Menlo baseball rallied to beat Sacred Heart Prep after a slow start on March 24. The Knights had a rocky first inning, but their game came together in the second.

“We started to shut them down on defense after the second inning, and our [batting] started to wake up,” sophomore Jacob Lee said. “We really brought the energy, and we showed what our team can be capable of this year.”

Faced with a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning, junior Jake Bianchi provided a clinch at-bat to take the Knights’ first lead of the game. A double deep into center field, Bianchi’s hit let senior co-captain Chase Hurwitz on second base and junior Carson Cleage on the first run home to make the score 7-5.

On top of clutch offensive maneuvers, pitchers Colin Dhaliwal, Garrett Tran and Trey McNair helped the Knights defensively. “I think the pitchers throwing strikes and pitching to contact allowed our defense to make plays for us, which definitely helped keep us in the game,” Tran said. “It’s always exciting facing the rival school, and I think our energy showed that.”

As the closer, McNair played a crucial role in securing victory. “[Dhaliwal] pitched the first couple innings, and he ran into some trouble in the third. Then we had Tran come in, and he absolutely killed it. He only let up one run which was not earned,” McNair said. “Then I was told that I was going to [go] in to close for the last inning, and I got the job done.”

This triumph comes after a winning drought against Sacred Heart. The Gators bested the Knights earlier this week with a 5-6 loss in the eighth inning, painting Menlo as the underdogs going into their most recent match-up. 

“Nothing feels as good as beating a team, especially our rival, after having a really tough loss against them earlier in the week. I definitely think that we are a great team, and our season is just getting started,” McNair said.