Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s Jeran Ford, Aidan Dorsch, Peyton Smith and Cayden Lee celebrate their NorCal championship on Monday.

By Ray Hamill — The difference in Monday’s NorCal championship game, according to St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin, was Aidan Dorsch’s third-inning home run.

Playing in his final high school game, the St. Bernard’s senior hit a solo blast to help spark his team, which trailed by four runs at the time.

The Crusaders would score four more runs in the bottom of the fourth and go on to beat Alpha Charter 7-6 in the first-ever NorCal Division-3 decider.

But it was the impact Dorsch’s big blast to left center field had on his teammates that would prove to be decisive, the coach believes.

“I thought that changed the game,” Tomlin said. “It brought life back to our dugout, and I really think that home run was the difference in the game.”

More impressively, it came after the senior was relieved on the mound, and it was a perfect response.

Tomlin, however, stressed that the early deficit had little to do with Dorsch’s pitching performance.

“We started out a little rough and made some errors,” the coach said. “I thought Aidan Dorsch actually pitched pretty good. We just didn’t play well behind him.”

Overall, it was an entertaining and well-played game.

“That was awesome,” Tomlin said. “Two great teams battling it out and doing it with respect for each other.”