By Thomas K. Pendergast

In the annals of San Francisco baseball history, rarely, if ever, have two high school varsity baseball teams from the Sunset District both won their respective division championships simultaneously but this year proved exceptional.

The St. Ignatius College Preparatory High School Wildcats are now California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division II champions after defeating the Gauchos of Petaluma’s Casa Grande High School 3-0, while the Lowell High School Cardinals are now the CIF Division V champions after defeating San Francisco University High School 4-0.

On June 13, both teams were honored by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for this extraordinary achievement.

“It’s baseball season and this year was a special one in the City’s high school baseball history. You might call it a baseball renaissance,” District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio said. “Ten days ago, two of our high school teams brought home the Northern California titles for their divisions.”

“As luck would have it, both are from my district, Lowell and St. Ignatius. You make San Francisco proud,” Engardio said. “Board rules only allow me to honor one team today, so thank you Supervisor Melgar for singing the praises of the Lowell Cardinals. And I will be honoring the Wildcats.

“The Wildcats had a tough start this year. They were running 13 wins to 11 losses but they didn’t let that get into their heads. They believed in each other and didn’t give up,” he said. “They went on to win seven out of the last eight games of the regular season. Then, in the championship game the bats got hot when they needed it. The pitching and defense were spectacular and they stranded all seven opposing runners. When the pressure was on, they played their best. They were the definition of resiliency.”

Before the last redistricting, Lowell High School was in District 7. It is now in District 4.

“I’d like to welcome the families, the coaches and the players to City Hall,” District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar said. “We, today, mark a truly successful year in the 127 years of successful baseball at Lowell High School.

Melgar noted the extraordinary circumstances the student athletes had to overcome.

“I want to emphasize that our kids are excelling at the highest level. They had a rough year – a rough last four years – in high school, through a pandemic and ensuing challenges. They not only persevered but thrived.

“They had to endure two almost completely lost seasons, as they only played three and four games, respectively, in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID,” Melgar said. “They faced so many challenges this season that we’re in now and I think everybody heard, we had a little bit of rain this year, so the school district canceled a bunch of the games because the fields were wet.

“And yet they managed to do what all great teams do, and that is stay focused and persevere,” she said. “They did what every championship team hopes to do and that is that they ended the season with seven straight wins: against Galileo, against Washington, against Skyline, Ripon Christian and finally they beat University 4-0 in the championship.”

The Cardinals’ head coach Daryl Semien thanked numerous people, starting with legendary coach John Donohue, who retired in 2015 after coaching 33 seasons at Lowell, winning the Cardinals 14 San Francisco Section titles and an overall record of 735 wins, 390 losses and 4 ties and he was also inducted into the California Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Coach Semien also thanked other Cardinal assistant coaches, including Romeo Aurelio, Michael Sera, Kenny Gon, Emil DeAndreis, Josh Ng, Charlie Cutler and Michael Leung.

“They’re our assistant coaches and again we all played in the program,” Semien said. “We all played under coach Donohue and he laid a foundation that we follow, pretty much.

“I want to thank our principal Dr. (Michael) Jones. I want to thank (Assistant Principal) Mr. Isaac “Jandro” Alcantar, because without them, we couldn’t do any of this,” he said.

“Also our Athletic Director Robert Ray, and I’m going to finally ask the young men of Lowell High School to stand up and be recognized.”

This they did and everyone in the chamber applauded.

“My last ‘thank you’ goes out to four young men specifically. We had a senior class of four this year: Thomas McGrath, Jeremy Tam, Gabriel Leung and Aubrey Reed. You will always be Lowell baseball family.

“Good luck to you guys on your future endeavors. And we couldn’t have done it without you guys, our senior class, thank you.”

Wildcats head coach Brian Pollzzie (pronounced Po-lit-zee) thanked numerous people as well.

“This year’s historic SI squad brings home a Nor-Cal regional championship, both to St. Ignatius and to San Francisco, and we as a team cannot be more proud to represent both our school and our City,” Pollzzie said. “This team embodies the grit, toughness and resilience of not only San Francisco, but also the Sunset District.”

“I’d like to acknowledge and thank our team for all the work they put in this year and the many years leading up to this great accomplishment, especially our seniors, who put in four years into the program.”

Pollzzie then asked the seniors to stand up and get a round of applause.

“We have Luca Dickinson, Jackson Short, Baxter Lee, Archer Gemmill, Rio Alvarez, Kevin Malouf, Calvin Schaaf, Lenny Beatie and Gus Parker.

“I’d also like to thank the baseball families that supported us, especially our team parents Bonnie Jacobson and Vic and Jen Parker for their help with numerous team meals, logistics and communication,” he said.

“I’d also like to thank our coaching staff, San Francisco born and raised Matt Kauffman and Matt Lopez and our hitting coach Joe Jimenez.

“Finally, I’d like to thank my wife Carolina for supporting me on this journey.”

District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani also had a personal acknowledgment to make.

“Just a very humble and respectful congratulations from a Sacred Heart Cathedral mom,” Stefani said. “And I do want to recognize that Rio Alvarez, one of the graduating seniors, I’ve known since he was 5 years old. He used to play baseball with my son. And so I’m very excited to see SI here today, congratulations.”