{"id":341104,"date":"2026-06-01T07:49:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341104\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T07:49:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:49:25","slug":"knights-fall-to-powerhouse-valley-christian-in-ccs-d-i-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/341104\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights fall to powerhouse Valley Christian in CCS D-I championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2014 Soquel High senior left-hander Jake Escalante uncharacteristically unleashed three straight balls to Valley Christian\u2019s Nathan Miller, the leadoff hitter in the second inning, and summoned Knights head coach T.J. Moran to the mound.<\/p>\n

After a short conversation, Escalante threw the ball twice to third baseman Anthony Skinner. With the ball back in his glove, Escalante slammed it to the ground and made an early exit with left arm pain, yelling an expletive when he reached the dugout.<\/p>\n

Gone was the Knights\u2019 staff ace, a Cal State Fullerton commit and MLB Draft prospect, and leadoff hitter. For how long? Likely the remainder of the playoffs, and likely much longer.<\/p>\n

\"SoquelSoquel High pitcher Jake Escalante pitches against Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Miller moved to second base on Alex Moutzouridis\u2019 sacrifice bunt and scored on Nathan Choi\u2019s bloop single to right field and that\u2019s all the offense the No. 2 seed Warriors needed in their 6-0 win over the No. 5 Knights in Central Coast Section Division I championship at Excite Ballpark on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey outplayed us,\u201d Moran said. \u201cI told the kids, \u2018They got the hits when they needed to and we didn\u2019t.\u2019 Injury aside, that wasn\u2019t really did it in for us. They just outplayed us. It is what it is; they\u2019re a good team. We\u2019re in the final of Division I and you\u2019re not going to play a not good team. They did a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teams advance to the CIF NorCal Regional playoffs, which begin Tuesday at 4 p.m. Soquel was placed in D-I with the No. 6 seed. It opens at No. 3 Elk Grove (27-6). (No. 4 Valley Christian and No. 8 Saint Francis of Mountain View were also placed in D-I. \u2026 No. 8 Santa Cruz (18-11), the CCS D-IV champ, opens at No. 1 Roseville (27-4) in D-III.)<\/p>\n

The Knights (23-5 overall), who have a staff ERA of 2.02 through 28 games, will likely be without Escalante. He told Moran he had elbow pain when he threw and felt it down his forearm.<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High outfielder Trey Sousa makes contact on a Valley Christian pitch in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High pitcher Luke Shoemaker pitches against Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High shortstop Hudson Summerrill singles against Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High catcher Cash Moran is emotional after the Knights’ loss to Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High assistant coach Greg Koenig comforts pitcher Jake Escalante, who exited the Knights’ loss to Valley Christian early with an injury in the Central Coast Section Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High shortstop Hudson Summerrill slides safely into second base in the sixth inning against Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High pitcher Jake Escalante pitches against Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High shortstop Hudson Summerrill runs to first base after putting the ball in play against Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Soquel<\/p>\n

Soquel High pitcher Dylan Hull pitches against Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 9<\/p>\n

Soquel High outfielder Trey Sousa makes contact on a Valley Christian pitch in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Several hundred Santa Cruz County baseball fans showed up at the Single-A San Jose Giants\u2019 stadium to support Soquel. They Knights were attempting to win their first section title since 1995 after shutting out a pair of West Catholic Athletic League opponents in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n

\"SoquelSoquel High outfielder Trey Sousa makes contact on a Valley Christian pitch in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was great, the stands were full, way more people than their side, I\u2019d say,\u201d said the Knights\u2019 Connor Corlett, a senior first baseman and pitcher who is committed to Whitman College.<\/p>\n

