De La Salle surges into NorCal D1 semifinals with win over Del Oro

CONCORD To beat a gang as talented as De La Salle even the smallest mistakes can prove to be costly Del Oro discovered 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 - win over No Del Oro at home De La Salle - will host St Mary s-Stockton on Thursday after the Rams defeated Valley Christian in their first round meeting We re rolling right now and after that big one on Saturday we stayed composed had good practice the previous day and just came out here to play dominant baseball De La Salle junior Brandon Vargas announced We didn t play our best tournament but we played hard and we played with force and effort and that s all you can ask from our starting guys Vargas went for and led De La Salle in RBIs with three Antonio Castro went for and knocked in two runs while Stanford-bound shortstop Tyler Spangler totaled three hits Del Oro opened the match strong as the Golden Eagles exposed themselves with the bases loaded and one out in the first inning But De La Salle s defense turned a - - 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 located 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 detected a way to put the contest 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 points 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 tally - We were just seeing pitches better Castro announced It s just a testament to all the work we put in at practice Related Articles CIF NorCal baseball softball Tuesday s scores updated schedule Menlo School s Jackson Flanagan fires gem in NorCal D-IV playoff shutout CIF NorCal baseball softball Top storylines as regional games begin Tuesday CIF NorCal baseball softball playoffs First-round games in all divisions NCS roundup Acalanes Las Lomas win baseball titles Miramonte celebrates softball crown Del Oro scored on a two-run homer from Shane Maloney in the sixth inning but it didn t matter Sydlik needed just three pitches to retire the side in the top of the seventh to send the Spartans to the next round Even in the win De La Salle coach David Jeans maintained there was still more room for improvement In the current era wasn t great overall and we had a little hangover after they won a big battle on Saturday so we didn t come out with the same intensity Jeans declared 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 - in eight innings in the Spartans season opener this year The two teams have matched up well with each other the last minimal years with De La Salle holding a - record against the Central Valley school since We re looking for revenge Castro explained 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