Justin-Siena blanks Hayward in playoff opener, 8-0

If Alex Winske is going to get a clutch hit, the rest of the Justin-Siena baseball team had better follow suit.

The 6-foot-8 junior came into the Braves' North Coast Section Division 4 playoff opener against Hayward on Wednesday with only four plate appearances all season but hitting a team-high .500 - 1 for 2 with a base hit, walk and hit-by-pitch.

Known more for blocking and dunking in basketball, not to mention pitching 22 1/3 innings with 35 strikeouts and a 1.24 ERA, he put Justin-Siena on the board with a two-run single in the first inning.

That was all the run support fellow pitchers Griffin Messenger and Peter Trovitch needed as the third-seeded Braves came back from a two-week break from games to blank the No. 14 Farmers, 8-0.

Justin-Siena (15-10), which had missed out on the four-team Vine Valley Athletic League Tournament after losing six of its last seven regular-season games to finish fifth in the VVAL, has new life as it gets ready to host 11th-seeded Livermore in a quarterfinal at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Cowboys (7-18) advanced with a 4-2 upset of No. 6 Piedmont - not a huge surprise considering Livermore had faced some of the Bay Area's toughest competition while going 1-7 in the East Bay Athletic League.

Winske (2 for 3) was one of three multiple hitters against Hayward (12-15) as Justin-Siena scored five runs in 3 1/3 innings off freshman starter Juan Miguel Valmores, who gave up five hits and three walks while striking out six.

In the fourth, after OJ Mata (2 for 3) doubled home Dylan Arnold to make it 3-0 and Connor Zuehlsdorff walked, Ryland Bueno relieved Valmores and hit Braeden Butler with a pitch to load the bases. Up came sophomore sensation Max DeLuca (2 for 4), who blasted a three-run double to left field and scored on a triple by Messenger (2 for 3) to make it 7-0.

Mata doubled home Arnold again, after the latter blasted a triple, to close the scoring in the fifth. Trovitch relieved starter Messenger and gave up a single and walk in the sixth, but he stranded the runners before hurling a 1-2-3 seventh and finishing with five strikeouts. Messenger allowed three hits and no free passes with six strikeouts in his five innings of work.

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