Prep roundup: Valley Christian, Serra take WCAL baseball race to wire
Baseball: St. Francis extends win streak to four; De La Salle, Heritage, Acalanes, Woodside also win. Softball: TKA's Katia Nesper strikes out 19 in victory; Hillsdale, Liberty also prevail.
Baseball
With one game left in the West Catholic Athletic League regular season, Serra has pulled even with Valley Christian atop the standings after results went the Padres’ way on Tuesday.
Serra won on the road at Archbishop Mitty, Valley Christian lost at home to St. Ignatius.
The same matchups are set for Friday.
This time, Serra will play host to Mitty and Valley Christian will travel to SI.
Here are the details from Tuesday:
No. 3 Serra 6, No. 11 Archbishop Mitty 0
Josiah Rodriguez and Joey Damelio each knocked in two runs, Jake Downing and Ian Josephson both homered and Sam Kretsch pitched a three-hitter with six strikeouts to lead Serra to a victory at Mitty in WCAL play.
The Padres scored three in the third and single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth.
Serra improved to 19-5 overall and 10-3 in the WCAL.
Mitty slipped to 15-10-1, 7-5-1.
No. 10 St. Ignatius 4, No. 2 Valley Christian 0
Will Siwinski allowed two hits over five innings and Archer Horn pitched two scoreless innings as St. Ignatius won on the road to knock Valley Christian from sole possession of first place in the WCAL with one game to play.
Emmett Johnson had two hits and drove in a run and Evann Smith added two hits, including a double, and scored a run as SI improved to 16-7, 7-6.
Valley Christian is 22-4, 10-3.
St. Francis 9, No. 14 Sacred Heart Cathedral 3
St. Francis evened its record to .500 as Kyle Liu, Jedd Chang and Gino Cappellazzo each had two RBIs to lead the way at home over SHC in a WCAL game.
The Lancers (12-12-1, 6-6-1) extended their winning streak to four while dropping SHC to 15-10, 6-7.
Roman Trinidad and Cappellazzo both had two hits for St. Francis.
Gianni Conte, Jack Ruegg and Tate Medicoff had two hits apiece for SHC.
No. 4 De La Salle 6, Dougherty Valley 0
Jack Karst pitched a one-hitter with eight strikeouts and Alec Blair homered as De La Salle avenged a surprising loss to Dougherty Valley in late March with a victory at home over the Wildcats.
The Spartans also got two hits and three RBIs from Ethan Sullivan as they upped their record to 15-5, 9-2.
John Wong had the only hit for Dougherty Valley, which fell to 7-15, 3-9.
No. 5 Heritage 3, Liberty 2 (8 innings)
Heritage remained undefeated in Bay Valley Athletic League play, rallying in the late innings to edge crosstown rival Liberty.
Trailing 2-0, the visiting Patriots scored two in the fifth and one in the top of the eighth to improve to 19-3-1, 7-0.
Alonzo Alvarez had two hits, including a triple, and Aidan Rangel drove in two runs for Heritage.
Liberty is 10-12, 2-5.
No. 7 Acalanes 4, Clayton Valley Charter 1
David Gonzales doubled twice and knocked in two runs and Gavin Bender had two hits, including a triple, and an RBI to lead Acalanes to a win on the road over Clayton Valley in Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division play.
The victory pulled Acalanes (19-2, 5-2) into a first-place tie with Benicia and College Park.
Branson Smith, Isaac Copen and Mason Zirkel combined to hold Clayton Valley to a third-inning run and three hits.
The Ugly Eagles are 11-10, 4-3.
No. 13 Woodside 14, Aragon 5
Evan Chad had four hits, including two homers, and knocked in seven runs to lead Woodside over visiting Aragon in a Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division game.
Aragon led 4-2 after two innings. After that, it was all Woodside as the Wildcats ran their record to 19-2-1 and 10-1.
Trent Amoroso had three hits, two of them doubles, drove in two runs and scored three runs for Woodside.
Aragon is 12-11, 6-5.
Softball
The 20 The King’s Academy 1, Notre Dame-Belmont 0
Sophomore Katia Nesper struck out 19 while pitching a three-hitter and Mia Bennette drove in the only run — in the first inning — to lead TKA to a victory at home in a West Bay Athletic League game.
TKA improved to 16-2, 6-0. Notre Dame is 9-8, 2-3.
No. 7 Hillsdale 10, Woodside 1
Hillsdale, playing at home in San Mateo, scored two in the first and five in the second to take command as the Knights rolled past Woodside in PAL Bay Division play.
Alexis Kuka doubled, tripled and knocked in three runs and Claire Shelton had three hits and an RBI as Hillsdale stayed tied for first with Carlmont.
In the pitcher’s circle, Kuka struck out 12 and allowed just a fourth-inning run to drop Woodside’s record to 8-12, 2-9.
Hillsdale is 21-3, 9-2.
No. 9 Liberty 12, Heritage 1 (5 innings)
Liberty scored in all five innings to breeze by host Heritage in a BVAL game called because of the mercy rule.
Jewel Cooper doubled and had three RBIs and Paige Breitstein, Kelsie Skaggs, Kaitlyn Macias and Taylor Jennings each had two hits for Liberty, which also got five strong innings from Kate Skinner (nine strikeouts) in the pitcher’s circle.
Liberty improved to 15-3, 9-0. Heritage fell to 10-9, 7-2.