Aguinaga pitches a no-hitter for Heritage in NCS semifinal
Heritage's Kasey Aguinaga pitched a no-hitter and struck out 15 as the Patriots, seeded No. 2, beat third-seeded Vintage 1-0 in a North Coast Section Division I semifinal Tuesday.
The Patriots improved to 23-3-1 and will travel to Livermore to play top-seeded Granada today at 5 p.m.
“My drop and rise worked very well tonight,” said Aguinaga, who is committed to Boise State. “I felt loose and smooth throughout the whole game.”
“Kasey's been getting sharper and sharper each week,” Heritage coach Ron Rivers said. “We did our homework on Vintage and wanted to make sure she was in a position to help not only herself but the team.”
Heritage scored the only run of the game in the sixth inning after two were out on a single by Cal-bound Tianna Bell.
No. 1 Granada, 7, No. 4 San Ramon Valley 0
Granada beat San Ramon Valley twice during the regular season, both times in close, competitive games.
The third meeting Tuesday was all Granada, a 7-0 victory in the North Coast Section Division I semifinals. The Matadors moved on to the D1 championship game today against No. 2 seed Heritage.
The two previous meetings between Granada and SRV ended 2-0 and 4-1 in extra innings.
Granada center fielder Makayla Winchell came into the game with a .505 batting average and didn't do any damage to that lofty mark at all, banging out four singles in four at-bats. The Notre Damebound Winchell also stole four bases for the Matadors (26-3).
Delaney Aumua, Granada's freshman cleanup hitter, drove in a pair of runs, including on on a first-inning triple.
It was all the offense junior pitcher Alex Mello needed. She threw a threehit shutout and struck out seven.
— Glenn Reeves
Division II No. 2 Benicia 5, No. 3 American Canyon 4
Kyra Mason went 2 for 3 and knocked in three runs in Benicia's semifinal home win over American Canyon. Lorenzza Marcacci and Emma French each had an RBI and Braxton Brown threw a complete game, striking out five for the Panthers.
Benicia will host Marin Catholic in the NCS Division II championship today at 5 p.m.
CCS SOFTBALL Division I No. 3 Mitty 6, No. 2 Notre Dame-Salinas 0
Taryn Kern and Elon Butler homered in Archbishop Mitty's semifinal win on the road against Notre DameSalinas.
CCS BASEBALL Division V No. 6 Sacred Heart Prep 14, No. 7 Menlo 4
Sacred Heart Prep bolted to a 9-0 lead after two innings and crushed Menlo. John Dioli, Tyler Wong, Nolan Wilbur and Kevin Carney each had two RBIs for SHP.
Division VI No. 2 Gunn 5, Saratoga 2
Gunn broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the home half of the fifth en route to a victory over Saratoga in a D-VI semifinal.
NCS BASEBALL Division I No. 3 De La Salle 11, No. 3 Liberty 0
During a sun-baked afternoon on De La Salle's dusty and lumpy baseball field Tuesday, it seemed plausible that one team would eventually melt in the sweltering 95-degree heat.
Liberty melted, all right. In the third inning of a North Coast Section Division I semifinal, De La Salle sent 13 batters to the plate and 10 of them scored.
Two innings later, the game was over.
De La Salle won by mercy rule, 11-0, to advance to the Division I final today at top-seeded Foothill, a team that won at De La Salle two weeks ago to capture the East Bay Athletic League championship.
Third-seeded De La Salle will bring a 19-game NCS playoff winning streak into the final, a stretch that dates to a loss to College Park in the Division I title game in 2015.
De La Salle won four consecutive DI championships from 2016 to 2019, including
a rout of Foothill in 2018.
Given that there were not any NCS playoffs the past two years because of the pandemic, the Spartans (23-6) will be aiming for a fifth straight crown this weekend.
The Spartans certainly looked the part of champions against seventh-seeded Liberty, which had upset No. 2 seed Clayton Valley Charter 1-0 in the previous round.
De La Salle's Alec Nava, who went 3-for-3, doubled, tripled and scored two of his three runs in the third inning.
Donovan Chriss, who pitched four scoreless innings for De La Salle, tripled in the third to drive in two. He threw 56 pitches, allowed one hit, struck out four and walked two.
— Darren Sabedra
Division V No. 1 Berean Christian 5, No. 4 University 4
Berean Christian rallied from four runs down to beat University. The Eagles (18-9) scored three runs in the seventh, with the decisive hit delivered by Griffin DeRusso. Sebastian Gonzalez was the winning pitcher with three innings of shutout relief. Berean advances to today's championship game, where it will meet Branson at Diablo Valley College at 5 p.m. Branson (13-12) hammered Fremont Christian 12-2 in the other DV semifinal.