CHRIS STINCHCOMB of the Bruins (11) slides safely into second with a steal as Berean Christian shortstop Daniel Glorioso leaps for an incoming throw.

After finishing in last place in the Tri-County Athletic League’s Rock Division during the regular season, the St. Patrick-St. Vincent High baseball team got a chance to reboot its year on Tuesday and booted visiting Berean Christian out of the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs.

Triston Foley pitched five strong innings and the No. 6 seeded Bruins managed to hold off a late Eagles rally for a 5-4 victory in the first round. The win sends the Bruins (10-10) to a NCS Division IV quarterfinal game Friday at No. 3 seed Salesian, which won its first-round game over Willits on Tuesday, 12-6. Salesian (19-5) won the TCAL’s Stone Division title this season.

“We’re still learning how to close games out but we’ve gotten better since the beginning of the year,” said SPSV manager James Terrell Sr. “I keep telling the guys it’s not how we start, it’s how we finish.”

Berean Christian (10-15), the No. 11 seed in the 16-team tournament, came into the game on a 10-game losing streak and got off to a rough start Tuesday as SPSV built a 5-0 lead after three innings. Consecutive singles by Jack Gamba, James Terrell Jr., Chris Stinchcomb and Foley led to two runs in the bottom of the first inning. A walk to Tavian Henderson leading off the third, a double by Gamba and back-to-back singles by Terrell Jr. and Stinchcomb added three more runs.

“Our game plan was to jump right on them early and keep them down,” Terrell Sr. said.

Foley mowed down the Eagles for most of the day and pitched to the minimum number of batters through the first four innings thanks to a double play and two runners caught stealing.

“Being up five runs gave me a lot of confidence knowing I had the leniency to give up a hit or a run and not panic on the mound,” Foley said. “My fastball was working and I was just focusing on throwing strikes and letting the defense behind me play.”

The Eagles finally got to Foley in the fifth inning, scoring one unearned run thanks to a leadoff error and back-to-back singles by Sterling Bennett and Jared Fernandez. Terrell Sr. decided to pull Foley after five innings despite the senior’s solid performance.

“I got him out of there early in case he needs to close the game on Friday,” Terrell Sr. said. “The plan was to have him go five innings and have Jack go two.”

Gamba had trouble closing out the Eagles. Will Batz and Daniel Glorioso greeted him with back-to-back singles and Drey Avizenis was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no one out. Casey Schwitter followed with a two-run single and Berean added another run when Gamba picked off Schwitter at first but allowed Avizenis to score from third, making it 5-4.

Berean got the tying run aboard in the top of the seventh when Kendrick Utt singled with two outs, but Gamba got Batz to line out to end it.

“It’s a whole new season,” Foley said. “What happened in the past doesn’t matter in the playoffs.”

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