PLEASANTON — The Foothill High baseball team received a gift from Monte Vista last week in the form of an 11-1 win against previously undefeated Livermore. It helped the Falcons pull even with the Cowboys for first place in the East Bay Athletic League.

But the Falcons couldn't stay tied with Livermore, with the two teams eyeing a big showdown on Friday. San Ramon Valley pitcher Ryan Palsha tossed a gem on Wednesday, leading the Wolves to a 3-2 win over Foothill. The senior didn't allow a run over six innings, limited the dangerous Foothill lineup to just three hits and struck out 10.

"We just ran into a buzz saw today with Palsha," Foothill coach Angelo Scavone said. "He was throwing hard and his slider was unhittable ... He was the best player on the field today."

Despite the loss, Foothill (18-3-1, 8-2) is still in good position to walk away with at least a share of the EBAL title.

However, it would need to win its last three league games and have Livermore drop two of its final three to win the title outright. If the Falcons beat Livermore, they would pull even and own the tiebreaker (second head-to-head game of league).

The tiebreaker is used by the North Coast Section to award status as a designated champion for the playoffs. League champions are given home-field advantage against any teams that don't win their league, no matter what the seed is.

Nick Fong hit a two-run homer for the Wolves (11-11-1, 4-6) in the fifth inning, which

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was just enough as the Falcons rallied for two seventh-inning runs with Palsha out of the game before falling shy.

Livermore 3, California 2

SAN RAMON — All three Livermore runs came by way of the long ball as J.R. Graham and Brett Christopher both went deep to help put the Cowboys back in first place.

Junior David Hart went 5-plus innings before giving way to David Singleton in the sixth inning. The Grizzlies got the best of the senior lefty with three hits in the inning before Livermore coach Dave Perotti went to Graham to close it out.

The Santa Clara-bound senior got the final five outs to preserve the win.

Christopher finished the day 3-for-4 and teammate Brian Scott was 2-for-3.

Nick Bartolone, Jason Kochan and Mark Sinopoli all went 2-for-3 for Cal (8-13-1, 2-8).

The Cowboys (19-2, 8-1) will now turn their attention to Friday's game against Foothill. A win will clinch a share of the league title and guarantee status as the league's designated champion for postseason purposes.

In the first meeting between the two teams, Livermore came back from a 6-0 deficit to beat Foothill 8-6.