On a day when the Sacred Heart Prep baseball team showed some resiliency, the Gators ended up one comeback short of their second Central Coast Section semifinal berth in three years.

SHP erased an early three-run deficit, but the Gators couldn’t overcome a four-run hole in an 8-5 Division III quarterfinal loss to Carmel on Saturday evening at Washington Park in Santa Clara.

No. 12 seed SHP (17-12) was led by Tomas O’Donnell, who had two hits including a double and rallied the Gators after they fell behind at the outset.

Fourth-seeded Carmel (26-3) will play No. 3 seed Menlo School (24-5) in a semifinal on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at San Jose Municipal Stadium. Menlo defeated Sacred Heart Cathedral 10-0 earlier Saturday behind a five-inning no-hitter from Jake Bruml.

With SHP trailing 3-0 in the top of the second, O’Donnell, the offensive star in a 4-2 win over Harbor in Wednesday's CCS opener, tripled with two outs and scored on a wild pitch to get the Gators back in the game.

He started a two-run fourth with a one-out single and went to third when Bo Sakowski followed with a double. Both scored on an error to tie the game.

But Carmel (26-3) broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth when Zach Schneider’s three-run double highlighted a four-run inning. Zach Peerless followed with a double that scored Schneider.

“They had some really timely hits,” SHP coach Gregg Franchesci said. “The back-to-back doubles in the fourth were a killer.”

Zack Buono had an RBI double in the fifth and singled in another run in the sixth, but the Gators couldn’t get much going after that.

“I think we showed a lot of progress during the season and I think we peaked at the right time,” said Franchesci, whose team shared the West Bay Athletic League title with Menlo for the second straight year.

“We showed a lot of heart by continuing to battle and putting ourselves in a position where if we get a big hit maybe that game goes the other way.”

____________________________________________________ 

Carmel 8, Sacred Heart Prep 5

SHP -- 010 211 0 – 5 7 1

C -- 300 410 x – 8 10 2

WP: Kovach. LP: Geary (6-3). SV: Woodward.

3B: O’Donnell (SHP). 2B: Buono, Sakowski (SHP); Schneider 2, Peerless (C). 3 hits: Pearson (C). 2 hits: Buono, O’Donnell (SHP); Schneider, Peerless (C). 3 RBI: Schneider (C). 2RBI: Peerless, Bifano (C).

Records: SHP 17-12. Carmel 26-3.