It took two games on Monday to get there, but Benicia High’s baseball team made it back to the Sac-Joaquin championship game.

MATT BROWN made sure the Panthers would reach the Section title game.

After Oakmont pummeled the Panthers, 12-2, late Monday afternoon to even the best-of-3 Division II semifinal series, Benicia came back and returned the favor in the nightcap, hammering the Vikings, 11-1, to win a berth into the championship game on Memorial Day at Sacramento City College.

Going to Section championship games is becoming a tradition for the Panthers, who have reached the title game seven times in the past 10 years (including six of the past seven) and won two championship banners.

“It’s not easy to get to the Section championship and the kids know it,” said proud Benicia manager Jim Bowles. “It takes a lot to perform at a high level for a long time.”

Bowles saved his best pitchers for a potential second game on Monday and it cost him in the first game against the Vikings (21-9-1). Oakmont scored five unanswered runs in the first two innings and blew the game open with five more runs in the top of the fourth, highlighted by Kirby Broadbent’s towering grand slam.

Broadbent mowed down Benicia’s hitters, allowing only single runs in the fifth and sixth innings as the Vikings won by the 10-run rule.

“We had to get it all out of our system in that first game,” Bowles said. “We started to come around late in that game and it kind of carried over for us. We had a lot of pitching available and we knew Oakmont was on fumes. We’re deep and experienced and we knew we would be in good shape in that Game 3.

“We had the luxury of knowing they were facing elimination and would throw their best pitcher in Monday’s first game. So we saved our aces in the hole in case we needed them in the second game.”

That ace turned out to be senior Matt Brown, who kept Oakmont’s offense under lock and key in that decisive Game 3. Brown scattered four hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out four, improving to 9-1 on the season and lowering his earned-run average to 0.56.

Benicia’s offense perked up as well, scoring seven times in the second inning to take early command. The first six Panther hitters reached safely to start the rally, including a two-run single by Tanner Marchant. Anthony Clyma and Anthony Fellman also added RBI singles.

“Nobody was hanging their heads or lacked any confidence after that first game,” Bowles noted. “We were chomping at the bit and came out very motivated and very focused for that second game.”

Caleb Van Blake added an RBI single in the fourth to make it 8-0. Oakmont scored its only run in the top of the sixth, but Benicia countered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to win by the 10-run rule. Marchant added another two-run single, giving him four RBI for the day.

Benicia (26-5) will face either Kennedy of Sacramento or Christian Brothers in next Monday’s Division II championship game.

“I like our chances next week,” Bowles said. “We’ve been performing well at all aspects of the game. I’m sure we’ll come out, put up some runs and rely on our pitching and defense to bring us a Section championship.”

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