Valley Christian senior Nathan Choi reached twice on an error and walk and stole a base in the Warriors’ win over De La Salle in the Northern California semifinals Thursday.
D. Scott Dinn
So many numbers went against Valley Christian’s baseball team on Thursday. But with pitching like the Warriors have, none of it mattered.
Gabe Felix and Alex Kim combined to throw Valley Christian’s fourth consecutive postseason shutout, this one a 3-0 victory over top-seeded De La Salle-Concord in the Northern California Division 1 semifinals.
In advancing to the NorCal final, the Warriors (22-9) ended the Spartans’ 53-game home playoff win streak that dated to 2006.
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Felix (9-3) lowered his ERA to 0.95 by working 6⅓ innings, allowing seven hits, walking none and striking out four. Kim got the last two outs, both by strikeout, the last coming with two runners on for his fifth save.
Valley Christian, the fourth seed, now travels to Saturday’s 4 p.m. championship against second-seeded Elk Grove (29-6).
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De La Salle, winners of three of the past four NorCal Division 1 titles, finished 23-5. In all three of those championships, the Spartans produced big seventh-inning rallies, including a six-run outburst against Valley Christian three seasons previous in San Jose. The Spartans celebrated wildly on the Warriors’ home field that day.
Because Valley Christian has one more game left, its celebration was much more subdued, but the win was most gratifying, especially for a second-place West Catholic Athletic League team that had four league losses. Since then, the Warriors have won five straight in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 19-2.
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On Thursday, Alex Moutzouridis, a junior left fielder, drove in two runs with a solo home run in the fourth and a groundout in the first that scored UCLA-bound Colton Hadfield, who had two of his team’s five hits. Logan Mull scored the team’s other run when losing pitcher Kaleo Jones dropped a popout in the first with two out.
De La Salle got a single and double from Jacob Gray, and made a lot of loud contact for outs. But Felix, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound left-hander, eventually settled down, retiring 10 straight after Gray’s leadoff double in the fourth. After a one-out single by Bubba Vargas in the seventh, Kim entered, got one strikeout, gave up a walk to Emmet Freeman, then struck out freshman Brandon Manivong to end it.
After the game, De La Salle coach David Jeans announced his retirement following 16 seasons as head coach (25 seasons overall). His varsity record was 327-78, with nine North Coast Section and three NorCal titles.
The 2026 team was one of his favorites, he said, especially considering the Spartans returned just two starters from their 2025 NorCal title team, although their top star, Stanford-bound shortstop Tyler Spangler, a projected first-round pick in the July MLB draft, missed the season due to a back injury.
The Spartans actually went 23-2 on the field, having forfeited three games to start the season for breaking unspecified school rules. Despite that and Thursday’s defeat, Jeans said, “It was an amazing group. The mix of older pitchers with the young position guys was fantastic. The new guys stepped into their roles and didn’t miss a beat. This group was so close to each other. Their relationships defined them.”
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Jeans said he was most proud of his program’s “family” approach over the years. “Baseball gets such a bad rap in terms of individual achievement and ‘me’ over ‘we.’ The families and players bought into the bigger picture. … The players were selfless.”
Valley Christian takes its 32-inning scoreless streak into Saturday’s title game.
Elk Grove 11, Granada 7: A four-run fifth inning gave the visiting Matadors (20-10) a 7-6 lead before the home team scored five in the sixth. Colton Rieke had one of four Granada doubles and drove in two runs for the Matadors, who got two hits each from Max Rocheleau and Jarrett Fahnhorst.
More NorCal baseball: Mitty, which finished seventh in the WCAL with a 4-10 record, moved into the Division 2 final with a 3-2 win at Rodriguez-Fairfield (25-9) in eight innings. Ethan Chase scored the go-ahead run on a two-out Rodriguez error. The Monarchs (20-11) fought back from a 2-0 deficit with single runs in the fifth and sixth thanks largely to two hits from Tyler Manago and an RBI from Andre Lopez Monsivais. Gabe Lopez (5⅓ innings, three hits), Lopez Monsivais and Nico Mata combined on a four-hitter for Mitty. The Monarchs now travel to face second-seeded Franklin-Elk Grove, a 7-6 winner over Los Gatos, also in a game that went eight innings. Los Gatos (26-5) got three hits including a run-scoring double by Sully Roberts and two RBIs each from Brady Simon and Trenton Welsh. Franklin (24-9-1) scored two runs in the bottom of seventh to force extra innings and one in the eighth to win it despite being outhit 12-9. Los Gatos committed four errors leading to five unearned runs. … In Division 3, sophomores Liam Widner and Reid Plamondon combined on a five-hitter to lead second-seeded Menlo School-Atherton (22-10-1) to a 2-1 home win over third-seeded Alameda (18-14), which got within a run on an RBI double from Archer Schullstrom in the sixth. Menlo, which travels to face top-seeded Roseville (29-4) on Saturday, scored in the third and fifth on RBIs from Jack Freehill. … Livermore (12-18) advanced to the Division 4 final with a 13-5 win over Immanuel-Reedley thanks to two home runs and seven RBIs from Braden Ford. Dylan Wherry also drove in three with a double and a home run for the Cowboys, who finished last in the East Bay Athletic League at 1-7 but qualified for the NCS playoffs with a 3-1 record against teams within their enrollment division. Livermore, winners of six straight, play at top-seeded Half Moon Bay (22-9), which needed just 4½ innings to beat West Valley-Cottonwood (Shasta County) 10-0 behind three RBIs from Cole Giannini and a combined three-hitter from Paxton Holden and Tristan Castro.
Softball: Alameda (Division 2) and Moreau Catholic-Hayward (Division 5) are the last two Metro teams standing after semifinal wins. Top-seeded Alameda (24-5) got two hits apiece from Mia Wong and winning pitcher Julia Lambert, Molly Cho added a two-run single and Miley Gradney a run-scoring double in a 7-3 semifinal home win over Hollister. The Hornets host Del Oro-Loomis, a 6-0 winner over Willow Glen-San Jose, in Saturday’s 10 a.m. championship. … Moreau Catholic (18-12) beat top-seeded Notre Dame-Belmont 7-3 behind two RBIs each from Olivia Ritchie, Sienna Rios and Mia Burrell. Rios and Burrell each homered and Ritchie tripled. Notre Dame (16-12-1) got two hits each from Hailey Truong (double and triple) and Molly Hipps. Moreau travels 120 miles to second-seeded Le Grand (Merced County), a 5-1 winner over Durham (Butte County), in Saturday’s 4 p.m. title game. … In Division 1, fourth-seeded St. Francis (26-5) dropped a 4-3 decision to top-seeded Destiny Christian Academy-Sacramento (30-0) despite two hits and an RBI from Jaime Oakland. Maya Meltz and Malianna Liongitau also drove in runs for the Monarchs, who gave up three runs in the first and one in the third.
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Boys golf: De La Salle junior Drue Sanchez earned medalist honors in the state tournament on Wednesday with a 5-under-par 66 at San Gabriel Country Club, leading the Spartans (368 strokes, 13-over par) to a second-place finish behind champion Stevenson-Pebble Beach (356). Los Alamitos (373), Sunny Hills-Fullerton (374), Classical Academy-San Diego (376) and Jesuit-Sacramento (392) rounded out the six-team field. Other metro golfers under par were College Prep-Oakland’s William Chang (69) and Dougherty Valley-San Ramon’s Nakul Shrivastava (70). Barron Beinke and Tavin McKinley shot 74s for De La Salle.
Freelance writer Mitch Stephens has covered high school sports for the Chronicle since 2001. Email: mitch@scorebooklive.com