Last Friday, Los Altos varsity boys baseball defeated Bellarmine in a 5-3 game and won the CCS Division 1 Division championship. But entering the tournament as the 11th seed, Los Altos was the underdog in the finals match against first-seeded Bellarmine, which had a 16-0 record against non-league teams.

At the start of the game, it didn’t seem likely that Los Altos was going to win. Bellarmine scored two runs in the first inning, putting Los Altos in a tough position.

However, Los Altos didn’t let Bellarmine’s 2-0 lead faze them and continued implementing a strong offense.

“We focused our energy on having the players understand [that they were] going to see some great pitching [and how to] beat it,” Los Altos head coach Gabe Stewart said. “When we get the pitch we want, crush it. And otherwise, don’t swing at the pitcher’s pitches. Get the pitch count up.”

Their strategy worked, and Los Altos bounced back in the second inning with a score of 3-2. With Los Altos in the lead, Los Altos pitcher senior Alex Reelfs didn’t give Bellarmine a chance to come back and prevented them from making any more runs. In the fourth inning, Los Altos scored another run to give them a two run lead in the final inning.

“Once we went up 3-2 I knew that we would have an advantage,” Alex said. “But I knew the game was over once we put up that last run to put us ahead 2 runs going in to the last inning.”

A 5-3 score in the final inning cemented their victory, securing Los Altos a Division 1 CCS win for the first time in 11 years.

“It felt amazing to win CCS,” Alex said. “We came so close last year but lost in the championship. It was nice to come back and kill three of the four teams we faced.”