Baseball: Washington completes undefeated season, triple crown with win over Balboa
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Friday, May 13, 2011 | 53 Comments
Washington players and coaches celebrate after the final out of their win over Balboa in the AAA championship on Thursday at AT&T Park. (Photo by Doug Ko)
By Jeremy Balan
Call it the Triple Crown, call it the Trifecta, call it whatever you want — there wasn’t a need for a name, because it hadn’t been done before.
With a 4-1 win against Balboa High School in the Academic Athletic Association baseball championship on Thursday at AT&T Park, Washington High School became the first school in history to win a AAA championship in football, boys basketball and baseball in the same school year.
Washington junior starting pitcher Dane Vande Guchte sends a pitch toward the plate against Balboa on Thursday at AT&T Park. (Photo by Doug Ko)
The Eagles also wrapped up an undefeated league season and will advance to play Oakland Tech in the Transbay Championship Series, which begins Wednesday at San Francisco State University.
“The first word that comes to mind is that it’s just crazy,” said Washington head coach Rob Fung. “It’s history, it’s never been done, and this is something that no one will every take away from this group.”
Balboa took an early 1-0 lead on three singles in the top of the third inning, but it didn’t take long for the Eagles to respond.
Washington’s junior starting pitcher, Dane Vande Guchte, tied the game in the bottom of the third on a deep fly ball to the warning track in left field. Due to a base-running error, only one of two runners scored and Vande Guchte was limited to a single, but on the next at-bat the Eagles scored the eventual game-winning run.
Vande Guchte broke to second base on a delayed steal, and freshman Jordan Wilson, who was on third, broke home on the throw to second to score the go-ahead run.
“It was different being behind [early], but we knew we had our chances and knew it was going to come,” Vande Guchte said. “We weren’t scared or anything like that, we just played our game.”
The Eagles tacked on two runs in the bottom of the sixth, and Vande Guchte shut down the Buccaneers on the mound.
After allowing the lone run in the third, Vande Guchte didn’t allow a hit in the next three innings, and sophomore Chris Hau shut Balboa down in order in the seventh to collect the save.
“He’s a big player. A little guy, but a big player,” Fung said of Vande Guchte. “He gave us everything he could and he couldn’t even go that seventh inning, he left it out there.”
The lack of Balboa offense spoiled a solid start from junior Alex Arnold, who struck out three in 5 1/3 innings and kept the Bucs in the game before running into trouble in the sixth.
Balboa only got one runner in scoring position after the third, but the future seems bright, as the Bucs are only losing one senior to graduation, and have played their best baseball in the postseason, including an upset of Lowell in the semifinals.
“We started maturing and peaked at the right time,” said Balboa head coach Tom Pontino. “We’re certainly going to be back. We’re going to try our best.”
Scoring Summary
Third Inning
B – Michael Li singles, Eduardo Herrera scoreshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
W – Dane Vande Guchte singles, Avery Velasco scores
W – Jordan Wilson steals home
Sixth Inning
W – Alex Kozakiewicz reaches on a fielder’s choice, Javon Philips scores
W – Chris Hau walks, Kozakiewicz scores
Washington completes Triple Crown of San Francisco
At AT&T Park, Dane Vande Guchte and Chris Hau pitch Eagles to baseball title following championships in football and basketball.
hey've been playing organized baseball, basketball and football in San Francisco since 1924, but never had a school won Section titles in all three during the same year.
That is until Washington (San Francisco) completed the triple crown on Thursday at AT&T Park, home of the defending World Series champions San Francisco Giants.
"Winning it there made it extra special," said Washington coach Rob Fung following a 4-1 win over Balboa (San Francisco).
Dane Vande Guchte and Chris Hau combined on a four-hitter as the Eagles (19-6-1) won their 16th straight Academic Athletic Association game overall.
Photo by Brad Kupper
Dane Vande Guchte was the winning
pitcher and had key RBI single.
Vande Guchte (7-1) pitched the first six innings before giving way to Hau and the Eagles manufactured four runs on an RBI single from Vande Guchte, a double steal, fielder's choice by Alex Kozakiewicz and bases-loaded walk to Hau.
It was the fifth title in 17 seasons under coach Rob Fung who has reached the Section final 16 times. Washington's football and basketball also won section crowns during the 2010-11 school year.
Balboa (12-14), which had a 1-0 lead, lost previous games to Washington 12-2 and 10-2. The game was played after the Giants' 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks.
"I can't say I saw this coming before the season," Fung said. "We lost all our pitching from last season. We caught the ball well all season but our pitching really emerged, especial (Hau). He turned into a real mainstay."
The Eagles managed just five hits themselves off of tough-luck 6-foot-1, 180-pound junior loser Alex Arnold.
"(Arnold) pitched a very good game," Fung said. "He was tough."
Balboa took the lead in the third on an RBI single by Michael Li, the only player in the game with two hits. That scored Eduardo Herrera, who had also singled.
Washington came back with two runs in the bottom half on Vande Guchte's RBI single that went over the head of the right fielder and a double steal with Jordan Wilson crossing home safe.
That put Washington up for good.
The Eagles added two more insurance runs in the sixth on Kozakiewicz and a bases loaded walk to Hau.
"Those runs were huge," Fung said.
File photo by David Stephenson
Washington manager Rob Fung won his
fifth SFS title in 17 seasons.
Hau worked a 1-2-3 seventh and the Eagles stormed the mound.
"It was a pretty good dog pile," Fung said. "It was a very emotional scene."
Washington now gets ready for the Transbay Series, which starts Wednesday at San Francisco State. The Eagles will play the Oakland Section champions in a best-of-three series.
Washington hopes to repeat 2006 when it also went undefeated in league and captured the Transbay Series.
As far as winning the Trifecta in all three major sports, Fung said the entire Washington community was thrilled.
"There were lots of alumni out and that's all they kept talking about," Fung said. "I'm glad we were able to make everyone happy."
Everyone but Balboa, that is.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
By: Mitch Stephens | MaxPreps.com
