CCS DII baseball finals: Palma succumbs to Mitty
SAN JOSE – Over time, improvement in the win column over three consecutive years will be looked upon as a milestone – as layers of bricks being put down for the program with six seniors.
Just not right now.
The objective for Palma High was to bring home the program’s first Central Coast Section baseball title in 17 years, to be practicing on Monday for another round.
Instead, the ending was sudden on Friday as the Chieftains ran into West Catholic Athletic League nemesis Mitty of San Jose, which has found its stride in the postseason.
“The abruptness is always sudden and shocking,” Palma coach Brian Neff said. “My message to the team was, I’m not upset about the loss, I’m more upset that I won’t see them on Monday.”
The Monarchs won their seventh section title, producing the game’s first four runs in a 5-2 win over Palma in the Division II finals at Excite Ballpark in San Jose, advancing to the Northern California Tournament.
Three teams from the WCAL are headed to the state tournament, which begins next Tuesday – the most from any league in the section.
“We’ve had some milestones the last couple of years,” Neff said. “We won the (Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Gabilan Division) last year. We won 22 games this year and got to the CCS finals. We won’t dwell on one game. I look at the body of work the boys have put in over the last three years.”
Mitty, which finished seventh in the WCAL this past spring, is 14-1 this season against teams outside its league, including a 21-0 win over Gabilan Division champion Carmel last Tuesday to advance to the section title game.
The Monarchs avenged a pair of WCAL losses to Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco after beating them 4-2 in the opening round of the Division II playoffs.
“Their foot speed on the bases bothered us,” said Neff, who has won 43 games over the past two years. “We made some pressure throws in the infield. Their pitcher pitched out of traffic and executed his pitches.”
Having outscored two playoff opponents 17-5 to reach their third CCS finals appearance in six years, the No. 2 seeded Chieftains only section title came in 2009 when they won four playoff games to capture a Division III championship.
Palma was no stranger to facing WCAL teams, having beaten Division I top seed Valley Christian earlier this year, while falling to DI No. 3 seed St. Francis of Mountain View. Its last postseason win against a WCAL team came against Mitty in 2016.
Yet, for the first time since suffering their last loss on April 29 to Hollister, the Chieftains found themselves staring at a 3-0 deficit in the second inning, highlighted by Felix Chang’s solo homer.
Mitty (18-11) extended the lead to 4-0 before Palma cut into the deficit, using a run-scoring single from Damien Lopez to get on the scoreboard in the fifth inning.
“I didn’t sense any panic in the dugout,” Neff said. “We were kind of waiting for it to happen. We had an inning where we thought it would happen. We’ve put up a lot of runs of late.”
Gabilan Division runner-ups to Carmel, the Chieftains (22-8) came into the game riding a seven-game winning streak, in which they had scored 67 runs, having gone 14-1 in their past 15 games.
Palma actually brought the tying run to the plate in the fifth inning with one out before No. 5 seed Mitty induced a double play to end the threat.
The teams traded runs in the sixth inning, with relief pitcher Gabe Serrano delivering a sacrifice fly after Zach Gonzales doubled. Two hits batsman to open the seventh inning brought the tying run to the plate for Palma.
“At that point, I felt like we were going to win that game,” Neff said. “Our No. 9 and leadoff hitter both reached base with no outs. We just could not square it up. Mitty brought in a new arm. I’m sure there are some at-bats that our guys would like to have back.”
Gonzales, who along with Aiden Veliz, both collected two hits, hurled the first five innings, with three errors helping Mitty push across two unearned runs. Serrano tossed the final two frames in his final outing as a Chieftain.
“We knew we’d have to play a clean game to beat these guys,” Neff said. “Gabe gave us five solid innings of pitching in the playoffs. All six of our seniors are starters. They have laid the foundation.”
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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 10:58 PM.