Late rally lifts Galileo over Tech, 5-4

By Jimmy Durkin
Oakland Tribune

A three-run sixth inning rally by the Oakland Tech High baseball team was matched by Galileo as the Lions took the first game of the best-of-three TransBay Series 5-4 on Wednesday at San Francisco State.

“That was a great game,” Bulldogs coach Eric Clayton said. “You can’t always win the great games. That’s why they’ve got to hold their heads up and know they’ve got a couple more coming.”

The series continues Monday at 3 p.m. at the Oakland Coliseum.

Tech’s lineup took a hit when 2009 first-team All-City selections Ryan Tuck and James Harris were lost to eligibility recently. Kelvin McMiller and James Harris, also first-team All-City picks last season, were held from the starting lineup for breaking a team rule and won’t start throughout the series.

The Bulldogs (15-6-1) still got on the board first when Gabe Freund reached on a swinging bunt to plate Kai Henderson in the third inning. Galileo (16-12), which won its first San Francisco Section title since 1978, answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

It remained 2-1 until the sixth. Freund singled and stole second, and Azeem Ahmad reached on an error. With Cris McMillen at the plate, Freund stole home on Lions catcher Young Ene’s throw back to pitcher Dylan Nelson.

“I saw the catcher taking his time throwing the ball back to the pitcher,” said Clayton, who called the play.

McMiller, who entered in the fourth inning, then blasted a triple to score Ahmad. He came home on a wild pitch to make it 4-2.

Ene led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk and Nelson doubled ahead of a two-run single by Dustin Andrick. Garret Kwong’s two-out single scored Andrick with the winning run, and Nelson pitched a scoreless seventh.

Nelson improved to 8-2 while striking out 12 and allowing just one earned run. Tech starter Matte Cornell was also solid, striking out nine while allowing four earned runs and six hits.