Serra-Palma baseball

Central Coast Section Open Division
Wednesday's game
No. 15 Serra (16-13) vs. No. 4 Palma (23-5) at San Jose Municipal Stadium, 7 p.m.
 You have to like the Chieftains chances when Sam Stoutenborough is on the mound, as the hurler is 10-1 this year, including a shutout over Leland in the first round.
 Palma has dropped just one game all season outside the Gabilan Division, and that came from a team outside the Central Coast Section.
 Serra was 8-6 in the West Catholic Athletic League, outscoring two playoff opponents 12-5 to get to the semifinals. It hasn't played for a CCS title since 2013.
 The Chieftains clearly have momentum on their side after rallying from a 6-0 deficit to knock off San Benito in the quarterfinals, gathering a measure of redemption for last season in the process.
 Stoutenborough, who has already committed to play baseball at Cal in 2019, sports a 0.55 earned run average this spring, with 75 strikeouts in 68 innings of work.
 At the plate, he is hitting .373, having driven in a team high 27 runs while catcher Dan Carnazzo is hitting .402 with 22 runs batted in.
 Dominic Scattini leads the Chieftains with a .410 clip while University of Kansas bound Anthony DeSantis is hitting .390 with 20 runs batted in.
 Palma is trying to get to its first finals appearance since 2008, when it won the Division III title. That same year, Serra won the CCS Division I title.
 Ten of the last 12 Open/DI baseball champions have come from the WCAL.