DLS baseball team continues to roll
The North Coast Section baseball playoffs began with a comfortable win for defending Division I champion De La Salle, a three seed tumbling and a longtime coach seeing his career come to an end.
Few teams are hotter than De La Salle, which won for the 18th time in 19 games Tuesday as it beat No. 16 seed Castro Valley 9-1.
Austin Elder had a home run and three RBIs and Taison Corio and Blake Burke each had two hits to help ignite DLS, which will play at home Friday against San Ramon Valley in the quarterfinals.
No. 3 seed Berkeley was not so fortunate. The Yellow Jackets lost 2-1 to 14thseeded Freedom, which got a complete game from Brian McBroom and two hits and an RBI from Andrew Neil, both sophomores.
No. 5 seed Monte Vista had an early two-run lead against No. 12 seed Clayton Valley Charter, but the Ugly Eagles rallied for a 4-2 victory, marking the final game for longtime Monte Vista coach Bill Piona, who is riding off into the sunset with his wife, who also is retiring.
“It's been 31 years here and 41 years teaching,” Piona said last week. “It just felt like the right time.”
Boys volleyball
Irvington's boys volleyball team found out about competitive equity. The Vikings beat Amador Valley in five sets last week for the North Coast Section Division I title, a thrilling achievement for a program that began playing in 2013.
When the NorCal pairings came out over the weekend, Irvington was the eighth and final seed in Division I, and Amador Valley was seeded No. 1 in Division II.
Amador Valley won at home Tuesday over Del Oro and will play host to No. 4 seed Aptos on Thursday.
Irvington traveled to the Fresno area and lost in straight sets to top seed Buchanan.
Bellarmine, seeded second in Division I, swept Roseville and No. 3 seed Monta Vista swept Whitney, setting up a rematch between the Central Coast Section powers that was scheduled to be played Wednesday night.
The Bellarmine-Monta Vista winner will meet Buchanan or No. 4 seed Clovis for the title Saturday.
Football
A fishing trip with a friend and coaching his grandson in Tee-ball over Mother's Day weekend got Nick Alfano thinking about family and coaching football.
A roller-coaster sealed the deal.
“We went to Gilroy Gardens and we're riding the roller-coaster,” Alfano said. “My wife was next to me. My son-in-law was in front of me. My 4 ½-year-old grandson was right next to him. I literally got off the roller-coaster and looked at my wife and said, ‘I think I am done.'”
A day later, Alfano stepped down as Santa Teresa's football coach after 17 years at the San Jose school.
“I've poured my heart and soul in here,” Alfano said. “I am still going to teach and be a liaison. I was very fortunate. I went behind Ron Capurso. Before him it was Chon Gallegos. There has only been three head coaches in Santa Teresa history.”
The school opened in 1974. ride