Lincoln turns the tide, topples SFS baseball king Lowell for first title since 2005

Gloves were tossed, the body slams were fierce, the embraces long and locked. 

The celebration near the mound at Oracle Park on Wednesday was a long time coming for the Lincoln baseball team. Twenty full years, in fact. And it came against the kings of the San Francisco Section, a Lowell team that had beaten the Mustangs regularly for decades — including three times this season, in last year’s title game, 30 straight times from 2006-16 and in 51 of the previous 59 meetings since 2004. 

As winning pitcher Branson Derrington said of his team’s 4-1 victory: “Crazy. Amazing. Incredible.” 

A little more subdued, at least on the outside, seventh-season Lincoln coach James Burke repeated many of the same superlatives. Partially because he switched camps, helped turn the tables and led the Mustangs (16-15) to their first SFS title since 2005 and just fourth in school history — the previous two were in 1969 and ’70.

They advance to the CIF Northern California Regionals in two weeks.  

Burke, a 2007 Lowell graduate, was an assistant and lower-level coach for seven seasons for longtime Lowell coach John Donohue. Burke immediately credited Donohue and the Cardinals for giving him the tools to “build the Lincoln program up,” he said. “I learned a lot there, how to build one. It’s just awesome to get it done today.” 

It took a three-run rally in the top of the seventh and a three-hitter with four strikeouts from Derrington to pull it off.

The Mustangs benefited from two Lowell errors, a walk, hit batsmen, a reversed call from the umpires and a two-run single from junior catcher Nicholas Chiu to break a 1-1 tie. 

The reversal came with two out in the seventh, the bases loaded and the score tied. Lowell pitcher Julian Cook induced a soft groundball to short off the bat of Everett Carvalho, who sped quickly down the line. Angelo Ornelas-Rafael’s throw was a touch wide and first baseman Emerson Sakai stretched far to his right to make the catch. 

But did his foot come off the bag? 

The first-base ump gently signaled out, but as the Cardinals half-heartedly ran off the diamond, they could sense trepidation from the ump, who eventually called in the other three umpires. 

After a minute, Carvalho was ruled safe, setting off a wild Lincoln celebration, which was followed by Chiu’s two-run single to right-center. 

Lowell coach Daryl Semien argued mildly about the reversal, but was accepting afterward, as were the Cardinals (21-9), who were after their 23rd SFS title overall and 10th in the past 11 played. (The pandemic wiped out 2020 and 2021 games.)  

“He called him out at first and in my eyes, he was the only guy who could really make that call,” said Semien. “He said he got straight-lined and couldn’t see it and deferred to the crew and they changed the call. And that definitely took the momentum away from us. … But that’s baseball. Hats off to the crew. It’s not an easy job.

“We didn’t make the plays we normally make, and Lincoln made the plays they were supposed to.”

Beyond a pair of outfield miscues, Lincoln’s defense was solid, especially first baseman Wyatt Toloski, who twice threw out Lowell runners aggressively trying to take third base with one out. 

Lowell took a 1-0 lead in the second when Sakai’s hard fly to center was lost in the sun and went for a triple. He scored on a groundout by Jhomar Ronquillo. Lincoln tied it in the fourth on a two-out single from Aidan Castaneda. Though he moved to third on a double by Jeremiah Arriola, both runners were stranded by Cook, who went the distance, struck out five and allowed just one earned run. 

This was Derrington’s day as the senior right-hander got stronger as the game progressed, retiring nine of the last 10. 

“I just went out there and competed,” said Derrington, who earlier pitched a one-hitter against Lowell in a 3-2 loss. “This was crazy. I felt like that this was my best (pitching) game of the year. I needed to win it for the guys, all the coaches and all the fans who came out.”

Of working a 1-2-3 seventh: “I just had to breathe,” Derrington said. “Those guys had got me those three runs so I had to finish it out. Coaches just told me to do the same thing I had been doing: ‘Do your thing.’ That’s what I did.” 

Said Burke: “We put a lot of time into this. This is our passion. We love coaching these kids. … These guys kept battling. It’s a scrappy team and we kept battling to the end.”

High School On SI senior editor Mitch Stephens covers high school sports for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: mitch@scorebooklive.com