Los Gatos bounces back to earn share of league title
After a 2-1 loss to Milpitas on May 4, the Los Gatos High School softball team knew it would most likely have to win its final two regular season games to have any shot at a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division title.
Mission accomplished.
The Wildcats outscored their two opponents by a total of 18-3 last week to earn a CO-SCVAL De Anza Division championship with Milpitas. Both teams finished with 11-1 De Anza Division records.
Los Gatos had a 1-1 record against Milpitas this league season, but the Wildcats won a tiebreaker (run differential in those two games, 4-2) which allowed the Wildcats to advance to the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs as the SCVAL De Anza Division representative, Los Gatos coach Randy Frey said. The Wildcats (22-3 overall) play a first-round game on Saturday. The seeding meeting occurred after this article went to press.
“They did what they needed to do,” said Frey about his team winning its final two regular-season games. “We had to take care of business on our end, and the girls went out and did it.”
Los Gatos started last week with a 12-3 victory over host Wilcox on May 11. The Wildcats had scored only 15 runs total in its previous four games.
“The thing that cost us at that Milpitas game was that our bats went quiet, which was uncharacteristic,” Frey said. “One of the drills we did at the end of the season was hitting the ball up the middle and on the right side. We had to get back to seeing the ball and hitting it hard.”
Los Gatos sure hit the ball hard against Wilcox — three different Wildcats slammed home runs, which is a rare occurrence. Lynsey Chiala smashed a three-run home run in the third inning, as the Wildcats took a 5-0 lead in that inning. Addie Payne added a two-run home run in the fourth inning and Anna Bean hit a threerun home run in the seventh inning for a 12-2 Los Gatos advantage.
Sree Sareday was 3 for 4, including a triple, with two runs scored for the Wildcats in the victory. Bean and Chiala each finished with two hits, four RBI and a run scored. Besides the home run, Bean also had a double. Sara Sharma and Annika Norquist both had two hits for the Wildcats, including a double for Sharma. Sara Martin also produced a double, a walk and two runs scored for Los Gatos.
Chiala threw a masterpiece in a 6-0 shutout of Mountain View in the May 13 regular-season finale. The senior had a perfect game through four innings and finished with a two-hitter, seven strikeouts and no walks in a complete-game performance.
Offensively, Sareday smashed three doubles, scored a run and drove in a run. Sharma was also 3 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI. Skyler Rios was 2 for 3, including a double, and scored a run.
Baseball
Los Gatos High School reached
the SCVAL De Anza Division Playoff semifinals before being edged 4-3 by Wilcox in eight innings on May 11.
The visiting Wildcats tied the score at 3-3 in the top of the seventh, but Wilcox pushed ahead the winning run in the eighth. AJ Ljepava, a sophomore, hit two doubles for Los Gatos and drove in a run. Teammate Carter Johnstone was 2 for 3, including a double, with a run scored and an RBI. Kaito Haake also drove in a run for Los Gatos.
In a quarterfinal game on May 10, Los Gatos defeated Homestead 4-1. The host Wildcats scored three runs in the sixth inning to take command. Los Gatos' Drew Dillehay slammed a solo home run and finished 2 for 4 with two
runs scored. Johnstone drove in two runs and was also 2 for 4. Jake Boyd also had two hits, and also scored a run and drove in one for the Wildcats. Haake threw a complete-game two-hitter to stymie Homestead.
Los Gatos entered this week with a 13-16 overall record. The CCS seeding meeting was held on Wednesday after this publication went to press.
Swimming
Two Los Gatos High School swimmers reached the B finals of the California Interscholastic Federation swimming championships last week in Clovis.
Ewan Lonergan, a sophomore, was second in the B final of the boys 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 56.06 seconds. In the trials, he had the 11th-fastest overall time (56.32). Both were an improvement on his CCS finals time of 56.51.
Zoe Frangieh, a senior, was eighth in the B final of the girls 50 freestyle (23.97). Her trials time was 23.65, an improvement on her CCS finals time of 23.76.
Track and field
A number of Los Gatos High School athletes qualified for this Saturday's CCS Finals at the CCS Semifinals on May 13 at Gilroy High School.
Nicole Steiner had the top mark in the girls shot put with a huge personal-best mark of 39 feet, 5 inches. Hannah Slover tied for first in the girls high jump with a leap of 5-0. Wil Brennan had the third-fastest time in the boys 400 (49.81). Los Gatos placed two runners in the girls 1,600 finals; Sophie Tau had the sixth-fastest mark in the trials (5:05.50), and Fiona Herron was seventh (5:06.53). Tau was also the 12th and final qualifier in the girls 3,200 (11:44.87). Hailey Stone qualified by tying for 11th in the girls pole vault (8-6). Brady Kamali also tied for 11th in the boys high jump (6-0) to move on to the final.
The Los Gatos boys 1,600 relay team had the third-fastest time overall (3:27.21) and won its heat. The Wildcats girls 400 relay team had the eighth-fastest time in the trials (50.31), also qualifying for the finals.
At Saturday's CCS Finals, field events begin at 3 p.m. and track events start at 5 p.m.