Great Week for SoHum! South Fork’s Baseball Team Joins South Fork’s Softball Team as the Division Champs
Just three days after the Lady Cubs made South Fork softball history by bringing home the Division VI championship banner in a sound defeat over the Geyserville Broncos, the baseball team has made history of their own by beating San Francisco Waldorf on Friday night at home and are holding their own banner high as the North Coast Section Division VI champions.
Some kids celebrate their 18th birthday with a backyard barbeque or a dinner out with family and friends, but Senior Scott Coffelt celebrated his by winning a championship level game of high school baseball.
The Cubs ace spent his final game in Miranda in a high school career performance that had it all: a complete game of effective pitching, great hitting, and an outfield full of great friends who backed him up at every batter, and, of course, the win for the highest prize in the North Coast Section Division.
The number one seeded Cubs took on the number two seed San Francisco Waldorf in a contest that began with every pitcher’s favorite saying – 3 up 3 down, a tempo that never faded throughout all seven innings. Lead off hitter fire-cracker Cooper Scott reached first base on the second pitch he saw but didn’t stay there long due to a pitch driven into familiar territory for the third slotted batter Scott Coffelt; deep over the fence. The homerun resulted in a red-hot start lead of 2-0 Cubs over Waldorf but the Wolverines were competitors and had an 18-7 season to show for their second highest seed in the Division.
After a scoreless second inning, Waldorf’s bats warmed up in the top of their order in the third. Catcher H. Johnson knocked a double into the gap and was RBI’d in by first baseman G. Wong to get the Wolverines on the board and tighten the score by one. It would be the Bay Area team’s only score. Batters in the ensuing innings met strike-out after strike-out and brilliant defensive plays by the Cubs to hold their runs to just that one.
The Cubs answered the Wolverine run with a single by junior C.J. Van Meter that put a walked-to-base Scott in scoring position on a sac fly by Coffelt. Freshman Crue Contreras was clutch in the same inning by singling under the pressure of a 2-strike count to put Van Meter across the plate and advance the Cubs to a 4-1 lead that held until game end.
Starting Wolverine pitcher Miles Stearns saw his coach visit the mound on three separate occasions that eventually resulted in a position swap with his first baseman in the fourth inning. The damage, however, was already done.
Although the score never moved past the 4-1 mark after the third inning, the Cubs continued to put on a hitting, pitching and fielding show for a large and cheering crowd of supporters who knew that it was still anybody’s game from one batter to the next.
Coffelt enjoyed a second 3 up 3 down inning in the fourth sitting down the 6-7- and 8 batters in a copycat performance of retiring the same 3 batters in strikeouts to end the scoreless second inning. The Cubs left 2 batters on bases in the same inning after Scott singled and Van Meter reached first to keep the 4-1 score static.
Another 3 up 3 down inning came from all over the field. The first out by freshman Cameron Messenger at second base by tracking down a popped up shot; a hard hit crack by lead off batter and star catcher H. Johnson sailed dangerously into centerfield but was chased down by senior Gabe Malley and the third out came when Cooper Scott used his vertical range to stop a well hit ball and then fired it to Van Meter at first.
Still full of fight, the Wolverines’ back up pitcher kept his team’s hopes alive with a quick three batter/ three out inning of his own and the sixth inning arrived as soon as the fifth inning ended.
Unfortunately for Waldorf, their next up three batters were retired in three outs with another exciting defensive series by the Cubs. Scott scooped out a knock at shortstop and fired it to first, Coffelt recorded his ninth strike out and finally a high-hit line drive was nabbed by Van Meter to end the inning.The final offensive appearance for the Cubs came in the sixth inning and the San Francisco Waldorf Wolverines gave as good as they got again with the sixth three –batter inning of the game.
With the seventh inning finalizing the championship game Coffelt gave no sign of doing anything less than finishing with all the hard work and dedication he had put in since his Freshman year. The 2016 League MVP struck out his tenth batter, let his third baseman sophomore Kaydon Pogue field a jab that relayed to first base for the second out and then took only three pitches to strike out his eleventh and final batter to record the win. ( 7 IP, 11 K, 1BB, 3 H )Batting stats for Friday’s game: Seniors Scott Coffelt 2 for 3 with the 5th homerun of the season, Gabe Malley 0-2 (1BB); Juniors Orin Paula 0 -1, Cooper Scott 2-3 (1BB), CJ Van Meter 1-3; Cody Wyatt 1-3; Sophomore Kaydon Pogue 0-2 (1BB); Freshmen Crue Contreras 1-3, Graham McConnell 0-3, Cameron Messenger 0-3.
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Congrats cubs, players and coaches… Great job this season…
Way to go cubs great job
Wonderful job by all. Thanks for the excellent coverage. These kids, and coaches deserve CONGRATULATIONS!!
Awesome job, congratulation Cubs, you make use all proud to be an alumni of South Fork and SFUSD, Thank you…
I can’t think of anything that is better than just AWESOME! Congratulations to the gals and guy’s teams, and the coaches and fans for an outstanding season. You make us all proud!
Congratulations! Go Cubs!
South Fork High School is so lucky to have its home in the redwoods. You can’t get a more beautiful setting for a school than along the Avenue of the Giants. You just can’t.
Yay Cubs ! Congrats to all !
Congratulations champions!
The Cubs baseball and softball teams also BOTH won scholastic team pennants. This is based on total team g.p.a, and the last time a South Fork team won one of these was the girls track team back in 2008. Hats off to our kids and Corky and Lisa for a great year in more ways then one.
Ya. South does well because of gummersol, parks, richards, ingols, ect. Great teaching staff
Fantastic effort !!!!!!!!!!