The Knights blanked Saint Ignatius 6-0 in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Valley Christian was intent on not letting Soquel complete the WCAL trifecta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was still an awesome run and we still have more baseball to play, obviously,\u201d Knights outfielder Sam Whelan said. \u201cIn my mind, it\u2019s still a very awesome experience. Looking back at this, we got to play in this great stadium, we got to knock off the number one team in the section. It\u2019s still a really cool story. I\u2019m not going to look back at it and be sad. It\u2019s still awesome. It\u2019s still really, really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning pitcher Gabriel Felix, a senior left-hander, worked ahead in the count throughout his five innings of work.\u00a0He gave up three hits, no walks, and struck out six batters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey attacked the zone the whole game,\u201d Corlett said. \u201cMultiple pitches in the zone, it makes it hard to time it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SoquelSoquel High shortstop Hudson Summerrill singles against Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Felix was relieved by senior right-hander Alex Kim, who gave one hit and one walk over two scoreless innings. He struck out the final two batters he faced and the Warriors stormed the field and rambunctiously celebrated the program\u2019s 12th section title with a massive dogpile.<\/p>\n

Warriors coach John Diatte said his team overcame multiple hurdles, including dealing with early season health issues and multiple family member deaths, which made the outcome extra special.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot for high school kids, and they kept grinding,\u201d he said. \u201cThey kept playing. It\u2019s a testament to them. They love each other, they care about each other. And our thing all year long, from the beginning, was to stay in the moment. \u2026 If we can just stay in the moment, we\u2019ve a chance to do something cool. And they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soquel had six baserunners, two of whom got into scoring position. Corlett hit a two-out single in the second inning and moved to second on Skinner\u2019s single, and Fresno State commit Hudson Summerrill hit a one-out single in the sixth, advanced to second on a throwing error, and moved to third on Brady Downs\u2019 ground out.<\/p>\n

UC Santa Barbara commit Luke Shoemaker, a junior, and senior Dylan Hull \u2014 who combined efforts to upset the No. 1 Saint Francis Lancers 1-0 in the semifinals \u2014 took the mound on three days rest. Shoemaker was tagged for two runs in the third inning and three in the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took us those three innings to settle down and swallow the pill,\u201d said Moran, of Escalante\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

Warriors junior third baseman Colton Hadfield, a UCLA commit, walked and scored on Christian Nevarez\u2019s two-out RBI double in the third. Nevarez scored on Miller\u2019s single.<\/p>\n

In the fourth, Choi singled and scored, and Hadfield smacked a two-run double to the right-center gap to drive in Jack Graham and Aiden Lepisi.<\/p>\n

\"SoquelSoquel High catcher Cash Moran is emotional after the Knights’ loss to Valley Christian in the CCS Division I championship game at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Saturday. (Sarah Smith – Santa Cruz Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Hull replaced Shoemaker with two outs and two runners on base in the fifth and recorded the first of his two strikeouts to escape the jam. He retired all four batters he faced in order.<\/p>\n

The Warriors enjoyed their post-game celebration and the Knights stood on the third-base line and watched it all as they waited to shake hands. Some did their best to fight their emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the guys, \u2018You\u2019re coming in second place in second place in a tournament of 50 teams,\u2019 \u201d Moran said. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty commendable. Obviously, we wanted to win, but they just outplayed us. It\u2019s part of the game. Stuff happens in life and injuries are part of sport, and we just gotta move on.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the feelings are real. I told the kids to feel all the feelings, learn from them, understand that that\u2019s life. You\u2019re gonna have some bad things happen and it\u2019s important to feel them and move through them.\u201d<\/p>\n

THE SCORE<\/p>\n

Valley Christian 6, Soquel 0<\/p>\n

Up next: NorCal Regional quarterfinals, No. 6 Soquel at No. 3 Elk Grove<\/p>\n

When: Tuesday, 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Where: Elk Grove High<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 Soquel High senior left-hander Jake Escalante uncharacteristically unleashed three straight balls to Valley Christian\u2019s Nathan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[140531,140542,140540,140532,140543,140535,140538,140541,140536,140533,61426,140537,140544,140534,88,90,89,61377,140539],"class_list":["post-341104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-2026-ccs-division-i-baseball-championship","tag-alex-kim","tag-coach-john-diatte","tag-coach-t-j-moran","tag-colton-hadfield","tag-connor-corlett","tag-dylan-hull","tag-gabriel-felix","tag-hudson-summerill","tag-jake-escalante","tag-jim-seimas","tag-luke-shoemaker","tag-nathan-miller","tag-sam-whelan","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-soquel-knights","tag-valley-christian-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}