Nate Luehs and Connor Weitl combined on a two-hit shutout as visiting Northgate High School ended Piedmont’s baseball season with a 5-0 win at Humphries Field on May 23 in the second round of the North Coast Section Division 3 playoffs.
The second-seeded Highlanders finished 16-10 on the year. The No. 10 Broncos advanced to face No. 6 Marin Catholic at Marin Catholic on May 27.
Luehs was strong from the start, pitching three hitless innings before Will Parker tripled to lead off the fourth. A one-out walk made it first and third for Piedmont but Luehs struck out Brandon Dicke and got Mike Martin to fly out to center to get out of the jam. On that play, Ballard slipped in center field before making the catch nearly flat on his stomach.
That was the one real offensive threat by the Highlanders. Diego Delventhal led off the first with a walk and got to third with two outs but advanced no further. Shafer Dando reached on an infield single with two outs in the sixth for Piedmont’s other hit.
Luehs finished with 10 strikeouts and three walks in 6 1/3 innings. He was only removed because he had reached 104 pitches. California Interscholastic Federation rules limit pitchers to 110 pitches in a game.
“I felt pretty confident,” Luehs said. “Just a normal game to me. I just wanted to go out there and compete. Try getting first pitch strikes. Had to get adjusted to the mound a little bit but after that, I felt pretty good.”
Said Piedmont’s Markos Lagios, “He was great. His fastball had some run to it, had some life. He mixed in curveballs when he needed to and changeups when he needed to. He kept our guys off balance. We did have runners on almost every inning, ran his pitch count up. He was awesome, I can’t take anything away from him, he beat us straight up.”
“He struck out a lot of guys, he pitched well and controlled the zone.”
Jack Meyjes started the game and took the loss for the Highlanders, going four-plus innings and allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits with five walks and five strikeouts. He retired the first two batters he faced, then walked Luehs. Christopher Flores followed with a double high off of the center field fence and Luehs had the only run he would need.
Luehs doubled in a run in the third to make it 2-0. After an intentional walk, the Broncos had a chance for more but a fluke play happened when catcher Parker missed a high pitch and the ball hit home plate umpire Joe DeLuca in the facemask, causing him to freeze behind the plate, head down. Base umpire Todd Lindgren called a dead ball while the ball was loose near home plate and the runners were moving up from first and second. After a delay of several
minutes, DeLuca stayed in the game, play resumed and the runners were sent back.
Cole Torrey followed with a single, but Northgate ended up leaving the bases loaded. Meyjes walked Luehs on four pitches to lead off the fifth. He was replaced by Will Ferreira. Courtesy runner Wyatt Curran stole second and was still there two outs later. Robert Jurado then hit a grounder to third that Meyjes couldn’t field. Curran scored on the error to make it 3-0.
Northgate got a pair of unearned runs in the seventh to break the game open.
The Broncos were 3-21 last year. Coach Lou Cesario came over from Amador Valley, where he retired as a teacher after 25 years. He had been the baseball coach and athletic director during his time with the Dons. He lives a couple of blocks from the Northgate campus. “I just met these kids,” he said. “This was a complete rebuild. I believed all along. We have two good arms,” referring to Luehs and Max Carlos “(Luehs) is our one, but our two is like 1A.”
He added, “I kept telling these guys with those two arms in the playoffs, you play good defense, you can advance along a little bit.”
Jordan Vo (white) looks back to the umpire to confirm Blayne Ballard (10) is out 
Jonah Cha-Foster (10) tries to tag Wyatt Curran (7) on Curran’s stolen base 
Will Parker dives into third for a triple for Piedmont’s first hit in the fourth
For the seniors on Piedmont, it was a bittersweet end to a successful era. Lagios won the West Alameda County Conference Most Valuable Player award as a junior, although he suffered a broken finger this year which affected his swing. He played four years of varsity baseball and also was the starting quarterback for the football team, which reached the NCS playoffs his junior and senior years.
“It has just been the most fun I’ve had ever,” Lagios said. “I play sports year-round. It doesn’t matter if the high school season’s going on, I’m playing in the summer, on breaks and whatnot. Nothing beats being out here with the guys you grew up with. I’ve known these guys since I was 6 years old. We’ve always dreamed of being up here when we were younger and going to football games, going to baseball games. It just went by so fast.”
Parker is another four-year baseball player. The Highlanders made the NCS Division 4 championship game last season and made the California Interscholastic Federation playoffs.
Of Lagios, he said, “He had such a great career. Football, baseball you name it. I loved hitting behind him this year. I got on base a lot. It sucks that he hurt his hand. I think it would have ended a lot differently if he didn’t hurt his hand.” Parker added, “I think I did really well too. I’m going to miss catching these guys, working hard behind the plate. I’m going to miss this field, I’m going to try to soak this in as long as I can. I’m excited to play at the next level too.”
Piedmont coach Eric Olson appreciated it all.
“To watch Markos and Shafer and Will and Will Ferreira and Jordan Vo and then Brandon Dicke, those are all cornerstone baseball players for the last three-four years,” Olson said. “To make NCS finals last year and CIF finals last year, what a great run for those kids. And to be a two-seed in Division 3. A lot of accolades.”
“It was super-fun to watch. I was privileged to have a front-row seat to watch these kids compete.”