Three of Elk Grove Franklin’s finest celebrating after winning CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 title on Friday included junior Dylan Minnatee, senior pitcher Dylan Wood and freshman catcher Brandon Williams. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
State No. 13 St. Mary’s of Stockton and No. 14 Franklin of Elk Grove played the type of baseball game on Friday in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division 1 championship that one might expect between teams ranked so closely together and also the two teams that won titles in that division the last two years. Franklin scored all its runs in one frenetic inning for a 4-3 win. Both teams will play in two weeks in the CIF NorCal D1 regional playoffs.
FOR THE MOST RECENT STATE TOP 35 RANKINGS, CLICK HERE.
We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. Some of the upcoming all-state teams plus all state record book updates will be for Gold Club members only. Please help us out today by becoming a member of our Gold Club so you can see all of our great content. For more on special offer to get signed up for $4.99 per month, CLICK HERE.
CHECK OUT CALGAMESWANTED.COM
Created for Coaches by Coaches for California Varsity High School Head Coaches and Athletic Directors, Start building your schedule with CalGamesWanted.com.
User friendly to take the stress out of scheduling.
It’s not that the Franklin High baseball team of Elk Grove was trailing 1-0 to St. Mary’s of Stockton going to the top of the fifth inning in Friday’s CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 title game played at Union Stadium at Sacramento City College that had to make the squad’s fans rather nervous. It’s that the Wildcats hadn’t even gotten a hit yet.
That all changed in that inning, however, as Franklin erupted for four runs with two outs on a bases-loaded double by junior shortstop Jason Harris and then an RBI single by Royal McKinney and then held on for a 4-3 win over the Rams. Instead of St. Mary’s (24-8) celebrating a repeat section title, the gyrating, hand-slapping and hugging was about Franklin (25-7) earning its second section title in three years.
Jason Harris, who had the big hit of the game for Franklin, walks toward collecting his championship medal during post-game ceremony. Photo: Mark Tennis.
“What a game, what a great team to beat, and I’m really proud of the guys,” said Franklin head coach Bryan Kilby. “We did have some good swings in the inning before, and we did it all with two outs.”
St. Mary’s started its ace, Cal-committed senior Tanner Grove, who also had nine strikeouts in picking up the win in last year’s D1 title game. Grove did it all in the early innings. He not only struck out two batters in the first, all three in the second, and two of three in the third but in the bottom of the third inning he hit a hard grounder into the hole between the first baseman and second baseman that scored Brady Errecart for the first run of the night. Grove also made two fabulous defensive plays from the pitching position.
In the top of the fourth, after St. Mary’s couldn’t add any more runs after Grove’s RBI, the Wildcats once again went down in order but all three outs were on well-struck balls to left field that were all caught for outs.
Franklin’s top pitcher, Dylan Wood, struck out the side himself in the second inning and battled to keep it a 1-0 game in the bottom of the fourth inning as the Rams stranded another runner in scoring position. The game then changed completely in the top of the fifth.
Senior Tyler Cody got the rally going by being hit by a pitch. After a strikeout and popup, the Wildcats finally had their first hit of the game on a sharp single to right field by sophomore Easton Fernald. Senior Chance Moore then had one of the best at-bats of the night as he was able to collect a walk. That not only loaded the bases, but it brought up Harris to face Grove (his future Cal teammate) for the third time and in his first two at-bats Harris had hard-hit balls right up the middle that Grove made plays on. This time, the left-hand hitter went the other way, slicing a drive toward the left field corner that carried to the wall on one hop and with two outs all three runners on base scored.
Just like that, a 1-0 lead for St. Mary’s had turned into a 3-1 lead for Franklin. But the Wildcats were not done. Minnatee brought home Harris with a line drive to right field and the lead went to 4-1. The junior has been ranked among the top 10 juniors in California by Prep Baseball Report.
The the credit of head coach Jason Lindholm’s squad at St. Mary’s, however, that 4-1 lead was not safe. Grove came through for his second RBI of the game on a triple to left field for one run in the bottom of the fifth. He then scored on a fielder’s choice. With sophomore Royal McKinney now pitching for the Wildcats, he got the final two outs of the inning after junior Ethan Silva had a double.
While McKinney didn’t have any drama to deal with in the bottom of the seventh, St. Mary’s had its two most dangerous hitters, Errecart and junior Dax Hardcastle, both batting in the bottom of the sixth with the tying run in scoring position. Errecart struck out and Hardcastle flied out to centerfield.
Some of the St. Mary’s players, such as senior Marcus Mickle, have played on travel ball teams with some of the Franklin players. Photo: Mark Tennis.
“I think it was that when we went the second time around (with Grove) we knew what he had,” Harris said. “We had four straight at-bats with barrels on the ball. We started to hit it hard. And as they say, hitting is contagious.”
For the upcoming CIF Northern California D1 regional playoffs, the difference this year for both Franklin and St. Mary’s is that the two section finalists (in the SJS, the finalists for D1, D2 and D3 are advanced with just the championship teams for the other divisions) will now be off for one week until those playoffs begin on Tuesday, June 2. The other qualifying teams from the other CIF sections in the north (including the Central Section) will all be playing final section rounds in the upcoming week.
There could be a rust factor without any games played, but Kilby mentioned that in the past if he had to use an ace like Wood in the section final on a Friday he wouldn’t be able to use him in a NorCal first-round game the following Tuesday. This year, though, that can be changed.
“He did have 96 pitches today so we’ll want to make sure, but ideally yes we would be able to use him in that first (regional) game,” Kilby said. “It also looks like we now might be able to get a home game.”
That second comment for the Franklin coach was when it became known that earlier in the day on Friday that both Granada of Livermore (top seed in the CIF North Coast Section D1 playoffs and the 2024 CIF NorCal D1 champions) and Buchanan of Clovis (top seed in the CIF Central Section D1 playoffs with a 25-4 record) had both lost in playoff games and would be eliminated from the NorCal field. The Wildcats do have a head-to-head loss to CIF North Coast Section D1 No. 2 seed 24-4 De La Salle of Concord (which also didn’t lose on Friday).
St. Mary’s played its first two games in last year’s NorCal D1 playoffs at home and took advantage with wins vs Valley Christian and Archbishop Mitty (both of San Jose) before falling at Granada in the final. The Rams hope their experience can help them again in two weeks, but they know they will have to go on the road.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
