Prep Rally: Baseball playoffs are dominated by ace pitchers so far
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer.
Pitchers come through
There’s no playing games when the baseball playoffs begin. In the opening round, you get No. 1 pitcher vs. No. 1 pitcher.. It’s mano a mano. There were top performances across all divisions in the Southern Section.
There was Zach Strickland of Maranatha striking out 17 while throwing a no-hitter in a Southern Section Division 2 win over Royal. There was Gary Morse of Orange Lutheran throwing a one-hitter in a Division 1 win over Sierra Canyon. There was Cade Townsend of Santa Margarita striking out 11 in a Division 1 shutout against Tesoro.
There was Dylan Volantis of Westlake striking out 10 while giving up only two hits in six shutout innings against Mira Costa in Division 2. There was Wylan Moss of Mater Dei throwing a four-hit shutout of Damien in Division 1. There was Jackson Klein of Santa Monica throwing his third no-hitter of the season in a Division 5 shutout of Nogales.
Travis Maxwell of El Dorado tried to pull off the biggest upset, shutting out No. 1 Corona for six innings. The problem was Corona’s pitching was equally good, and Billy Carlson won it with a home run in the seventh.
Here’s a look at the drama. Here’s a look at Camarillo’s Boston Bateman, who has allowed eight hits all season.
Action resumes on Tuesday. Here’s updated brackets.
In the City Section, the final week of the regular season features the two-game series between Birmingham and Granada Hills to decide the West Valley League championship and likely No. 1 seed for City Section Open Division playoffs. Birmingham has a one-game lead. Playoff pairings will be announced Sunday.
Softball
Granada Hills is seeded No. 1 for the City Section Open Division playoffs that begin this week. The Highlanders have been the dominant team all season and are heavily favored to win the title behind pitcher Addison Moorman.
The Southern Section Division 1 playoffs begin on Tuesday with Orange Lutheran and pitcher Brianne Weiss seeded No. 1.
The matchup of Oaks Christian at Los Alamitos figures to be the best opener. Both teams have strong offenses.
Track
The Southern Section track and field championships are set for Saturday at Moorpark High. Qualifying was completed this past weekend at four sites for the prelims.
In the boys Division 1 100, Devin Bragg of Los Alamitos had the fastest time of 10.53, but Valencia’s Brian Bonner, only a sophomore, ran a personal-best 10.56.
In girls Division 2, Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura qualified in the 1,600, clearing the way for her to go after a record on Saturday. Here’s a report from prelims.
The City Section will hold its track prelims on Friday at El Camino College. Jordan Coleman of Granada Hills ran a 10.67 100 meters at the West Valley League finals. At the Marine League finals, Christina Gray of Carson ran the girls’ 100 in 11.83 and the 200 in 24.65. Jerald Martin Evangelista of Carson led the long jumpers at 21-3.
Volleyball
It doesn’t get any better than the Southern Section Division 1 final on Saturday at Cerritos College matching Loyola against its volleyball rival Mira Costa. They met earlier this season at Mira Costa, where a large crowd saw Loyola win behind its All-American, Sean Kelly.
On Saturday, Loyola needd 36 kills and four aces from Kelly to hold off Newport Harbor. Mira Costa defeated Corona del Mar. Here’s the report.
The City Section Open Division championship will be played Saturday at 6 p.m. at Cal State Northridge. Tuesday’s semifinals have Palisades at No. 1 Chatsworth and El Camino Real at Eagle Rock.
Beach volleyball
What a senior year it has been for El Camino Real volleyball player Audrey Choi.
In the fall, she was an outside hitter on the Royals’ indoor volleyball team that captured the City Open Division championship.
Choi and freshman sister Addison won the City girls’ beach volleyball pairs tournament.
Last week she completed the “trifecta” by leading the Royals to the beach volleyball team crown in Santa Monica over Taft.
Here’s the report.
Jim Ozella’s legacy
Jim Ozella is retiring after 25 years as head baseball coach at Hart and some 40 years of coaching. He won nine Foothill League titles and sent numerous players off to play college baseball and the pros. The Indians won their opening playoff game in 14 innings to delay Ozella’s retirement.
Here’s a profile on the impact he made.
Surfing star
Jonas Meskis, 17, acts like every day is a good day.
“I’m living the good life,” he says. “It’s incredible.”
He’s a surfer traveling the world and visiting surfing hotspots along with his twin brother, Jackson.
“Oh my gosh, it’s incredible. It’s so cool,” he said.
