Prep roundup: How Valley Christian finished 14-0 in WCAL baseball standings
De La Salle rallies to edge California, stretch win streak to 10. Los Gatos clinches outright league title, wins 13th in a row. In softball, Milpitas comes back to edge Branham.
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Baseball
Valley Christian completed a remarkable run through the West Catholic Athletic League schedule, winning at home over runner-up Archbishop Mitty 4-0 on Friday to finish 14-0.
In the MaxPreps era, which began in the 2004-05 school year, no baseball team in the highly competitive league had made it through undefeated.
It’s possible that another team achieved the feat before MaxPreps started its online database. The league goes back to 1968. But the standings are not archived on the WCAL’s website.
“I think it at least one other team did it,” Valley coach John Diatte said Friday night. “But I am not really sure. It could be three teams.”
No matter, what Valley accomplished — sweeping the likes of Mitty, St. Francis, Bellarmine, Serra, etc. — says quite a bit about this team.
“I think it takes a whole lot of luck, to be honest,” said Diatte, in his 34th season at the San Jose school. “If you look back at the season, we’ve had a lot of things go our way. Our kids were playing well at the time we were playing our league. Even when we had to make up the rain games, our kids were playing well at those times.
“It takes some pitching, obviously. If you want to get down to it, your pitchers have to be on every day. ”
The pitchers were on Friday.
Quinten Marsh pitched three scoreless innings and Michael Castaneda added four more. Mitty (23-4, 11-3) finished with two hits and walked four times.
Valley — the Bay Area’s News Group’s top-ranked team — took the lead over the third-ranked Monarchs with one in the first and extended the advantage to 4-0 with three in the fourth.
PJ Moutzouridis had two RBIs and Tatum Marsh and Jacob Hudson each had one.
Valley improved to 24-3.
Both teams will move on to the WCAL tournament next week.
No. 2 De La Salle 7, California 6
Trailing 6-2 after four innings, De La Salle scored two in the top of the fifth, one in the sixth and two in the seventh to extend its winning streak to 10 with a victory over California in an East Bay Athletic League game.
Connor Harrison homered to tie the score 6-6 and Hank Tripaldi singled to left to drive in Alec Blair with the decisive run.
Tripaldi and Kai Smith each had two hits and Harrison knocked in two runs as the Spartans improved to 20-4, 12-1.
Aidan Camberg had two hits and two RBIs for California, which fell to 10-14, 5-8.
No. 4 Los Gatos 12, Los Altos 0
Los Gatos broke open a tight game with five in the fourth and six in the fifth to stretch its winning streak to 13, routing host Los Altos in Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division play.
The victory clinches the outright league title for Los Gatos (19-6, 12-0) with two games left.
Carter Johnstone and Brayden Smith each had three doubles and three RBIs and scored twice and Donovan Freed had two hits, including a home run, and drove in three runs to lead the Wildcats.
Four pitchers combined for the shutout, led by Massimo Richiuso, who went 4 2/3 innings.
Los Altos is 13-10, 8-4.
No. 6 Amador Valley 6, No. 8 Foothill 5
It took eight innings, but the overtime was worth it for Amador Valley as the Dons completed a two-game sweep of Pleasanton rival Foothill to close out the EBAL’s regular-season schedule.
After Foothill scored in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings, Amador answered with a run in the eighth and then closed it out with a strikeout and a flyout after the Falcons put runners at second and third.
Jason Alonso had two hits, including a double, and knocked in a run for Amador (18-4, 9-4).
Charlie Stearns and Brendan Comerford each had three hits and an RBI for Foothill (15-8, 7-6).
No. 7 Granada 9, Livermore 1
Colin Johnston hit a home run and a double and knocked in five runs and Joshua Morano pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball to lead Granada over crosstown rival Livermore in an EBAL game.
Riley Winchell and Denny Derham also had two hits apiece for Granada, which improved to 18-6, 9-4.
Livermore fell to 10-14, 2-11.
Half Moon Bay 1, No. 12 Burlingame 0
Liam Harrington pitched a four-hitter and drove in the only run, in the fifth inning, as Half Moon Bay edged visiting Burlingame in Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play.
The loss dropped second-place Burlingame (14-5, 7-4) three games behind leader Menlo-Atherton with three games to go.
HMB improved to 12-11, 5-6.
No. 17. St. Francis 4, No. 13 Serra 3
Jedd Chang’s single to center drove in two runs in the bottom of the eighth to lift St. Francis to a WCAL victory over Serra.
The Padres had gone ahead on Davis Minton’s run-scoring double to left in the top half of the extra frame.
Jason Borzello also knocked in two runs for St. Francis (15-11, 7-7).
Serra fell to 14-9, 6-8.
St. Francis finished third in the league standings. Serra, Bellarmine, St. Ignatius and Sacred Heart Cathedral tied for fourth.
St. Ignatius 2, No. 9 Bellarmine 1
St. Ignatius scored two in the bottom of the sixth to erase a one-run deficit and beat Bellarmine in a WCAL game.
Gus Parker had a hit and an RBI for SI (14-11, 6-8).
Nate Escalada knocked in a run and Caden Sta Maria had two hits, including a double, for Bellarmine (14-10-1, 6-8).
Softball
No. 6 San Ramon Valley 10, Carondelet 0
Mikaela Finley and Addie Layous each drove in two runs and Paige McLeod pitched five perfect innings as San Ramon Valley rolled over visiting Carondelet in an EBAL game called after five innings because of the 10-run rule.
SRV is 18-5, 10-3, Carondelet slipped to 7-16-1, 2-11.
No. 14 Milpitas 5, Branham 4
Milpitas overcame an early four-run deficit to win at home over Branham in a non-league game.
Destiny Solis doubled and had two RBIs and Taija Warren had three hits and scored twice to lead the Trojans, who improved to 19-4.
Allison Von Barloewen had two hits and drove in two runs and Kaliya Yco had a hit and two RBIs for Branham (14-9).