St. Francis scores late to edge Acalanes in pitching duel, reach NorCal final ...Middle East

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Senior right-hander Landon Kim was bringing it for St. Francis.

Only problem for the Lancers, so was Acalanes sophomore Austin McManamon.

Kim had a no-hitter for 5 ⅔ innings before Ando Butner broke it up with a clean single to right.

Still neither team had scored.

St. Francis finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth, using the legs of freshman shortstop Landon King to manufacture a run, and went on to win 2-0 to advance to the CIF NorCal Division II final.

King led off with an infield single. He stole second and then, not satisfied to merely be in scoring position, took off for third. The throw got past the Acalanes third baseman and into left field. King got up and made his way home for the first run of the game.

“I knew if I could get it if I got a good jump,” King said. “On getting to second, he gave me a little leg kick and that was my signal to go. At second I knew it wouldn’t be hard to steal third.”

The Lancers added a second run that inning when Jack Leeper walked, stole second and scored on Tanner Wall’s single.

Kim, suddenly gifted with a lead, went back out in the top of the seventh and retired the first two batters he faced before Jimmy Cusumano singled and Drew Asadorian walked. But Kim, not to be denied, got a strikeout to end it, a St. Francis victory in the semifinals.

Kim, who is headed to Williams College in Massachusetts, finished with a two-hit shutout, walking two and striking out five. Fourteen of the 21 outs he recorded were ground-ball outs.

“Just throwing strikes, letting my defense work,” he said. “I throw a sinker and slider so everything moves down. (The no-hitter) was in the back of my head a little bit. A little frustrating, but that’s OK.”

The game was over in an hour and a half.

“That’s Lancer baseball right there,” St. Francis coach Eric Eagle said. “We play some quick ones.”

Nick Chow pitched a shutout in the team’s NorCal opener against Central Catholic, so the Lancers, with a 1.63 team ERA going into Thursday’s contest, have yet to allow a run in NorCals.

St. Francis (22-10) will play at Yuba City on Saturday for the Division II title. Wagle said Ian McMahon would start that game. McManamon finished with a seven-hitter for the Dons, walking one and striking out three.

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“Mixing it up, hitting almost every spot, throwing three pitches for a strike,” Acalanes coach Andrew Merken said. ”That was probably the biggest game he ever pitched in and he stepped up and really kept us in the game.”

A young Acalanes team with six sophomores in the starting lineup finished 18-11-1.

“We had a very up and down season,” Merken said. “A very rough end to the (regular) season. We didn’t really know what to expect, but all the coaches knew we had what it took to advance that far. It just took putting it all together at the right time and fortunately we did.”

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