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After striking out three times in his first three at-bats against Granada’s solid pitching staff in Friday’s home finale, Berkeley High first-baseman Greer Wiggins didn’t think it would be possible to erase the silver sombrero from the crowd’s memory in one swing. Turned out, he was wrong. 

With the Yellowjackets down by a run in the last half of the seventh, and runners on first and third, the senior slugger connected on a monster drive that cleared the Matador outfielders by 30 feet, and bounced from the grass onto the cement path beyond the home run line. After several minutes of debate between both coaches and the umpire, the ball was ruled live – as opposed to a dead-ball ground-rule double – and Wiggins stood on third base with the game-winning triple. 

“Granada pitched me real well today. Those first three strikeouts were in the back of my mind,” said the senior, whose seventh-inning shot scored teammate Noah Roper – the go-ahead run – from first base. “I knew it was out (of bounds) when I hit it. To me, it really does mean a lot, to win my last home game as a Berkeley High baseball player.” 

The clutch three-bagger completed a five-run, come-from-behind effort by the ’Jackets, who entered the final inning trailing the Matadors, 7-3. Dan Pfister, whose seventh-inning RBI single brought BHS within two, scored the tying run from third.  

Freshman hurler Sean Souders recorded the win for Berkeley, after taking over for starter Moses Kopmar in the sixth inning.  

“The entire year, we’ve seemed to start slow,” BHS coach Larri Gordon said about his squad’s recent tendency to sleepwalk through the opening innings. “The last two games, we’ve scored all our runs in the last two innings. That concerns me. I want us to start off hot early, and we don’t do that too often.” 

“At first, we weren’t making the plays we need to make,” Wiggins added. “We have a pretty good defensive team, but a couple of hops just went their way, and moved them along (the basepaths).”  

Friday’s win improved Berkeley’s overall record to 11-9, keeping the team on life-support in their hunt for a North Coast Section playoff bid. At 5-7 in league, the ’Jackets must win their final two games – both on the road - to even be considered for a third-place at-large bid. Their first challenge comes next Wednesday at Foothill – a team that currently occupies third place in the EBAL, and figures to beat out Berkeley for the postseason spot with a victory at its home field.  

“Foothill put some good numbers up on us last time we faced them,” Gordon said, referring to April 14’s loss to the Falcons at San Pablo Park. “It’s a long-shot, but if we win our remaining two games, and they lose theirs, we have a chance (at NCS playoffs). It’s a huge, huge game at their place.” 

Wednesday’s first pitch is slated for 3:30 p.m.