Facing an early deficit, the Matadors had to keep chipping into Cupertino’s lead the rest of the game. But after loading the bases three times in the last three innings, the Matadors finally found their relief — a big payday in senior Joey Shepard’s two RBI, opposite field hit.

The Matadors (9-12-1, 6-5-0) came back with five unanswered runs after surrendering four runs — all unearned — in their 5-4 win over the Cupertino Pioneers (6-11, 2-8) on April 26. Shepard went 2-4 with three RBIs, including the game-winning single that drove in the two runs in the seventh inning that gave the Matadors the lead.

“I knew I had to get one of the runners in because it was a 1-1 count, and I knew he was probably going to come up with an upside fastball, so I just hit it the other way, put the bat on the ball, hit it down the line and got two runs for it,” Shepard said. “I’m really satisfied about that, that’s for sure.”

Following his rough first inning, starting pitcher senior Matt Kelley prevented the Pioneer offense from scoring any more runs. Pitcher junior Peter Stern, who had been out due to an injury, took the win after two scoreless innings of relief work.

“It felt good,” Stern said. “It was my first game back pitching from a prolonged injury so I haven’t pitched in a while. This was the first time I was able to throw to my ability.”

Kelley got two quick outs in the first inning and struck out Cupertino junior Matt Kuhl, but Kuhl was able to reach first as senior catcher Austin Burrow could not hang on to the strikeout pitch. Then, the Pioneers hit back-to-back singles to drive in three runs before adding an RBI double for a 4-0 lead before the Matadors escaped with another strikeout by Kelley.

“That first inning was a disaster. It should have been one, two, three [outs], just like that. This [game] probably should have been a 5-0 win, but I knew we had to bounce back right away and get a run in the next inning,” Shepard said. “It’s good that we came back in the last three innings with those four runs, but yeah, it was close.”

After the rocky first inning, the Matador defense soon settled comfortably to shut down the Cupertino offense. Stern made a leaping catch at second base in the second inning for a double play, and in the third, the Matadors turned a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning. When Cupertino loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth inning, junior Kendall Yamauchi made a diving catch in center to get Kelley and Stern out of the jam.

“Those were must-make plays. We were at a point against the wall where we couldn’t afford any more errors at that time in the game,” head coach Nick Bonacorsi said. “But they were huge plays because it took momentum away from the other team, and kept us in the game. Because if that ends up being 6-7 to 1, well, that’s a whole different story.”

In the sixth inning, juniors Drew Granzella and Spencer Rodrigues were able to string together two hits before Cupertino pitcher senior Cameron Longabaugh walked MVHS senior Peter Esparza to load the bases with one out. When Yamauchi stepped up to bat, Longabaugh threw a pitch that the catcher failed to catch and Granzella slid in head-first for a run just before Longabaugh could apply the tag to cut the Pioneer lead to 4-3.

However, Longabaugh got two quick outs to strand the remaining two runners on base, keeping Cupertino’s lead at 4-3 heading into the final inning.

The Matadors again loaded the bases in the sixth after stringing together two hits. With the bases loaded, Shepard got a 1-1 count before slicing Longabaugh’s pitch fair down the right foul line to drive in the go-ahead run.

“He did what I’d been asking the guys to do the whole game, which was use the right side of the field. We were facing a pitcher that doesn’t throw very hard and we have a tendency to get off balance, which was all those groundouts and popflies you saw,” Bonacorsi said. “Shepard finally made that adjustment by keeping his hands back and he drove the ball to the right side and you could see the results from it. That was a big play for us. It was the game winner, and we needed it.”

In the bottom of the seventh, Stern got the first Cupertino batter to fly out, but Cupertino threatened with three consecutive singles. However, Cupertino junior Stan Sumibcay, who hit the third single, over-reached for second base and drew a throw to second. Kuhl, who was at third, tried to go for home during the throw but Kelley took the throw from second and fired it to Burrow at home in time to get Kuhl out in a close play at the plate.

Cupertino squandered their best opportunity to tie, and Stern threw a three-pitch strikeout to end the game.

“[Kuhl] could’ve been safe. It could’ve been a game over play,” Stern said. “But it was a good throw from Kelley on second and [we] got him and we were able to shut the door after that.”