Piedmont High School’s Diego Delventhal and Livermore’s Braden Ford posed for pictures along the first base line at Humphries Diamond. Old friends from travel baseball, the two had just finished a hard-fought North Coast Section Division 4 playoff game on May 20.
Ford and the Cowboys had come out on top, 4-2. Ford came up big on the mound, going 6 2/3 innings and allowing just one earned run. Delventhal went one for three against his friend.
Eleventh-seeded Livermore (7-18) advanced to the second round where it will face No. 3 Justin-Siena-Napa on the road on May 23. The Highlanders finished the season 10-16-2.
Matthew Kilkenny had the big hit for the Cowboys, singling in two runs in the top of the seventh to break a 2-2 tie. The hit came off Massimo Mittone, who went the distance in a heroic effort for Piedmont.
“I was looking for a pitch middle-away to knock a base hit the other way,” Kilhenny said. “I got a fastball middle-inside and I just hit it up the middle.”
Mittone was somewhat distraught after the game but he was being too hard on himself. He allowed two runs in the first but then settled down and shut the Cowboys down, giving the Highlanders time to tie the game. He surrendered seven hits and struck out one. He also went one for two and singled in a run.
“I really tried to battle to the end but it really sucks that I ended the seniors season,” Mittone said. “Mostly, it felt great. There’s a few I wish I had back. Throughout the game, it felt great except the first and last inning. My changeup definitely felt great.”
Mittone is a sophomore and will return with freshman Ben Sorensen to form the basis of a strong pitching staff in the future for the Highlanders.
“Mo’s a great competitor,” Delventhal said. “He’s going to be really good his junior and senior years. I’m excited to see that. He gives up (two) in the first and it doesn’t phase him. He has immense grit and he’s just really good at overcoming early deficits and locking it in.”
Added Jack Meyjes, “Just not getting affected by those early runs is huge for us. He gives us a chance. Everyone could not be more proud of him. He did everything that he could to put us in position to win. That’s all we could ask for.”
After graduating several key players a year ago, the Highlanders were a bit of a question mark entering the season. It was a young team with only a handful of seniors.
“I feel like we battled,” said Delventhal, one of those seniors. “Although our record wasn’t great, we did everything we could with what we had and we just battled every single game and that’s what I’ll remember about this team that we never gave up.”
Said Meyjes, another senior. “It has gone like that all season, a lot of close games not going our way. The fight is fun. You can’t really get mad at it.
Ford doubled in the first run of the game in the top of the first. He went to third on the throw home and scored on a sacrifice fly. Mittone got out of a jam in the third. Griff Lee hit a one-out double but then was caught off second on an infield grounder. Mittone then retired 10 of the next 11 hitters.
Mittone doubled in Meyjes in the fourth to get Piedmont on the board. In the fifth, the Highlanders loaded the bases with one out on two hits and an error. Meyjes brought the tying run home on a sacrifice fly. But Ford induced Lucas Delventhal to ground out to end the inning.
“In the last couple of innings, it’s just baseball,” Highlanders coach Eric Olson said. “A couple of feet that direction, it works for them, a couple of feet in our direction, it works for us. When you get down to the final nine outs of the game, it’s anyone’s game.”
Jack Wilhite and Nolan Armanino led off the top of the seventh with singles for Livermore. Lucas Soto then sacrificed them to second and third. Kilhenny, the No. 9 hitter, then singled in the game-winning runs.
All photos by Damin Esper.