De La Salle escapes Redwood comeback, advances to 14th consecutive NCS D1 title game
CONCORD - There is some part of De La Salle's baseball team that likes to feel the pressure.
All season, the Spartans have been tested in close games.
Close matchups against Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks, Monte Vista, Granada and San Ramon Valley got De La Salle ready for the playoffs. In their first two North Coast Section playoff games, against Heritage and Novato, the Spartans staved off furious comebacks.
So when Redwood made its run on Tuesday, De La Salle was more than happy to step back into the pressure cooker.
After trailing by five runs after the second inning, Redwood stormed back to tie the game in the fourth.
But timely hitting and solid pitching in the final two innings lifted De La Salle to a 7-6 win in the NCS Division I semifinals.
The Concord school will make its 14th consecutive NCS Division I title game appearance when it plays rival Granada at Saint Mary's College at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
"We love these pressure moments," sophomore Jacob Gray said. "Coach (David) Jeans always talks about how those pressure moments kind of get you ready for the next one. Today can maybe get us ready for the pressure moment in a championship game. I feel like it’s good to have to face those adversities, get through them and show how battle tested we are."
Gray was 2-for-3 and had a two-run homer in the second inning. Freshman Brandon Manivong knocked in two runs while Zach Tchejeyan, Sam Lakey and Emmet Freeman each had an RBI.
Pitcher Kaleo Jones earned the win after entering the game in the fifth inning. He struck out two and allowed three hits.
"With baseball, you have to play games in all different kinds of ways," Jeans said. "Redwood did a great job of putting pressure on us. They got some bunts down and had some tough, tough at-bats that put pressure on our pitchers. That’s why they’re good."
With De La Salle trailing by a run in the second inning, Gray's two-run homer to center field ignited a big rally for the Spartans.
With the pitch count at 1-2 and a runner on second, Gray crushed a pitch high in the zone to put De La Salle on the board.
"I was kind of just looking for some off speed up, and he ended up hanging a change up," Gray said of his home run. "I kind of just tried to go backside and then just caught the barrel out front, so it felt pretty good."
Later in the inning, Freeman added another run when he knocked in Brandon Vargas with a single to left field. In the next at-bat, Manivong drove in two more runs when a bloop hit fell in the space between right and center field, scoring Freeman and Austin Grove.
De La Salle tacked on one more at the end of the inning to take a commanding 6-1 lead early.
But even with a big deficit in front of them, Redwood never wavered.
The Giants responded in the top half of the third when Theo Trono demolished a ball that went well past the right field fence for a two-run homer.
In the fourth, Jack Moseley scored two with an RBI triple to center field to cut the deficit to one. Moseley scored later in the inning when Danny Alvarez's sacrifice bunt scored him from third to tie the game.
But even as the cheers for Redwood started to grow louder, the De La Salle dugout stayed cool. The Spartans' confidence never plummeted as they knew exactly what they had to do.
Nash Beckman opened the home half of the fifth with a lead-off double. Gray went on to advance him to third when he grounded out, and Tchejeyan's sacrifice fly to right field gave De La Salle the go-ahead run as Beckman jogged past home plate.
After Jones threw 2 ⅓ innings, Jeans inserted left-handed closer Cooper Barnes to finish the game in the seventh.
Needing two outs and with a runner on second, Barnes struck out one batter and forced the last to ground out to first base to close the game.
Gray pointed to De La Salle's chemistry as to the reason why the Spartans were able to hold off a furious Redwood run.
"When we get in pressure situations, there’s no one you’d rather be with than your brothers," he said. "II truly feel like everyone on this team are brothers. So I feel like when we get into those tough battles, those tough situations, I feel like everyone trusts each other enough to get the job done."
Tuesday's win set up a rivalry matchup with Granada, a team the Spartans beat twice this season. The last time these two East Bay powerhouses played each other in a NCS final, the game stretched across two days, two locations and two counties in what was a 14-inning thriller that Granada won.
Jeans said he won't be using past games against Granada for this championship matchup and is challenging his team to be prepared for a battle on Saturday.
"Granada’s team is different this year. Our team is different, so the past doesn’t really matter," Jeans said. "Our teams are both completely different, and we have our strengths and weaknesses, and they’re just different. We have to figure out new ways to win against Granada."
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This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 8:26 PM.