When Kyle Blair launched a bases-loaded bomb into the tennis courts at Los Altos High School last Friday, it was enough to lift the Los Gatos baseball team to a 5-1 win over the Eagles.

The win helped the Wildcats improve to 13-1 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and to 20-3 overall. The Cats went into a Monday afternoon game against Wilcox needing just a single to clinch no worse than a tie for the league championship.

Gatos was trailing Los Altos 1-0 when Blair stepped to the plate in the third inning on Friday. With one swing, the Wildcats jumped out to a 4-1 lead.

"He hit it over the first tennis court and into the second tennis court," said Los Gatos coach Brad Sanfilippo. "He just crushed it. It had to go 470 feet."

"That provided us with huge momentum," added the coach. "It really woke us up and helped us focus."

Los Gatos had chances in the first and second but couldn't score. The Eagles had touched starter Ryan Kiel for a run in the first and took that lead into the third. But Blair turned the game around with one swing.

The Wildcats added an insurance run in the sixth when Marty Mullins cracked his second double of the day and Michael Brienzo "scorched a line drive down the right field line" to drive him home.

"He came up big," said Sanfilippo of Brienzo.

Blair's slam was enough to help Kiel nail the win, pushing his season record to 4-0.

"He threw just an excellent game," said Sanfilippo of the senior southpaw. "He had a sharp-breaking curve ball, good velocity on his fast ball and he was hitting his spots well."

Kiel went 5 2/3 innings to claim the victory, striking out six in his stint, and Jeremy Bays came on to flip 2 1/3 innings to get the save.

"We're getting contributions from everybody in the right spots," said the coach. "I'm extremely happy with the way we've been playing."

Los Gatos had opened the week with an 8-4 win over Cupertino. Derek Thomas ran his record to 8-1 with the win.

"He threw well until the seventh, and then he ran out of gas," said Sanfilippo of Thomas, who struck out five, walked three and scattered nine hits.

Blair came on in the seventh with two on and no outs and got three straight hitters to pick up the save.

The Cats scored in four of the seven innings on the road to the win.

"We did a better job of scoring throughout the game," said the coach. "We've been talking about trying to score in every inning, and they did a good job of responding to that."

Mullins got the Cats off to a good start with a double to lead-off the game. Blair singled him home to give Gatos the quick lead.

"Marty set the tone again," said Sanfilippo.

Gatos struck again in the second. Justin Schafer and Michael Gault each singled and moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by Mark Johnson. Carlos Alonso singled the two runs homes. Brienzo followed with a hit, but Alonso was thrown out at the plate, then tossed out of the game because of his collision with the catcher.

The Cats added three more in the fourth. Johnson singled and Evan Bolton walked. Mullins singled in a run, Bolton scored on a passed ball and Thomas grounded out to short to knock in Mullins.

Schafer walked, Gault singled and Johnson singled in a run in the fifth to close out the scoring.

"We played well defensively again," added Sanfilippo, whose club played errorless baseball. "Defensively, we're just playing so well."

The Wildcats face a Wednesday bye and will host Milpitas on May 6, 3:30 p.m.

Big win for frosh-soph

A bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh helped capped a four-run rally as the Los Gatos frosh-soph baseball team beat Los Altos in a 6-5 thriller.

The Cats went into the game holding onto a two-game lead in the title race and came out with a 10-2 league record and a three-game lead over the Eagles.

Los Altos snapped a 2-2 tie with three runs in the top of the seventh thanks to two its, a hit batsman and an error, but there was no quit in the Wildcats.

Eric McDonald led off the bottom of the seventh with a sharp single down the left-field line and Steven Krach and K.C. Silva walked to load the bases. Mitch Benedetti ripped his second run-scoring single of the day before Krach was forced at the plate on a ground out by Aaron Miller.

Pinch hitter Steve Garvey was hit by a pitch to force in a run and Matt Ellis drove in the tying run with a ground out to second. Los Altos walked Tim Sweeney intentionally to set up the force play, but Kevin Wyllie walked on five pitches to push in the game-winning run.

Gatos had lost 4-2 to Cupertino earlier in the week despite a couple of doubles by Ellis and two hits by Benedetti. Sweeney, Miller and Wes Howell also singled in the game.