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San Francisco Chronicle
28-05-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
De La Salle to meet familiar foe College Park in D1 NCS baseball final
They trained together all offseason and now the baseball teams at College Park-Pleasant Hill and De La Salle-Concord will face off for the North Coast Section Division 1 championship. De La Salle coach David Jeans frankly didn't want to think about it after his team's 10-1 home win over Foothill-Pleasanton on Tuesday. Antonio Castro blasted two home runs, including a grand slam, and Stanford-bound juniors Tyler Spangler (10th home run) and Graham Schlicht (six-hitter, six strikeouts), did much of the rest as the Spartans (25-4) advanced to their 13th straight NCS title game. They'll go after NCS title No. 15 overall and ninth in 12 seasons at 1 p.m. Saturday against the Falcons (17-10) at St. Mary's College. College Park won its ninth game in 10 tries with an equally dominating 10-0 win over Casa Grande-Petaluma on Tuesday. College Park beat De La Salle 5-2 in the 2015 NCS Division 1 final, also at St. Mary's. 'We're great friends with them,' said Jeans after Tuesday's win. The 14-year head coach recently won his 300th game. 'We work out together in the summer and fall. We played them earlier in the year. They're grinders and tough guys. Their record doesn't indicate how well they're coached. Coach (Andy) Tarpley does a great job.' With that, Jeans excused himself to enjoy Tuesday's victory, which came after Foothill's Jack Fowler led off the game with a long home run. From there, Schlicht didn't allow a single batter even to second base while improving to 10-0. His ERA is 0.75 with 90 strikeouts in 65⅔ innings and just 31 hits allowed. Fowler's homer was the first Schlicht allowed all season. 'Graham was awesome today,' Jeans said. 'He's been that way all year long. He got behind a really good hitter and threw it down the middle. But it didn't faze Graham. He just got back up on the bump and threw pitches for strikes and was consistent. That's the Graham we love.' Schlicht loved the Spartans' first hit — a grand slam by Castro in the second inning off Take Sato-Kreis (five walks in four innings) to go up 5-1. From there, the familiar De La Salle slug was on with Spangler and Castro going back-to-back with homers in the fifth, followed by a two-run double by Niko Baumgartner. De La Salle, whose 33-game playoff winning streak was ended last year by Granada-Livermore, has outscored three NCS playoff opponents 37-6. The left-handed hitting trio of Spangler, Castro and Oklahoma-bound center fielder Alec Blair is a combined 100 for 238 (.420 average) with 96 runs, 96 RBIs and 20 home runs. 'We've never had three (in a row) like that before,' Jeans said. 'These guys are really special.' Spangler said the season-ending loss to Granada last year 'was the worst feeling ever. We were trying to play for our seniors, and seeing them leave the field like that was a terrible feeling. We're trying to get back to that dogpile (to celebrate) at the end. What happened last year can't happen again.' College Park is a red-hot team that got contributions Tuesday up and down the lineup, including TJ Reinhart and Vincent Vasell, who each had two hits and two RBIs. Winning pitcher James Voorhies fired six scoreless innings. The Falcons managed just four hits off sophomore Cooper Barnes in a 5-1 loss to De La Salle on March 26. More baseball results: In Division 3 NCS semifinals, top-seeded California-San Ramon (15-11) got an RBI triple from Johnny Edwards and two hits each by Ethan Rye and Jacob Casiano to defeat 12th-seeded Freedom-Oakley 7-4 and now faces sixth-seeded Marin Catholic (16-12), a 4-3 winner over Northgate-Walnut Creek (18-8). A two-run double from Johnny Greco helped pitcher Carson Davis improve to 5-2 with a 1.83 ERA. NCS softball: Callie Howard fired a three-hitter with 13 strikeouts, leading top-seeded Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (21-6) to a 7-0 win over Benicia on Tuesday in a Division 2 semifinal game. The Cardinals will now play Carondelet-Concord (15-12), which got three hits by Angela Gates and 11 strikeouts from Maia Scholtens in an 11-4 semifinal win over James Logan-Union City. The championship is scheduled for Friday but the venue had yet to be determined Wednesday afternoon.
