Lefty trio leads De La Salle right back to the North Coast Section high school baseball finals

Stanford commit Tyler Spangler, Oklahoma-signee Alec Blair and Cal Poly-bound Antonio Castro show off big hitting prowess in 10-1 NCS D1 semifinal win over Foothill

De La Salle junior winning pitcher Graham Schlicht improved to 10-0 on Tuesday, giving up a leadoff homer and nothing more. / Photo courtesy of De La Salle baseball

CONCORD, Calif. — De La Salle coach David Jeans can't completely relate to star players Tyler Spangler, Alec Blair or Antonio Castro.

Oh, the 14th-year leader of perhaps Northern California's most dominating baseball program, loves the trio, calls them "special" and "fun to be around."

"It's their attitude and confidence," Jeans said. "But they don't play like I want them to play, because I played with passion and heart and fire. And their just really, really good players. They're so smooth. And they're really relaxed.

"Sometimes it makes me worried, like 'are we ready for this game?' But they're always 'we got your back.' "

The trio of left-hand hitters, who take up spots 2-3-4, once again showed Tuesday that the smooth and relaxed approach — at least at the plate — is the best route as the Spartans (25-4) advanced to their 13th straight North Coast Section Division 1 championship with a 10-1 rout over visiting Foothill. De La Salle plays fifth-seed College Park, a 10-0 winner over College Park, in Saturday's 1 p.m. championship at St. Mary's College.

Castro, a first-year starter and Cal Poly commit, continued his rapid rise as one of the region's top hitters with a grand slam in the second inning to give De La Salle the for good, a rocket to right center that carried well over the scoreboard.

"That was an absolute shot," said Spangler, who was on first base at the time of the grannie. "I never saw it come down."

Castro followed that up with a solo homer in the fifth — he finished 2-for-4 with five RBI giving him a team-high 37 RBIs — two pitches later Spangler might have hit his longest homer of the season, which is saying something considering it was his 10th of the season.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound junior — think of a high school version of Corey Seager — is one behind Castro with 36 RBIs to go along with six doubles and four triples. He's hitting .407. Castro is at .391 and Blair, a 6-7 center fielder headed to Oaklahoma to play basketball and baseball, leads all at .477 (31 of 65, 30 runs, 23 RBIs, nine doubles, two triples and three homers. He missed five games to start the season with an ankle sprain sustained in basketball.

All told the trio is a combined 100 for 238 (.420 average) with 96 runs, 96 RBIs and 20 home runs, half of the latter drilled by Spangler.

"We've never had three (in a row) like that," Jeans said of the back-to-back-to-back lefty bombers. "But these guys are really special."

Spangler, a starter since he was a freshman, has had a particularly special year, especially considering teams are trying to pitch around him. With Castro and Blair following him, he's hard to pitch around, though he and Blair are tied for the team high with 19 walks each.

Losing pitcher Take Sato-Kreis probably wished he walked him before Spangler's mammoth blast leading off the fifth.

"My goal before the season was to hit 10 so I've done that," Spangler said. "But the only goal that really matters is winning our last game, winning it all. We got the group of guys to do it."

It helps to have a load of pitching, though the Spartans just needed one on Tuesday in Graham Schlicht, who went the distance to improve to 10-0. He was aided Tuesday by two double-play grounders started by Spangler.

De La Salle junior shortstop and Stanford commit Tyler Spangler blasted his 10th home run Tuesday and scored three runs in a 10-1 win over Foothill in the North Coast Section Division 1 semifinals. / File photo courtesy of De La Salle athletics

Ranked the No. 20 junior recruit in California by Prep Baseball Report — Spangler is No. 1 — Schlict allowed six hits, struck out six and allowed a leadoff homer to Jack Fowler on a 3-1 pitch. After that Schlict didn't allow a runner to second base.

Like Spangler, a Stanford commit, Schlict sports an ERA of 0.75 with 90 strikeouts in 65.2 innings and just 31 hits allowed. Fowler's homer was the first he allowed all season.

The fired up Falcons, who lost two previous games to De La Salle 5-4 and 6-0 — the latter a one-hitter by Schlicht on May 13 — celebrated enthusiastically the homer by Fowler, who threw his helmet toward the backstop after crossing the plate.

"Graham was awesome today," Jeans said. "He's been that way all year long. He got behind a really good hitter and he threw it down the middle and the kid did what he was supposed to do with it. But it didn't phase Graham. He just got back up on the bump and threw pitches for strikes, was consistent. That's the Graham we love."

The Spartans love having a shot at being back on top of the NCS perch after last year losing in the finals to Granada, 1-0, a 14-inning game that was played over two days (it was postponned after 10 innings due to darkness).

That loss ended a remarkable string of 33 straight postseason wins and six-year run as section champions. Granada ended De La Salle's four-year run as NorCal champions the following week, ending a fine season in somewhat empty fashion.

"That was the worst feeling ever," Spangler said. "We were trying to play for our seniors and seeing them leave the field like that was a terrible feeling. But we're trying to get that dog pile (to celebrate) at the end. What happened last year can't happen again."

De La Salle's annual postseason push appears in full stride with the Spartans outscoring three NCS opponents by a combined score of 37-6.

They'll have a very dangerous opponent Saturday in College Park (17-10), which has won nine of 10, including Tuesday's mercy-rule win that featured contributions up and down the roster. TJ Reinhart and Vincent Vasell each had two hits and two RBI and winning pitcher James Voorhies fired six scoreless innings.

There will be no intimidation factor for the Falcons, who train regularly with the Spartans.

"We're great friends with them," Jeans said. "We work together with them in the summer and fall. We have a great relationship. We played them earlier in the year (De La Salle 5-1). They're grinders and tough guys. They're record doesn't indicate how well they're coached."

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