Valley Christian wins fourth straight title
Leigh and Harker also win championships
CCS baseball: Warriors ride Kreshel’s hot bat to take down Mitty in championship game.
SAN JOSE >> When Easton Kreshel crushed his third homer in as many games over the left-center field wall, it was the culmination of a rapid week of work on his swing. Kreshel’s tworun blast broke open a tied game, and Valley Christian never relinquished its lead on its way to a fourth consecutive Central Coast Section baseball championship, 6-5, over Archbishop Mitty.
Two innings later, coach John Diatte was fighting back tears after sophomore reliever Alec Belardes survived a final rally by Mitty and was swarmed by his teammates. The championship was Diatte’s 10th in 32 seasons as a coach. Diatte, who has worn No. 10 since he played at Valley Christian before it was a baseball power, said it holds a special place in his heart.
“My nickname’s ‘Ten.’ My own kids make fun of me because I have this obsession with the number 10,” Diatte said, after celebrating the win with a kiss with his wife, Kelly. “For us to get our 10th (CCS championship) is pretty cool.”
Kreshel’s long ball was the biggest blow of a threerun fifth inning that put Valley ahead for good.
Mitty right-hander Tristan Fox recorded the first two outs of the fourth, but he didn’t make it out of the frame.
After Kreshel brought home senior Jonathan Cymrot with his home run, sophomore Michael Casteneda singled and came home when the next batter, Griffin Allen, ripped a double to put Valley ahead 5-2.
Jacob Schlesselman scored on a wild pitch the next inning for an insurance run that would prove critical after Mitty answered with a run in the bottom of the sixth.
The Monarchs trailed by three and were down to their final three outs. It was a position they had been in before, though, having advanced into the title game by rallying for a walk-off win in their final trip to the plate in their semifinal against Los Gatos.
Zach Yorke and Matthew Halbach reached base to begin the inning and eventually came around to score, bringing the Monarchs within 6-5. Once again, Mitty loaded the bases.
This time, instead of a walk-off walk for the Monarchs, Belardes got Mitty leadoff man Jarren Advincula swinging for the 21st out.
When the dog pile cleared, the Warriors claimed their fourth straight CCS trophy in the highest division (there was no Open Division this season). It’s only the second time the feat has been accomplished, and the first time it has been done under a single coach. (Bellarmine won four in a row from 1985-88 under coaches Don Ardissone and Gary Cunningham.)
Diatte took over the program
32 seasons ago and was left by his predecessor, he said, “10 pairs of pants
and five jerseys, which we weren’t going to get very far with.
“We’re in a much better place now,” he said.
Valley entered CCS play after falling to Archbishop Mitty in the WCAL title game.
As the tournament’s third seed, Valley Christian forged its path to the championship by taking out higher-seeded Palo Alto in the semifinals.
Kreshel left the yard in both games, as well as the Warriors’ win over Aptos to open the CCS tournament.
With a week in between the West Catholic Athletic League and CCS tournaments, Kreshel said he used the time off to rework his swing. He spent every day working at Cymrot’s house, trying to improve on staying back on the ball.
“I just went in thinking, ‘See a fastball, line it up the middle,’ and it worked,” Kreshel said.
Diatte’s 11th championship may not be as predestined as the 10th for the man whose license plate is customized with 10s on it.
But next season, Valley Christian returns Kreshel and a host of other underclassmen, including rising juniors Jacob Hudson and Michael Casteneda, who each scored runs and tossed innings on the mound in the championship game.
No team has ever won five CCS titles in a row.
“I’m not even gonna think about,” Diatte said. “I’m gonna enjoy 10 right now.”
Division IV: No. 6 Leigh7,No.1Palma2
The sixth-seeded Longhorns scored five unanswered runs to upset No. 1 Palma for the Division IV crown.
Both teams scored twice in the first, then Leigh scored what proved to be the winning run in the third. It stayed like that until the sixth, when the visitors added three more runs to make it 6-2.
Leigh finished the season with a 16-9 record and won its fourth CCS title, the last one in 2000. Palma ended the year at 12-8-1.
Division VI:
No. 3 Harker 16, No. 1 Stevenson 15
In what had to be the game of the day, Harker scored 11 runs in the top of the seventh, then held on to win. Winning pitcher Ian Williamson, who worked the final three innings, got the final out with a strikeout with the bases loaded.
Harker (20-6) trailed 14-5 when the wild seventh started. At one point, 12 straight Harker batters reached base. Coach Mike Delfino said all 11 runs crossed the plate after two were out.
Team co-captain Andrew Chavez hit a two-run double that put the Eagles ahead 15-14, but the inning was “mainly walks and singles,” Delfino said.
Mark Hu led Harker with four hits and four RBIs, including a two-run homer in the first. He had two hits in the 11th.
Harker’s other captain, Levi Sutton, had three hits and an RBI.
It was the first section baseball title for Harker, which opened in 1893 and is on its third name change.