Palo Alto showed off a powerful lineup Tuesday while handing Wilcox ace Nick Morehead his worst outing of the season. The Chargers countered with a patient approach, and when the time was right, Garret Cuik provided a powerful shot of his own.
Cuik’s bases-loaded triple pushed Wilcox to a 10-8 come-from-behind victory over Palo Alto and gave the Chargers an early leg up in the best-of-three De Anza Division championship series. Wilcox (25-5) trailed 5-0 after two innings, but struck for three in the third and batted around while scoring six in the fifth inning.
“That’s not the way I thought it would go, but that’s a great win,” Wilcox coach Paul Rosa said. “When we were down, I told them to take advantage of opportunities and chip away. We weren’t going to get it all back at once.”
The Chargers never expected to be in such a big hole in the first place. Morehead hadn’t given up five runs in a game all season, but after scoring two runs in the first inning, the Vikings (22-9) tacked on three more a frame later. After back-to-back doubles by John Dickerson and BJ Boyd, Austin Braff cut through the swirling wind at Wilcox with a homer to straightaway center.
Palo Alto’s Ben Sneider had given up just seven earned runs all year but was charged with seven earned on Tuesday and made an error that led to one more run.
“The wind hasn’t blown like this all year, but when the wind’s like this, it’s crazy here,” Rosa said. “That team can hit, but luckily we had some big hits that helped us come back.”
Cuik’s hit was the biggest of the game, but it was Wilcox’s patience and Sneider’s sudden bout with wildness that set up the go-ahead score.
Sneider hit Tyler Kiefer to lead off the fifth inning, and after Morehead’s single, Frankie Contreras was also hit. Tyler Barraclough’s single brought in a run, and Brandon Huxtable drew a walk to make it 6-5.
Cuik followed with a blast to the wall in right that easily cleared the bases.
“That’s probably one of the biggest hits of my whole life,” the sophomore said. “I just had to clutch up. I wanted that one.”
Cole Fredricks provided two strong innings in relief of Morehead, but with the lead back in his hands, Rosa took advantage of high school baseball’s re-entry rule to bring Morehead back in for the save.
TJ Braff hit a two-run homer in the seventh before Morehead closed the door.
“It was strange coming back in, but I wanted to redeem myself,” Morehead said. “That was my worst start of the year, but we hit well. We’re underrated in our hitting.”
Kiefer reached base three times and scored twice, and Huxtable twice scored after drawing walks. In all, eight of the nine Chargers in the lineup scored a run.
“There’s nobody in our lineup that can’t do the job,” Cuik said. “Everybody was ready.”
The series continues Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Palo Alto.
For more on high school sports, see Alex Pavlovic’s After School blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/highschools. Contact him at 408-920-5899.
