LIVERMORE – Corrigan Willis’ message before Saturday’s regional championship baseball game was simple but direct, nothing fancy but on point. The Granada coach told his team, “Change nothing. The game’s the game.
Trust each other. Lean on each other. And let’s go out and win a championship.
” Granada won the Northern California Division I championship on Saturday, holding off visiting St. Mary-Stockton 6-4 in a game that ended with Stanford-bound Parker Warner catching a wicked line drive in left field. The victory was the perfect conclusion for one of the Bay Area’s all-time great high school baseball teams, an historic run for the Livermore school that included 16 consecutive wins to open the season and 16 in a row to close it.
The only team to beat Granada during its 32-1 spring was Pleasanton rival Amador Valley. Aside from that, the Matadors filled their trophy case with league, section and regional championships, plus a triumph at a national tournament in Las Vegas. “This group of guys is amazing,” said Warner, who drove in two runs during a five-run second inning.
“It still hasn’t hit me that this is the last game of my high school career. But I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. This is a great team.
”. The season was already historic for Granada even before an overflow crowd packed the school’s home field on Saturday. The Matadors captured their first North Coast Section championship last week when they ended De La Salle’s 33-game .