CONCORD — To beat a team as talented as De La Salle, even the smallest mistakes can prove to be costly.
Del Oro found that out the hard way.
While the Loomis school had its moments, De La Salle’s talent proved to be too much on Tuesday afternoon.
After winning the North Coast Section Division I title on Saturday, the top-seeded Spartans opened the first round of the CIF NorCal Division I playoffs with a 7-3 win over No. 8 Del Oro at home.
De La Salle (27-4) will host St. Mary’s-Stockton on Thursday after the Rams defeated Valley Christian in their first round game.
“We’re rolling right now, and after that big one on Saturday, we stayed composed, had good practice yesterday and just came out here to play dominant baseball,” De La Salle junior Brandon Vargas said. “We didn’t play our best game, but we played hard and we played with energy and effort and that’s all you can ask from our starting guys.”
Vargas went 2 for 3 and led De La Salle in RBIs with three. Antonio Castro went 3 for 4 and knocked in two runs while Stanford-bound shortstop Tyler Spangler totaled three hits.
Del Oro opened the game strong as the Golden Eagles found themselves with the bases loaded and one out in the first inning. But De La Salle’s defense turned a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the top half of the inning unscathed.
In the home half of the first, Del Oro’s defense looked poised to get out of the inning unscathed with two outs and runners on first and second. That was until Vargas hit a deep ball into left field that looked like it was going to get caught by Del Oro’s outfielder until he lost in the sun and Spangler and Ethan Sullivan scored to put De La Salle up two runs early.
After De La Salle put up a run in the second and third innings, Del Oro again found themselves with an opportunity to cut into De La Salle’s lead.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Del Oro’s Carson Moore ripped a double to right field that scored Jack Tews as the Golden Eagles put their first run on the board. Del Oro’s momentum was short-lived as De La Salle pitcher Jack Sydlik came in relief and recorded the final out of the inning to keep Del Oro at bay.
Like they have done all year, the Spartans found a way to put the game away for good. With two outs and two runners on in the bottom of the fourth, Castro hit a triple to right center field to score Sullivan and Spangler. In the next at-bat, Oklahoma-commit Alec Blair smacked a deep fly ball to center field that scored Castro from third and made the score 7-1.
“We were just seeing pitches better,” Castro said. “It’s just a testament to all the work we put in at practice.”
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Even in the win, De La Salle coach David Jeans believed there was still more room for improvement.
“Today wasn’t great overall and we had a little hangover after they won a big game on Saturday, so we didn’t come out with the same intensity,” Jeans said. “But we have good talent … So, there’s just things that we have to work on.”
De La Salle will get a rematch with St. Mary’s on Thursday. The Rams defeated De La Salle 4-1 in eight innings in the Spartans’ season opener this year. The two teams have matched up well with each other the last few years with De La Salle holding a 10-8 record against the Central Valley school since 2005.
“We’re looking for revenge,” Castro said. “They got the best of us the last two games, so we’re going to come at them hard. We gotta play with a chip on our shoulder and just trust ourselves and trust the work we put in.”
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