Pittsburg wins again, will face De La Salle in the DI semifinals
Pittsburg's baseball program waited 27 years between North Coast Section playoff victories, its coach, Marco Cartagena, noted after the team's first-round Division I win this week.
It took only three days this time.
Friday, in a matchup between Cinderella teams from the Bay Valley Athletic League, 12th-seeded Pittsburg edged No. 13 seed Freedom 4-2 as Vic Valle finished with three hits and scored a run and Cole Leschak pitched a complete game.
The Pirates will play at top-seeded De La Salle in the semifinals Tuesday.
Freedom, coming off a stunning eight-inning win over fourth-seeded Amador Valley in the opening round, scored on an error to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning Friday.
Pittsburg answered with two in the bottom half of the frame as Halen Guerrero stole home to make it 1-1 and Leschak followed with another steal of home.
The Pirates, who upset Granada in the first round, added a run in the second and finished the scoring with a run in the fifth as they improved to 20-9. Freedom finished 14-12. Pittsburg has played De La Salle just once in the past 15 years. DLS won 10-0 in 2016.
Cartagena knows what the Concord powerhouse is all about. He graduated from De La Salle two decades ago.
“My alma mater,” Cartagena said after his team's victory on Tuesday over Granada. “That's where I went. Be excited to have a chance to play them.”
No. 1 De La Salle 9, No. 8 Liberty 1:
De La Salle is two victories from a sixth consecutive NCS Division I championship after stretching its section-playoff win streak to 22 games with a rout at home over Liberty.
The Spartans scored all the runs they needed with two in the first. They widened the advantage to 6-0 after three and 9-0 after four.
Danny McInnis and Kai Smith each had two hits and three players — McInnis, Smith and Alec Blair — knocked in two runs apiece as De La Salle improved to 22-5.
RJ Meyn allowed four hits in five scoreless innings and Jack Karst pitched the final two innings for the Spartans.
Sutter Doctolero knocked in Liberty's only run, in the seventh inning.
The Lions finished 17-10.
No. 3Clayton Valley Charter 4, No. 11 James Logan 3:
Nico Olson's single in the home half of the fifth drove in the go-ahead run as Clayton Valley held off visiting James Logan in an NCS quarterfinal.
Trevian Martinez's single in the top half of the inning pulled Logan even 3-3.
The victory moved the
Ugly Eagles into a semifinal on Tuesday at secondseeded San Ramon Valley, a 3-1 winner over Berkeley on Friday.
Jesus Vasquez's first-inning double drove in a run to give Logan a 1-0 edge. Kyle Connelly answered with a three-run homer in the bottom of the inning to put the home team on top.
Clayton Valley (21-5) held the advantage until Martinez's hit in the fifth.
Logan finished 19-7.
Division III
No. 3 Campolindo 2, No. 6 Novato 1 : With a little help from Novato's defense, junior Andy Moon sent Campolindo to the NCS Division III semifinals with a walkoff fly ball. The outfield misplayed the ball, allowing Campo's William Myers to score in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Freshman Graham Schlicht threw eight innings of one-run ball to get Campo to that point. The Cougars, now 17-8-1, will play Redwood Christian in a semifinal on Tuesday at San Leandro Ball Park.
No. 5 Bishop O'Dowd 1, No. 4 Alhambra:
Bishop O'Dowd's seniors Matt Orozco and Cole Pugsley combined to strike out eight and allowed just four hits in the shutout.
O'Dowd didn't get much production at the plate, but junior Owen Merritt had two hits and drove in the Dragons' only run of the day.
Alhambra finished its season 18-8.
O'Dowd improved to 1512 and will face either No. 1 Cardinal Newman or No. 8 St. Mary's-Berkeley in the semifinals.
No. 2 Redwood Christian 4, No. 10 Las Lomas 3:
Las Lomas put up a strong fight, but its seventh-inning rally fell just short. The Knights scored twice in their final atbat, but Redwood Christian held on for the slim victory.
Redwood Christian starter Craig Yanagihara pitched five innings and struck out 11.
Junior Noah Lathrop was 3 for 4 and junior Brady Wright had an RBI for Las Lomas.
Las Lomas finished its season 13-13.
Redwood Christian improved to 18-4 and will play host to Campolindo on Tuesday in the semifinals at San Leandro Ball Park.
Division V No.8 Athenian 8, No. 1 Head-Royce 5:
Eighthseeded Athenian went to Oakland and took down the No. 1 seed, Head-Royce, in a quarterfinal game in which the teams combined for four homers. Athenian had three, by Tavi Greenfield, Colin O'Byrne and Nate Copeland.
Head-Royce's Nathan Lynn also had three RBIs and hit a home run. Senior Blake Schaaf had two hits and two RBIs for HeadRoyce, which finished its season 14-8.
Athenian (8-14) will travel to Vincent de Paul on Tuesday.