SAN JOSE — It wasn’t easy to crack Santa Teresa’s pitching code.
For 31 consecutive innings, the Saints put only zeroes on the scoreboard, a run that included a 14-inning victory in the section semifinals and a shutout in a championship game.
But the code was finally solved in a midday matinee on its home field in San Jose on Tuesday.
And then Stevenson pounced.
After tying the score 1-1 on a throwing error in the fifth, the visitors from Pebble Beach erupted for four runs in the sixth to win the first-round NorCal Division IV regional game 5-1.
Stevenson, the seventh seed, advanced to play in the semifinals Thursday.
Santa Teresa’s season ended at 17-14.
“It’s tough,” Santa Teresa coach Patrick Hawk said. “They just grinded some at-bats. You thought one run was going to hold it. They were able to come up with a big hit with the bases loaded.”
In a game that began at 11:05 a.m. to accommodate Santa Teresa’s 4 p.m. graduation at San Jose State — a ceremony that will include four baseball starters — a Stevenson freshman had the biggest hit of the day.
Following Sean Ishii’s perfectly placed bunt single up the first-base line that loaded the bases with nobody out, Reggie Bell ripped a double to deep center to drive in all three runners.
That was plenty of support for Andrew Airada, who on his 110th and final pitch struck out a batter to end the sixth.
Ishii then retired Santa Teresa in order in the seventh to clinch the victory for the Central Coast Section Division VI champs.
Santa Teresa won the CCS’s Division IV title.
Airada had a stomach bug pregame, Stevenson coach Nate Wilcox said. But the junior left-hander showed no signs of illness once he stepped onto the mound.
“He has so much heart,” Wilcox said. “He was actually throwing up in the bullpen prior to the game. He was exhausted and I kept telling him I believe in you. I want you to believe in yourself as much as I believe in you and this team believes in you. He’s just been an absolute dawg for us.”
Santa Teresa put runners on base in three of the first four innings. But the Saints scored just one run, on Riley Breton’s single to center that brought in Bradley Tran, who opened the inning with a single to left.
Likewise, Stevenson (20-4) had plenty of traffic on the basepaths in the early innings but couldn’t get on the scoreboard until a throw from second to first — which would have been the final out of the fifth — got away to allow the visitors to pull even 1-1.
“We had a lot of runners on early and we were just missing that hit to get us over the hump,” Wilcox said. “I knew if we kept getting runners on, something was bound to fall for us. Our guys have been battling all year and I knew they weren’t going to go down without a fight.
“Sean’s bunt was kind of a backbreaker for them,” Wilcox added. “And then our freshman, Reggie Bell, who has been a stud all year, hit that double.”
For Santa Teresa, it was a tough loss but a memorable playoff run.
“Everybody was here, dialed in, locked in, ready to rock,” Hawk said. “We just came up a little short today.”
