Watch: De La Salle baseball defeat Franklin-Elk Grove 6-5 in NorCal D1 semifinal instant classic

Tanner Griffith caps game with walk-off RBI single in the bottom of ninth inning after Franklin ties game with homer in seventh, gets out of bases-loaded no out jam in 8th

CONCORD, Calif. — De La Salle had Franklin on the ropes more than once in Thursday's CIF Northern California Division I semifinals. 

The Wildcats from Elk Grove kept battling back, giving the defending champions and hosts all they could muster. 

In the end, St. Mary's College-bound Tanner Griffith delivered a game-ending RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving second-seed De La Salle a 6-5 victory, vaulting the Spartans into Saturday's 4 p.m. championship at top seed Valley Christian-San Jose. 

De La Salle led 2-0 in the first, third-seed Franklin (30-5) took a 3-2 lead in the third. The Spartans countered with a two-run rally in the bottom half to go up 4-3. The Wildcats tied it 4-4 in the fourth. A 390-foot home run to left by Connor Harrison gave De La Salle a 5-4 lead in the sixth. Nolan Stevens countered with a 375-foot solo homer to left with one out in the seventh to tie it 5-5. 

This was an instant CIF classic. 

Read more on all the details later. Watch above for most of the big moments and postseason quotes from key players and De La Salle manager David Jeans. 


Published
Mitch Stephens, SBLive Sports
MITCH STEPHENS, SBLIVE SPORTS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.