Prep roundup: Washington-Fremont sends St. Francis to third straight baseball loss
Antioch rallies in softball from eight down in final inning, stuns Heritage on Savanah Greeson's walk-off grand slam. Westmont outlasts Pioneer in a baseball thriller.
Baseball
Washington-Fremont opened the season with three losses in its first four games. St. Francis swept a doubleheader last week against Northern California powerhouse De La Salle.
But baseball can be an unpredictable game, even in high school and especially this season.
Thursday, the surprises continued as Washington traveled to Mountain View and thumped St. Francis 6-2 behind five scoreless innings from Brandon Valdovinos and two RBIs apiece from Mateo Torres and Mateo Valadez.
The Huskies stretched their winning streak to four while improving to 9-5.
St. Francis – ranked eighth by the Bay Area News Group – lost its third in a row since winning two against De La Salle and fell to 10-8.
“It was huge,” said Washington coach Michael Sewell, who told his players afterward, “We have to build off this. Brandon Valdovinos was very solid for us tonight.”
Washington never trailed.
The Huskies scored a run in the first when Narayan Venkataramana singled to drive in Ezekiel Venn Porter.
The visitors then added five in the fifth to extend the lead to 6-0. Torres’ single knocked in two to make it 4-0 and Valadez’s triple brought in two more.
St. Francis scored its only runs in the sixth, one on Jason Borzello’s double and the other on Kyle Liu’s sacrifice fly.
Washington returns to Mission Valley Athletic League play on Monday at American, seeking its fifth league victory without a defeat.
St. Francis travels to 15th-ranked Menlo-Atherton on Saturday before getting back to West Catholic Athletic League play on Tuesday at St. Ignatius.
Westmont 12, No. 17 Pioneer 11 (8 innings)
Calling this game wild probably doesn’t do it justice. Pioneer held a 6-0 advantage after two innings. Westmont led 10-6 after 3 1/2. Pioneer pulled even 10-10 after five. Westmont went ahead 11-10 after 6 1/2. Pioneer tied it 11-11 to force extra innings.
Westmont went back on top in the visitor’s half of the eighth and then held on to win the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division thriller.
Joseph Dyer finished 2 for 2 with a triple and three RBIs and Ryan Rangel and Matthew Rienhardt each had two hits and two RBIs to lead Westmont (9-8, 4-6).
Nathan Tichy had four hits, including two doubles, and scored three runs, Noah Morales added three hits and Grayden Eister homered for Pioneer (10-5-1, 6-4). The home team also got three RBIs apiece from Derek Izumi and Ryan Haun.
The teams split the two-game series as Pioneer won at Westmont 4-1 on Tuesday.
No. 20 Branham 2, Christopher 1
Brady Edwards and Matt Garcia each drove in a run as Branham rallied for two in the fifth to beat visiting Christopher in a BVAL Mt. Hamilton game.
Evan Williams scattered nine hits while pitching a complete game to help Branham up its record to 12-6, 5-5.
Christopher is 10-5, 6-4.
Heritage 3, No. 18 Antioch 0
Heritage stretched its winning streak to 11 and completed a two-game sweep of Antioch in Bay Valley Athletic League play as Nicholas Leffel went 2 for 2 with a triple and two RBIs and Landon Marchetti pitched a three-hitter with nine strikeouts and just one walk.
The game was scoreless through four innings.
Heritage scored all of its runs in the fifth as it improved to 11-3 overall and 4-0 in the BVAL.
Antioch, which had won eight in a row before playing Heritage this week, fell to 11-4, 2-2.
No. 3 Archbishop Mitty 14, Carlmont 1
This non-league game at Mitty was no contest as the Monarchs led 5-0 after one, 10-0 after two and 14-0 after four on their way to improving to 14-4.
Noah Pang went 3 for 3 with a double and two RBIs, Matteo Blandino had two hits and knocked in three runs and Matthew Stivaletti finished with three hits to lead Mitty, which used five pitchers.
Carmont dropped to 7-9.
Softball
Antioch 12, No. 10 Heritage 11
They won’t forget this game anytime soon in East Contra Costa County. Heritage scored five in the seventh to take what seemed to be an insurmountable eight-run cushion into the home half of the final inning.
Then Antioch erupted.
The Panthers capped a nine-run bottom of the seventh when Savanah Greeson hit her second home run of the game — this one a walk-off grand slam — to send Antioch to a stunning BVAL victory.
Perhaps equally shocking is Antioch (9-6, 2-2) had just five hits. But the Panthers walked eight times and Heritage (8-4, 1-2) had two errors.
The visitors finished with 18 hits.
Monte Vista 10, Amador Valley 7
Can anyone explain Amador Valley? In the past week, the Dons came out of nowhere to upset No. 3 Archbishop Mitty, No. 7 Livermore and No. 2 San Ramon Valley.
Then …
They lost on Thursday at home to Monte Vista, which had dropped six of its previous seven games.
Monte Vista scored two in the first, fell behind 3-2 in the bottom half of the opening frame and went ahead for good with three in the third as the Mustangs upped their record to 5-7 overall and 3-1 in the East Bay Athletic League.
Emma Eichten led the way against Amador with four hits, including two doubles, and three RBIs. Lily Parikh added three hits and two RBIs and Rian Prichard had two hits and drove in two.
Amador fell to 7-10, 2-4.
No. 1 St. Francis 6, Gilroy 0
Shannon Keighran pitched a three-hitter with 14 strikeouts and Ava Bulanti hit a two-run homer as St. Francis extended its winning streak to eight with a non-league victory on the road over Gilroy.
The Lancers also got two doubles and three RBIs from Rebecca Quinn as they scored all of their runs in the first two innings.
St. Francis improved to 16-1. Gilroy is 4-7.
No. 2 San Ramon Valley 4, Dublin 1
Paige McLeod struck out eight and Cameron Tweddle had a hit and knocked in two runs as San Ramon Valley bounced back from a loss to Amador Valley to beat Dublin in EBAL play.
SRV is 13-3, 5-1. Dublin fell to 2-11, 0-6.
Foothill 14, Dougherty Valley 10
Foothill, playing at home in Pleasanton, overcame a 7-1 deficit after two innings to outlast Dougherty Valley in an EBAL game.
The Falcons scored five in the third and four in the fourth to grab a 10-9 lead. They added three in the fifth and one in the sixth to improve to 7-6, 3-1.
Marissa Anderson went 2 for 3 with a home run and five RBIs and Kaycie Burdick went 4 for 5 with a triple and scored four runs to lead Foothill.
Mylia Perez and two hits and knocked in two runs for Dougherty Valley (6-4, 1-3).
Leigh 5, Christopher 4
Leigh scored in the bottom of the seventh to edge Christopher. Brianna Buchmann had two hits, including a triple, and knocked in two for Leigh (9-5). Christopher is 3-3.