What a finish! St. Francis walks off SRV with two-run sac fly to reach NorCal semis
MOUNTAIN VIEW - Mike Oakland has seen a lot during his time as a baseball and softball coach at St. Francis.
But even he couldn't recall a game ending on a walk-off, two-run sacrifice fly.
"Never to walk off a game like that," Oakland said. "That’s pretty cool."
Maya Meltz's one-out long fly ball down the right-field line hung up for San Ramon Valley right fielder Charlie Callison, who made a great catch half-falling toward the line.
Then the fun really started. Jaime Oakland scored from third to tie the game, and Peyton Tsao was right behind her, reaching the plate from second and beating the tag from catcher Audrey Ware to win the CIF NorCal Division I quarterfinal 4-3 and send the Lancers to the semifinals against top seed Destiny Christian Academy.
Never a doubt, right Mike?
"That was not an easy catch," Oakland recounted. "It was pretty much in the corner, and I think because she had to go so far, her momentum carried her in a couple extra steps, which helped get Peyton home.
"And Peyton can run. She did a great job of tagging, being ready to go, and she knew (the third-base coach) was going to send her. In her mind, I think she knew she was going to go."
Thus fourth-seeded St. Francis (26-4) escaped by the skin of its teeth in a game that engendered controversy before the first pitch was thrown.
The seeding of No. 5 SRV (23-7), which won the North Coast Section Division I championship 17-1, below the Lancers stoked controversy. Both coaches expressed surprise with the way the seedings bore out.
But they still had to play the game, and what a classic matchup it turned out to be. SRV took the early lead in the second inning with Natalie Sun homered to center, then singled home Mads Sekera to give the Wolves a 2-0 advantage in the fourth.
St. Francis responded in the bottom of the frame as Itzel Hernandez Luna drove in Meltz with the bases loaded, then senior pinch-hitter Cam Elliott batted in Penny Duus with a second straight single to right.
"That was awesome," Oakland said. "It gave us life. Before that, honestly, we didn’t have much going. I felt like we were dead in the dugout. I felt like we were just kind of like going through the motions.
"Somehow we ended up with bases loaded. Itzel got a huge hit, and then all of a sudden we picked up a little bit, and then Cam got a big hit, and we picked up even more. So you never know where it’s going to come from."
SRV retook the lead in the seventh when Sekera's sac fly brought home Kennedy Warren, but Charlie Callison was thrown out trying to advance to third.
This proved to be quite consequential in the bottom half, when the Lancers loaded the bases with one out. Jaime Oakland led off the inning by reaching on an error, then Tsao walked to put two runners on.
With Malianna Liongitau at the plate, Sekera made a phenomenal diving catch in left-center to rob her of a hit, but Oakland and Tsao both moved up a base on the play.
After Duus was intentionally walked, Meltz laced her deep fly to right, setting the stage for St. Francis' top two hitters to show off their baserunning acumen.
"I knew he was gonna send me," Tsao said of third-base coach Gary Ferraro. "Knowing this game could have been our last, we were playing for the seniors and just trying to keep our season alive."
When Tsao just beat the tag at home, it immediately brought an end to the high school career of SRV's senior group.
The Wolves' quintet of Addie Layous, Ware, Maddie Neighbor, Isla Higgins and Emily Fu led SRV to its best season in school history, winning the program’s first North Coast Section title.
And though their banner year came to an end, Wolves coach Mike O'Brien wasn't going to let a razor-thin margin cut away all the good that led to reaching the NorCal stage.
"When I was out there with the players, we didn’t talk about base running and errors and cleaning it up," O'Brien said. "We just celebrated our season. It’s just a joy to watch my team get ready for a game, watch them in the dugout. They have so much fun together, it’s fun for us as coaches, and they just play loose because of it.
"A team like St. Francis, we were not scared, we were not intimidated, and honestly, until that last play, we thought we were going to win the game. That’s the way their mentality and their grit is, they just have that mental toughness. And so it’s going to be even more fun in the next few years to just take that and build on it."
St. Francis will face Destiny Christian Academy at 4 p.m. on Thursday in Sacramento for a trip to the regional championship game.
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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 9:33 PM.