San Francisco Chronicle
16-05-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Granada baseball tops No. 1 De La Salle for EBAL championship
If every season is its own animal, as Granada-Livermore baseball coach Corrigan Willis says, 2024 was a whale — a blue whale, mammoth and spectacular. The Matadors won East Bay Athletic League, North Coast Section and Northern Region Division 1 titles, a first for each, while finishing 32-1 and ranking in the top five in every national poll. The odds of a repeat season appeared mammoth, yet host Granada pulled off the first stage Thursday in the EBAL championship game with a 5-1 win over Chronicle No. 1 De La Salle-Concord as winning pitcher Tyler Kennedy allowed just four hits and a run and struck out seven before giving way to Mason Ravera in the seventh. Fresno State-bound third baseman Mikey Boyd drove in four runs, including two on a double, and Joey Marasco and Tommy Brown each had two hits to lift the fourth-ranked Matadors (21-5) to their second straight win this season over the Spartans (22-4) and sixth straight overall. Granada shut out De La Salle twice in the playoffs last year and held the Spartans scoreless until the sixth inning when Alec Blair hit an RBI double. Clearly, the Matadors are far from intimidated by the Spartans, who have built a remarkable resume under David Jeans, winner of his 300th game last week. De La Salle, led currently by the Oklahoma-bound Blair and top junior shortstop prospect Tyler Spangler, a Stanford commit, won six straight NCS titles before Granada's championship last season. De La Salle had won 12 straight this season before Thursday by a 110-13 run differential thanks in part to the big bats of outfielder Blair (.439 average), junior catcher Zach Tchejeyan (.387), Spangler (.385, 34 RBIs, nine home runs) and senior infielder Antonio Castro (.351, five homers, 29 RBIs) and pitching of Stanford-bound junior Graham Schlicht (8-0, 0.52 ERA). Granada has countered with big seasons from seniors Boyd (nine doubles, 22 RBIs), Pacific outfield signee Peyton Richards (.390, 30 doubles, 32 hits), Marasco (.338) and Arizona State-bound catcher Brown (.328, 22 runs, eight doubles), along with the pitching of Kennedy (6-1, 0.95) and Alex Piscotty (8-0, 0.42). 'We have a dedicated group of seniors who work hard and are hungry,' Willis said Friday morning. 'It's a lesson learned from the 2024 campaign and one that we hope will continue on with next year's group.' More impressive on Granada's run is it has done it without USC-bound ace pitcher Jake Sekany, who went 10-1 last season with a 1.85 ERA. He pitched 12 innings early this season, going 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA, but then was shut down. 'Something wasn't quite right,' Willis said. 'We are being extra careful because of his bright future. Literally, we're taking him day by day.' The NCS playoff seedings will be announced this weekend and Granada and De La Salle will no doubt be the top two seeds, and could face off again. 'We're looking forward to NCS and we're playing well,' Willis said. 'But as a coach, I've learned to take a moment and appreciate winning in this very tough league.' Bellarmine shocker: The only tougher Northern California league than the EBAL is the West Catholic Athletic League, and when Bellarmine started 0-5, the Bells became an afterthought. After losing four more in a row starting on April 25, the season looked cooked. But now the Bells are doing the cooking, claiming a WCAL playoff championship by defeating ninth-ranked St. Francis (4-1), No. 2 Serra (1-0) and No. 3 Valley Christian (3-1) in succession this week. The Bells (17-13), who were fifth in the WCAL in the regular season, became the first bottom-four seed to win the conference tournament. Christian Duarte, a 6-foot-6 commit to Santa Clara, threw a four-hitter Thursday at Valley Christian to clinch the title. He struck out just two, walked two and didn't allow an extra-base hit. Vincent Kim had an RBI double and Dash Knight singled in a run for the Bells. Rohan Kasanagottu pitched 3⅓ scoreless and hitless innings of relief for Valley Christian (23-6-1), which had won 10 straight coming into the game and will likely get a top-two seed in next week's Central Coast Section playoffs. Briefly: From a busy Thursday — No. 12 Livermore (23-11) won the EBAL softball playoff title with a 7-4 win over No. 11 California as Payten Williams drilled a three-run homer and winning pitcher Kaci Norton struck out five. … Northgate-Walnut Creek (Division 1), International (Division 2), Washington-Fremont (Division 3) and Berean Christian-Walnut Creek (Division 4) all won NCS boys volleyball titles and advanced to next week's Northern California regionals with those champions advancing to the first CIF State championships May 31 at Fresno City College. … NCS lacrosse champions crowned: Marin Catholic-Kentfield (Division 1 boys), University (Division 2 boys), Redwood-Larkspur (Division 1 girls), College Park-Pleasant Hill (Division 2 girls).
Los Angeles Times
06-04-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Daleah Cardenas lifts Rosary to Michelle Carew Softball Classic championship win
Given a chance at redemption, Daleah Cardenas made the most of her opportunity Saturday night in the Gold Division championship game of the Michelle Carew Softball Classic at Peralta Park in Anaheim. Relieving starter Ava Phillips, the Rosary senior pitcher got eight outs and did not allow a base runner to close out an 8-4 upset of Orange Lutheran. 'My drop curve is my best pitch and I was using it a lot,' said Cardenas, who shook off a poor outing in the semifinals earlier when she faced six batters, allowed four hits, hit a batter and recorded only one out. 'I feel the pressure when there's a huge crowd like this, but I just lock in and focus like it's just me and my catcher.' Phillips, who was selected Most Valuable Pitcher of the tournament, finally tired with one out in the fifth inning after having pitched 11 innings in two games Saturday — the second of which ended just before midnight. Cardenas got a double play to end the fifth, induced three Lancers lefties to ground out to first base in the sixth, got Kai Minor (Orange Lutheran's Oklahoma-bound center fielder) to hit a grounder back to her, struck out Madelyn Armendariz and got Cate Medvitz to line out to left field. In the Silver Division final, catcher Gia Otani tagged a runner out at the plate to save a run in the third inning, then belted a solo homer in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie as Oaks Christian held on to beat Millikan 2-1. Poway doubled up Riverside King 8-4 to take third place, Eastvale Roosevelt beat Capistrano Valley 12-8 for fifth and Tucson (Ariz.) Canyon Del Oro beat Phoenix Canyon View 6-1 for seventh. Anaheim Canyon edged Great Oak 4-3 to win the Bronze Division title when Sophia Sandoval scored from third base on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh.
