Two years ago, the Paly baseball team held on for a miracle win against the St. Francis Lancers in the CCS Division I quarterfinals.

Senior pitchers Jeremy Gillian and David Stringer turned in pitching gems. Gillian had 4 1/3 innings of no-hit ball, and Stringer came in relief and shut down the Lancers for good. Together, they yielded only four hits and three walks to a team that was ranked ninth in the nation at the time.

Senior catcher Nathan Ford had a solo shot and senior center fielder Max Pinto contributed a two-run blast as the Vikings held on to win 4-3 to pull off the upset. The Vikings eventually advanced to the CCS final where they lost to the Wilcox Chargers, 4-5.

Tuesday’s game at Paly did not yield the same result.

St. Francis senior catcher Alex Dreyfuss got on first base by an error with two out in the bottom of the 7th, and St. Francis senior outfielder Tim Busbin hit a walk-off home run off of Paly junior Alex Schmarzo to sink the Vikings 6-5.

“Seeing how well we did in the first inning, I thought we had a chance to win,” Schmarzo said.

This time around, it seemed that the Vikings would do it again, with RBI singles from senior outfielder Daniel Lapin, junior catcher Nick Goodspeed and sophomore outfielder Peter Abrams.

St. Francis junior pitcher Danny Stienstra helped his own cause with two RBI hits, and junior infielder Ellis Garrett knocked in another run. Garrett also scored on a throwing error by Paly senior third baseman Andrew White.

Senior pitcher Jake Martin pitched five and 2/3 innings yielding four runs to a powerful St. Francis lineup. Stienstra threw a complete game over two days because of a rain delay that postponed the rest of the game after one and 1/2 innings on Monday.

Schmarzo came in with two out in the bottom of the sixth and the score 5-4 in favor of the Vikings. He then retired three batters in a row before Dreyfuss reached on an error and Busbin hit an 0-2 changeup over the left center field wall.

“Schmarzo dominated everyone else,” Paly head coach Joel Kaufman said. “It was a good pitch that he [Busbin] hit. The bottom line is he just got lucky.”

To open the season, the Vikings have faced powerhouses such as Bellarmine, which was ranked 1st in the state and 15th in the nation. Had it not been for a nine-run second inning aided by three errors, it would only have been a 2-5 loss instead of a 2-14 loss in their season opener. The Vikings then lost a close 4-5 game to Menlo-Atherton when three errors in the fourth inning led to two unearned runs.

Paly remains optimistic of its young and promising season.

“If we work and play hard, we can beat anybody,” said Kaufman.

The Vikings next host Cupertino at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, March 13.