Weekend recap: Valley Christian, Mitty turn WCAL baseball into two-team race
Baseball
WCAL: Two teams elevate to the top
With four games left in the West Catholic Athletic League’s regular season, two teams have a shot at the championship.
They meet in a league finale.
Valley Christian and Archbishop Mitty won again on Saturday, with Valley improving to 10-0 in the league standings and Mitty staying on the Warriors’ heels at 9-1.
Keaton Norris and Jacob Hudson homered and Kole Laubach, Jacob Molyneaux and Hudson combined for the shutout as Valley — the Bay Area News Group’s top-ranked team — cruised on the road over Archbishop Riordan 9-0. The shutout was Valley’s second in a row, following a 7-0 blanking of St. Francis on Friday.
Second-ranked Mitty kept pace, rolling at home past Serra 8-2 on Saturday after toppling Sacred Heart Cathedral 9-6 on Friday.
Tanner Kern and Matteo Blandino each had two RBIs and Luka Pintar pitched a complete game in the victory over Serra.
Mitty (18-4 overall) visits St. Francis on Tuesday and Bellarmine on Friday, then plays host to St. Ignatius on May 2 before closing out the round-robin schedule on May 5 at Valley Christian.
Valley (19-3 overall) travels to Serra on Wednesday, plays host to St. Ignatius on Friday and then visits Bellarmine on May 2.
No. 5 De La Salle 14, Jesuit-Carmichael 2
De La Salle extended its winning streak to six as Tanner Griffith homered, doubled and drove in two runs and Smith Chandler went 3 for 4 with two doubles and two RBIs to lead the Spartans to a non-league rout at home over Jesuit.
Connor Harrison and Carlo Garcia also knocked in two runs and RJ Meyn pitched five scoreless innings for the Spartans, who upped their record to 16-4.
Jesuit is 11-12-1.
No. 16 St. Francis 8, No. 6 Bellarmine 2
St. Francis, which had lost five of its previous six games, got a much-needed victory at home on Saturday, cruising past rival Bellarmine as Luke DeVine went 3 for 3 with two doubles and a triple, knocked in three runs and scored twice to lead the way.
Derek Gile and Jedd Chang added two hits apiece and Jack Surdey pitched a complete game with 10 strikeouts.
Bellarmine fell to 13-7-1, 5-5.
No. 10 Los Gatos 5, Aptos 0
Anthony Decker doubled and drove in two runs and Anthony Andrews, Sebastian Buller, Dylan Martinez and Jake Boyd combined on a four-hit shutout as Los Gatos extended its win streak to nine with a non-league victory at home over Aptos.
The Wildcats improved to 15-6. Aptos is 12-5.
Berkeley 2, No. 12 Liberty 1
Daniel Beadles pitched a complete game with five strikeouts and Manny Selles provided all the offensive support with a two-run homer in the first inning to lift the Yellowjackets to a win at home over Liberty.
Nate Bell knocked in Liberty’s only run, in the third inning. Andrew Dodgson struck out nine for the Lions, who fell to 11-6.
Berkeley is 13-4.
Softball
De Anza 17, Hercules 16
Riana Everetts hit an inside-the-park home run in the top of the eighth — her third homer of the game — for the decisive run in De Anza’s wild victory over Hercules in a Tri-County Athletic League Stone Division game.
In six plate appearances, Everetts, a sophomore, went 4 for 4 and scored six runs.
Mya Arroyo also had a big day for De Anza, finishing 3 for 4 with a home run and a double, to go with six RBIs.
De Anza improved to 11-3, 9-0.
Izabella Placencia had three hits for Hercules, which fell to 7-9, 6-2.