Kyle McMillan channels Shohei Ohtani with complete game, tying solo HR as St. Francis clinches WCAL title

SAN JOSE - Kyle McMillan probably wouldn't be mistaken for Shohei Ohtani if you saw him on the street.

But you could do worse for a comparison after the St. Francis junior, who like Ohtani wears No. 17, pitched a complete game and hit a solo home run to right field, leading the Lancers to a 4-1 win over Bellarmine.

With the victory on Friday, St. Francis clinched the West Catholic Athletic League championship, the first of coach Erik Wagle's three-year tenure and the Lancers' first title since 2022.

"It definitely didn’t start out great, but I’m just persevering, knowing that I can pitch through this and just executing pitches," McMillan said. "Trust my defense. That’s about it."

McMillan, who is committed to Santa Clara, had a bumpy start to Friday afternoon's game, conceding a home run to Vincent Kim in the bottom of the first. Then Ollie McNamara singled to center.

But he buckled down and retired Bellarmine pitcher Emmet Arnott with a fly ball to end the inning, then went to work at the plate.

The second batter in the second inning, McMillan roped a one-out offering from Arnott to deep right field, clearing the fence with a tying solo home run.

And once St. Francis went up 2-1 in the third when Siale Tulua scored on a throwing error by Bellarmine's catcher, the proceedings were just about wrapped up. McMillan didn't allow a baserunner past second for the rest of the game.

"This is actually the first game all year we’ve come back and won," Wagle said. "The other wins we’ve had, we’ve been winning the whole time. So they did something a little different today that we hadn’t done yet this year. So it’s pretty awesome to see."

Wagle was also happy the Lancers wrapped up the WCAL title with two games to spare, likely also wrapping up the No. 1 seed in the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.

The WCAL is not holding a postseason tournament this year, meaning St. Francis will have sole possession of the league title.

"My thoughts go with our seniors, especially the five three-year varsity guys," Wagle said. "My first year, it was a little bit of a tough year. Especially early, we didn’t win a game for a month. They stuck with it. They’ve been very l

oyal, and they believed in what we’re doing. And it just kind of progressively got better until this year.

"We just kind of hit our stride in the middle of the season, and here we are."

The Lancers are 22-3 overall and 11-1 in the WCAL with two more games to play. They have a series remaining against Serra next week.

And then they'll seek the CCS title that eluded them last season. St. Francis lost 7-4 to Serra, the eventual champion, in the CCS Division I semifinals last spring.

Adding to the misery, they lost the CIF NorCal Division II championship game 3-2 to Yuba City. So the Lancers' work is far from finished this season.

But they can pause for a minute to enjoy winning the first championship of the three they aim to capture this year.

"This means everything," McMillan said. I mean, we haven’t won with our head coach ever. The seniors, the amount of work they put in and our whole team, it’s just really great."

For Bellarmine (19-5, 8-4), the goals of CCS and NorCal championships are also accessible. The Bells are third in the WCAL standings and should pull down a pretty high seed in the Division I bracket.

And like last year, when three of four semifinalists and both finalists came from the section's top league, they'll have to go through multiple teams they know intimately to do it.

"Hopefully, we take care of business and get a home game," Bellarmine coach Nate Sutton said. "That’s our goal. But more importantly, games like this will prepare you for CCS. You’re gonna face a good pitcher, you’re gonna be in a tight game.

You’re gonna get a little more pressure than normal, because it’s win or go home. So these are good things for us to prepare for."

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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 9:29 PM.