With two consecutive walk-off wins in the MCAL playoffs under their belts, the 24-3 varsity baseball team is arguably one of the best in recent memory. With that, they stepped onto the baseball diamond in Friday’s North Coast Section Quarterfinal versus Arroyo High School with sheer determination to get closer to the championship.
Redwood defeated Arroyo 5-1, despite having a close 1-0 lead through the first five innings.
According to junior pitcher Zach Cohen, the team is not content with just an MCAL title and a 24-3 record; they hope to win an NCS title, too.
“A record is just a record,” junior Zach Cohen said, who pitched 6 innings and allowed just 1 earned run in his first outing since the MCAL championship. “It doesn’t mean much if there’s no hardware to back it with. We wouldn’t be here if all we cared about was how good our record looks on paper.”
The game started out slow as Redwood carried a 1-0 lead into the fifth, when all of the sudden their offense erupted. The Giants scored four runs in the bottom of the 6th inning, backed by sophomore Aubrey Sine’s two-RBI double.
Sine, who was the only sophomore to earn MCAL first team all-league honors this year, said that he is excited to be named first team.
“I think it’s a great accomplishment to be the only sophomore who made [first team], but when game time comes, that stuff is in the back of my mind. We just want to win,” Sine said.
Sine was one of four Giants to be named first team all-league, along with seniors Devon Pence, Tyler Peck, and Riley Overend.
“There have been a lot of great players before me who have won the award,” Pence, who batted .346 this season, said. “It’s great to see all these guys winning awards because it shows the depth we have as a team, but it obviously doesn’t mean as much as the team’s success.”
With an MCAL championship and multiple awards of recognition checked off, the Giants are all in with their eyes set on the championship.
The Giants face Pinole Valley at home in the semifinals today at 4 p.m.
