Cooper Barnes' gem guides De La Salle to back-to-back NCS crowns in shutout over Granada
PLEASANT HILL - Cooper Barnes had been locked in for seven innings. Expressionless and efficient on the mound.
Then came the dogpile.
As his teammates buried him in a heap near the pitcher’s mound, Barnes finally cracked. A wide smile breaking across his face before he hurled his hat and glove skyward.
The celebration was earned. The left-handed UC Santa Barbara commit had just thrown a two-hitter with six strikeouts, and De La Salle had just done it again.
On a sunny day at Diablo Valley College and in front of an overflow crowd, De La Salle won its 16th North Coast Section baseball title and 10th in Division I as the Spartans blanked Granada 6-0 behind Barnes' pitching gem.
It's a program-defining run that now includes back-to-back NCS crowns.
"There’s not a lot of division throughout this team, and with us being able to work together every day - we come out very excited to play with each other at practice, and we always just want to be as tough as possible," Barnes said.
The Spartans swept Granada in two regular-season meetings this year, but none felt quite like this one. Prior to this season, the Spartans held a four-game losing streak that spanned across two years to the Livermore school.
"When we play Granada, they’re never going to quit. They’re always there, things are going to get chippy, and we just got to stay level headed and play our brand of baseball," senior Bubba Vargas said. "I think losing those games definitely lit a fire under me to go out here each game this season and today to want to dominate and want to get that win."
Austin Grove knocked in two runs for De La Salle. Brandon Manivong and Nash Beckman each knocked in a run.
Jack Badger and Max Rocheleau recorded Granada's lone two hits.
Barnes made sure Granada couldn't get going from the first pitch.
The junior threw an array of fastballs and offspeed pitches that had the Granada batters looking and swinging at air.
Barnes had a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. No more than four batters faced Barnes in any given inning.
"He’s got good stuff and he commanded it pretty well today," Granada coach Corrigan Willis said. "He was throwing a lot of breaking balls behind in the count that just kind of kept us a little flustered at the plate, but you got to tip your hat to him."
After scoring a run in the bottom of the third, De La Salle blew the game open in the fifth.
The Spartans put their first three runners on base and eventually drove in Jacob Gray on a wild pitch with Grove in the batter's box. Two pitches later, Grove hit a hard ground ball toward the left-field line that scored Vargas and senior Zach Tchejeyan.
Manivong and Beckman would eventually knock in two more runs to give De La Salle a commanding six-run advantage going into the sixth.
"It was just about getting to the next guy, wanting to execute, and just doing it for the team," Grove said on the fifth-inning flurry. "We just put it all out there, and it worked out. We put up a good spot, gave Cooper some room to work with and it was just great hitting. It was just about us capitalizing on opportunities."
The final out came when Barnes fielded a slow roller and threw out Granada's final batter at first.
De La Salle has long dominated the NCS, but Saturday's win is another chapter in what has been a season full of ups and downs.
The Concord school opened the year with three forfeit losses after a self-imposed five-game suspension for violating team rules. De La Salle also has been without star Stanford commit and MLB prospect Tyler Spangler, who has missed the entire season with an undisclosed injury.
De La Salle has only been beaten one time this season on the field, to Foothill 6-5 on April 24.
In a lineup filled with underclassmen, coach David Jeans attributed his team's postseason run to its defense, which has given up an average of 2.5 runs per game.
"We’ve played tremendous defense all year, and then Cooper just goes right at guys," Jeans said. "We didn’t give up a lot of freebies today, and our defense was legit again."
Both teams will advance to the NorCal playoffs, where De La Salle will almost certainly receive a good seed. The Spartans will be looking to win their fourth NorCal title.
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This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 8:55 PM.