This weekend Jonas is in Surf City, El Salvador, competing at the World Junior Surfing championships. Last month, he was in British Columba winning the Canadian Junior national championship.
A look at the Moorpark resident’s routine and love for surfing.
Diving prodigy
The story of freshman diver Josiah Rosales-Cristales of Hawkins High will make you smile on any day.
He taught himself how to dive through videos on YouTube growing up in South Los Angeles. At age 4, he was so excited to try diving at the neighborhood pool that he didn’t tell the truth about his age.
“He lied about his age and told them he was older and that’s how they allowed him to use the spring board,” his mother, Sabrina, said.
On Wednesday at the City Section diving championships at Palisades High, no one knew who Rosales-Cristales was.
“Honestly, I never thought I’d win,” he said.
Except he did win.
The 14-year-old freshman accumulated a total of 278.80 points in 11 dives to outscore a trio of Palisades boys on the 1-meter board. Here’s a report.
Swimming
It was the Teagan O’Dell show at the Southern Section Division 1 swimming championships at Mt. SAC. The Santa Margarita star started by setting a Division 1 record in the girls 200 IM at 1:53.63 and led the Eagles to the girls’ team championship with 439 points. Second place Mira Costa had 180 points.
O’Dell also won the 100 butterfly.
Santa Margarita also won the boys title with Loyola finishing second. Anthony Brown of Loyola won the 50 freestyle and teammate Ray Liu took the 100 backstroke.
At the City Section championships, for the second straight year, the girls’ swimming championship was decided on the last event and again Granada Hills won it. Only this time the Highlanders had to share the title with Palisades, which rallied to take second place in the 400-meter freestyle relay by a mere 0.59 seconds Saturday, thanks to a blazing anchor leg by freshman Alexis Burrell.
Here’s the report from the City Section finals. The state championships will take place this weekend in Clovis.
Lacrosse
The top four teams in boys lacrosse have been pretty much the same all season, so now it’s time to determine which team is best. The Southern Section Division 1 semifinals are set for Tuesday with St. Margaret’s at Mater Dei and Foothill at Loyola.
In girls’ lacrosse, the semifinals will have Foothill playing Redondo Union and Mira Costa taking on Marlborough.
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Notes . . .
Alex Agregado has been promoted from junior varsity to varsity head boys basketball coach at Don Lugo. She’s the first female boys head basketball coach at Don Lugo. . . .
Quarterback JP Mialovski from Long Beach Millikan has committed to San Diego State. . . .
Campbell Hall has dropped its football program. Coach Dennis Keyes had been head coach the last 10 years. That leaves the Gold Coast League with only three 11-man football teams. . . .
Quinn Hartman of Marina has been selected the CIF scholar athlete of the year and received a scholarship for his academic and athletic performance. . . .
Joseph Vargas of Cleveland has committed to UC San Diego for cross-country. . . .
Orange Lutheran tight end AJ La has committed to Arizona State. . . .
Orange Lutheran offensive lineman Cole Principe has committed to Rice. . . .
Nick Graffis is the new boys water polo coach at Huntington Beach. . . .
Darryl Carter is the new boys basketball coach at Burroughs. He was an assistant at Crespi. . . .
Servite soccer player Aeneas Mires has been named the school’s valedictorian. He plans to attend UCLA. . . .
Former West Ranch coach Jeff Bryant is the new basketball coach at Palisades. . . .
Jesse Ceniceros has resigned as football coach at Sierra Vista. . . .
Offensive lineman Maki Stewart of Long Beach Millikan has committed to Arizona State. . . .
Infielder Riley Horn from Peninsula has committed to St. Mary’s. . . .
Linebacker Nasir Wyatt from Mater Dei has committed to Oregon. . . .
Former St. John Bosco defensive back Peyton Woodyard has left Alabama for Oregon.
From the archives: Chris Valaika
Former Hart baseball standout Chris Valaika has been the hitting coach for the Cleveland Guardians since the 2022 season. He played at UC Santa Barbara and was a third-round draft selection by the Reds. He made his major-league debut in 2010 and played until 2014.
Valaika is the oldest of four baseball-playing brothers. Patrick also made it to the majors and is now an assistant coach at UCLA.
Here’s a story from 2010 about the Valaika brothers.
Recommendations
From the Washington Post, a story on a softball pitcher with four no-hitters.
From Signalscv.com, a story on Hart High introducing its new mascot, a hawk.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on the arrival of former Harvard-Westlake star Kiki Iriafen coming to USC.
Tweets you might have missed
Until next time...
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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