The soft grounder trickling towards the pitcher’s mound, St. Mary’s-Stockton senior Dax Hardcastle trekked towards the baseball and fired it towards first base like a rocket.
As the St. Francis runner looked to have a good jump off the bat, Harcastle had other plans. His pro-level arm delivered a strike for the third and final out of the frame, preserving the shutout and leaving another runner in scoring position.
Teammates waited for Hardcastle outside of the dugout, as Hardcastle let out a roar and celebration. So did his teammates, this play just another indication of what these Rams are all about.
And the Rams are cooking up something special once again at Northern California’s most prestigious tournament.
St. Mary’s (8-4) – the defending champions – won a 1-0 ballgame over St. Francis-Mountain View (11-2) on Wednesday morning in the Boras Classic quarterfinals in Sacramento, setting up a semifinal tilt with West Park at 7 p.m. tonight.
The winner faces either Granite Bay – the 2024 champion – or Serra in the championship at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“Just excited. Love doing it for my guys,” Hardcastle said. “Trying to do the same thing we did in the Boras last year.”
Hardcastle shined in every sense of the word on this marquee stage.
Pro scouts recording and jotting down notes down the left field line, a few were noticeable in awe of what the hard-throwing right-handed pitcher – who is also a third baseman – was doing. He struck out nine batters through three innings, the lone base runners in that stretch coming on Gino Cappellazzo’s double and Sione Tulua reaching base.
“Fastball and changeup,” Hardcastle said. “Throwing the fastball up and getting that changeup in there whenever I wanted to. Keep them off balance.”
Hardcastle is a Mississippi State signee with a professional future. Head coach Jason Lindholm said about 13 scouts were at their preseason scrimmage alone back in February.
Wednesday further proved why.
It was Hardcastle who totaled a career-best 15 strikeouts, each one more impressive than the last. Each time any sort of pressure was put on him, Hardcastle, like always, answered the call.
Cappellazzo’s leadoff double in the second could have spelled trouble. Instead, Hardcastle struck out the next three. A runner on third in the sixth? Again, no problem as Hardcastle forced the strikeout and the groundout.
He was the Boras Classic hero last year, the now fourth-year varsity player flashing his seismic pop at the plate with three home runs in those four games en route to the crown.
“He’s fun to watch,” Lindholm. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a kid like him. “He’s fun to watch. That’s all we’re doing as coaches is watching him do his thing.”
All St. Mary’s needed was one run of support , and that it got in the fifth.
Moses Alexander placed down a bunt single.Two fielder’s chives later had Hardcastle on first, and the excellent Dawson Labarthe provided Hardcastle with all the run support he needed.
Labarthe launched a double towards left-center, scoring Hardcastle from first. It gave Labarthe his 13th hit of the season, which is a team high.
“Dawson’s been huge for us all year,” Lindholm said. “He’s a junior, first year at varsity. Just been key to us and keeps showing us that we’ve got to keep him there.”
St. Mary’s was tasked with replacing shortstop Brady Errecart this year, as Errecart was an elite talent and defender who is now a freshman at Cal. Its defense in the quarterfinals rose to the occasion.
Shortstop Dylan Patten made a tough play on a grounder in the fifth. The next out was third baseman Ethan Silva doing the same. Lefty Jeremy Krause was smooth at first base, and all the Rams stepped up when called upon.
“Our whole team and our whole infield are just good hard workers that play the game the right way,” Lindholm said. “They do a lot of things right.”
