CCS Division VI baseball championship: Menlo School beats Lincoln-SJ

SAN JOSE – Menlo School’s baseball team was the definition of orderly and efficient during its 3-1 victory over Lincoln-San Jose at Excite Ballpark. The Peninsula school clinched the Central Coast Section Division VI title by playing what catcher Chuck Wynn called “clean baseball” on Thursday night.

Menlo fielders made the right reads and accurate throws on an errorless, and its runners took advantage of Lincoln mistakes with alert baserunning by scoring a pair of unearned runs. 

But after second baseman Luke Rogers snagged a lineout for the final out and the Knights hoisted the championship trophy, the calm and cool team retreated to its dugout to unleash what could only be described as celebratory chaos.

It was time to cut loose.

With one of its players hoisting a large Bluetooth speaker like an old-school boombox, the rest of the team tried to dance and sing along to a stream of mid-2000s hits like “Swag Surfin’” and the team’s anthem of the year. 

“After every win, we play our team song “I Bet U Won’t” to celebrate,” Wynn said after he had the team’s only RBI.

Standing at 5-foot-10 and weighing 170 pounds, Ryan Schnell didn’t try, or need, to overpower Lincoln’s hitters. He pitched a complete game and gave up just four hits while striking out just four, using a multitude of pitches to keep the Lions off-balance.

“He doesn’t throw it over the heart of the plate, and he mixes it up,” Menlo coach David Trujillo said. “On fastball counts, he doesn’t throw fastballs. Then he’ll sneak one by you every once in a while. He just has great command of three pitches on any count.”

The only run Lincoln could muster came in the first inning. Opposing pitcher Diego Casorla stepped up to the plate and lined the ball into left to drive teammate Lorenzo Collazo in from second base.

After a two-year absence from the playoffs, Lincoln defeated Design Tech and Alisal to reach the championship. 

“We went from not making the playoffs the two years before this, to coming back and going to the finals and playing on this beautiful field,” Casorla said after he struck out six in the last game of his high school career. “This season, even if we didn’t finish in first, was a successful season.”

Menlo School loaded the bases with one out in the second inning and tied the game when Jackson Flanagan gladly took a hit-by-pitch to drive in a run. But Casorla got out of the jam with the game still deadlocked at 1-1. 

Wynn broke the tie in the third when he roped the ball into left field, and then Menlo School ended its scoring in the third by taking advantage of one of Lincoln’s four errors to plate another. 

After that, all Menlo School had to do was rely on its senior leader to close the game out.

“Once we got that first and second out of the last inning, we knew with our ace Ryan up there, that we had it in the bag,” Wynn said. 

Watching the other team celebrate was Lincoln’s stallwart coach Stuart Piraro, the brother of longtime San Jose State baseball coach Sam Piraro. 

He’ll be back on Saturday to watch a few of his relatives coach for Archbishop Mitty in the Division I title game, but also believed his team’s loss could end up being the reason Licoln is back in this game next season.  

“Winning can breed winning,” Piraro said. “You see it, you experience, and there’s no reason you can’t do it again.”