Lowell rides perfect defense, solid pitching to emotional D5 title

Under warm, sunny skies, Lowell (18-10) played errorless defense behind senior Jeremy Tam — making his first career start — and ace Finean Hunter-Kenney, who combined to give up four hits while striking out six. 

The Cardinals got timely hits from Roman Fong and Brandon Liu, who combined for four hits and two RBI, and ran wild on the base paths (five steals) to record their first NorCal title in a battle of San Francisco schools that rarely play each other.

Longtime coach and eighth-year Lowell manager Daryl Semien fought back tears after the game, thinking back to the team’s season-ending loss last year at Oracle Park, early struggles this season and the passing of his mother Peggy during the pandemic. 

More than 400 fans jammed the facility and both teams played spotless defense in a clean, crisp 2-hour, 2-minute gem. Second-seeded University (23-9) had fine pitching efforts from Matt Moore and sophomore Sabin Verplaetse who combined to allow one run over four innings.  

“People didn’t think they could do it after what they went through last year,” Semien said. “The amount of heart and hard work they displayed, getting just a little bit better every day, not putting their head down during adversity, at the end of the day they kept battling.”

Following an 11-3 San Francisco Section title win over Washington on May 18 at Oracle Park, Semien didn’t think the Cardinals had put together a complete game. He called Saturday “1-B” and Thursday’s 7-6 semifinal win at top-seed Ripon Christian “1-A” in terms of perfection. 

Tam, one of four seniors, gave a huge boost with four-scoreless innings. “He’s been a quiet leader all year and he wanted the ball today,”  

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Hunter-Kenney is not as quiet, but he was dominating with four strikeouts and one hit allowed.

“That’s Fin being Fin as we like to say,” Semien said of Hunter-Kenney, who Tuesday went the distance striking out 10 in a first-round 3-0 defeat of Skyline-Oakland. He pitched 6.2 innings at Oracle against Washington, but had to be lifted due to pitch-count rules. 

“We started the season a little rough, but as we got through and started building momentum, I had no doubt we could make it all the way,” Hunter-Kenney said. “It feels amazing to finish a championship game. I really wanted to do it back at Oracle, but I’m glad I got to do it now.”

Asked to describe the emotion dogpiling near the mound after the final out Saturday, Hunter-Kennedy said: “It was pretty much sheer joy. We worked so hard to get here. And we finally got it done.” 

DIVISION I

De La Salle-Concord 11, Valley Christian 8: Junior Hank Tripaldi hit two home runs, the second a grand slam with two out in the top of the seventh to wipe out an 8-7 deficit and give the second-seed Spartans (27-5) a wild back-and-forth road win for their second straight D1 crown. Tripaldi, who dedicated the home runs to his late mother Robin, who passed away in April from breast cancer, went 3-for-5 with six RBI. 

It ended a 19-game-win streak for the top-seeded Warriors (31-4), who erased an early 3-0 deficit by scoring eight of the next nine runs — keyed by a three-run double from WCAL MVP PJ Moutzouridis and a two-run single by Carmelo Rivera to go up 8-4. But De La Salle struck for one in the sixth before five straight batters reached with one out in the seventh, to cut the lead to 8-7. 

After EBAL MVP Connor Harrison struck out, Tripaldi smacked a 1-1 pitch over the tall fence in right. A year ago, De La Salle was down three entering the final inning against St. Francis before scoring four runs to win the D1 title 7-6.

DIVISION 2