The Cardinals took over the Oakland Tech Bulldogs 6–4 in the first game of the Transbay Championship series on May 15 at the Oakland Alameda Coliseum.
Starting off the game, senior catcher Owen Mahoney scored the first run in the second inning. In the third inning, senior outfielder Motana Phoupraseut, junior infielder Alex Bradshaw, Mahoney, and senior outfielder Jacob Tang scored a run. Phoupraseut scored the final run of the game in the seventh inning.
The team will take on the Bulldogs a second time today at San Francisco State University.
On May 10, the team brought home its fifth consecutive title in the Academic Athletic Association championship with a 2–0 win against the Washington Eagles at AT&T Park.
From the first to seventh inning, the Cardinals displayed defensive alignment as the infielders positioned in response to the double play depth and the infield deep.
Phoupraseut hit a single and advanced to second, third, and home on walks during the bottom of the first inning, Cardinals leading 1–0.
The second and final run of the championship match was scored by senior outfielder Jacob Tang at the bottom of the fourth inning. With no outs, the Eagles executed a double play and headed back to the dugout, thinking that the inning had ended, however they only had two of the three outs required. Tang then ran from third to home, leaving the Eagles overwhelmed with disappointment.
The offensive Cardinals showed perfect performance, executing tag outs and catching fly balls in addition to senior pitcher Joseph Solomon’s two-hitter. Solomon pitched for all seven innings and trampled the Eagles’ offense and manifested his dominance of the mound as he pitched seven strikeouts with precise fastballs and curveballs.
Before to the championship match, the team had specifically focused on perfecting its line drives, developing a solid defense, according to senior infielder Adam Gardi.
In the regular season, the Cardinals played against the Eagles three times, winning two games 6–2 and 2–1 but losing one game 4–1. These results manifested the team’s mentality and improvement of the team, according to Gardi. The Cardinals showed a successful season with 12 wins and two losses.
According to assistant coach Emil DeAndreis, the next varsity team will lose some of its great strengths as the seniors graduate from the team and will have to work on filling up those gaps. As the JV team claimed its sixth consecutive AAA championship title on the May 5, DeAndreis looked forward to the new players filling the positions the graduating players are leaving.
