When the NCS Division I bracket was announced, the wild card seemed to be which high seed would face right-handed ace Joe Ross and Bishop O'Dowd in first round action.

The team turned out to be the hard-charging California Grizzlies, which were one-hit by the UCLA-bound righty en route to the O'Dowd Dragons posting a 2-0 victory.

With Ross and California left-hander Evan Brisentine (Santa Clara) on the mound, runs were expected to be at a premium on Wednesday as the teams opened up the playoffs. This held true through two innings with Ross retiring all six hitters he faced and Brisentine working around two hits allowed to strike out three batters.

In the top of the third inning, Bishop O'Dowd got the first runner on base when Shane O'Keefe struck out swinging but reached on a wild pitch. Marcus Williams added a single two batters later and a wild pitch moved the runners up to second and third with one out. Up came sophomore Dominic Miroglio, who hit a ground ball to third baseman Jacob Rivera, but the senior bobbled the ball to allow the game's first run to score. Dominic Morbidelli followed and after getting down 1-2 in the count, the squeeze play was put on and he executed the bunt for Williams to score and take a 2-0 lead.

Ross continued to motor on, retiring the first 11 batters he faced. That was broken up by a walk from catcher Steven Moen. Ross continued to throw well and held a no-hitter through five innings before pinch-hitter Travis Roberts broke it up with a single up the middle to lead off the sixth. The no-hit bid had been kept intact in the fifth inning on a stellar play from Williams playing a tough bounce at shortstop.

While California struggled to get runners on base, Brisentine was just as stingy following the third inning in retiring 12 of his last 13 batters with six strikeouts.

That set up the bottom of the seventh with Bishop O'Dowd still holding a 2-0 lead. Ross walked Moen to lead off the inning and got to 2-1 on pinch-hitter Tyler Johnson, who drove the ball well to right field before Dylan Holt made a nice running catch for the inning's first out. O'Keefe followed on the next hitter, Joe DeFazio, by catching a fast-falling fly ball in center for the second out. Anthony Kontillis was the Grizzlies' final hope, but his at-bat never came to be when Morbidelli threw out pinch runner Tyler Gonzalves trying to steal second on the first pitch to end the game.

"I had all of the pitches and control was good and I had the defense to back it up especially in that last inning," Ross said. "They made some pretty big plays."

Bishop O'Dowd 2 runs-4 hits-0 errors

California 0 runs-1 hit-1 error

W: Ross L: Brisentine

Doubles: None Triples: None Home Runs: None