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The East Bay Athletic League ended the 2023-24 school year with a bang as the Tri-Valley captured the CIF NorCal Division I baseball and softball championships.
The Granada baseball team finished out a near-perfect season, beating St. Mary’s of Stockton 6-4 on Saturday (June 1) to wrap up the season 32-1.
The Amador girls finished the season with a seven-win streak, ending it with a 13-11 win over Oak Ridge in El Dorado Hills in the championship game.
Here is how the week transpired for both title teams…
Granada baseball
It was just an amazing season for the Matadors, who were a 5-2 loss against Amador Valley on April 10 away from a perfect season and a likely Top 5 national ranking.
As Granada blew through the regular season with both the offense and pitching on fire, when it came to the postseason it was all about the young men on the mound.
In the seven postseason games, the Matadors’ pitching staff gave up six runs, with four of those coming in the NorCal championship game.
In the three-game CIF playoffs, the top-seeded Mats started with a 2-1 win over Clovis West, then followed with a 5-0 win over De La Salle in the semifinals.
The win over De La Salle was the third of the season over Spartans — that has only happened one other time in EBAL history.
De La Salle averaged over eight runs a game this year and had one five-game stretch where they cranked out 18.4 runs a game. But the Granada staff held them scoreless for 21 straight innings in the North Coast Section finals and the CIF semifinals.
In the win over Clovis West, it was a four-man effort pitching. Logan Robinson went four innings, A.J. Hattaway had 2.2 innings, Jake Sekany one inning, and Mason Ravera one inning.
Nate Brown had a pair of hits and scored a run. For the second game in a row, A.J. Martinez had the walk-off winner, driving in the winning run with the bottom of the seventh.
In the semifinals against De La Salle, it was all about ace Parker Warner. The Stanford-bound senior went the distance, allowing only four hits and striking out two.
The Granada defense was awesome, making only one error. On offense Tommy Brown and Martinez had a pair of hits, with Nate Brown, Peyton Richards and Riley Winchell driving in runs.
In the finals, the starting assignment was given to Sekany — and he did not disappoint.
The junior, who will be one of the best pitchers around next season, struck out the side in the first and finished with seven strikeouts in his four innings.
Luke Palma came on and pitched 1/3 of an inning, with Hattaway going 2-2/3 innings to close out the game, allowing just one hit.
As for the offense, the Matadors kept putting the ball in play, which was crucial as St. Mary’s made six errors in the game and Granada took full advantage.
In the second inning, Granada scored five times, helped by three errors by the Rams. A clutch single to center with two outs from Nate Brown scored the first two runs.
A Tommy Brown grounder to third was thrown away at first, making it 3-0. Warner capped the inning with a two-run single and the lead was 5-0.
St. Mary’s made it interesting in the fourth, scoring three times. And when the Rams pushed one across in the fifth, it was a one-run game at 5-4.
Granada got the insurance run it needed in the sixth when Tommy Brown had a blooper land in the outfield, scoring Tyler Kardy for the 6-4 lead.
In the seventh frame, Hattaway got the first two hitters, then gave up a two-out single, bringing to the plate Michael Quedens, the Rams top hitter.
Quedens led St. Mary’s in average (.459), home runs (5), hits (51) and RBIs (33). Fearsome numbers, but Hattaway got the Michigan-commit to fly out to end the game and start the celebrations.
Amador Valley softball
On May 7, when the Amador Valley softball team lost 2-1 to California in the first round of the EBAL playoffs, the Dons fell to 12-11 on the season and the chance for postseason success did not look good.
There’s that old saying that looks may be deceiving — and with the Dons, they made the statement come to life.
Last Saturday night (June 1), the Dons capped off an incredible postseason run, beating Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills 13-11 in extra innings to win the CIF NorCal D-I softball championship.
And it was a well-traveled road in the NorCal playoffs.
As the No. 8 seed in the eight-team field, the Dons had no chance for a home game.
On May 28, Amador went on the road to Mountain View to take on the defending NorCal champ and No. 1 seed Saint Francis. It was only a 64-mile round trip — it turned out to be the shortest of the week by far.
To the surprise of anyone in the softball community, the Dons stunned the Lancers 4-1 to advance to the semifinals.
From there came a trip to face No. 4 Clovis North, a 310-mile round trip. Once again, the Dons pulled off the upset, bouncing Clovis North from the tournament with a 7-2 win.
That set up the Saturday night finals in El Dorado Hills, with Oak Ridge only a 218-mile round trip.
Doing the math, that’s 592 miles traveled for three games in five days. And that was during finals week for Amador, topped with graduation ceremonies Friday night.
For perspective, San Diego is only 474 miles from Pleasanton.
The Dons were true “Road Warriors” and brought their game with them along the way.
In the first round, the Dons faced a St. Francis team that was 28-0, No. 1 ranked in California, and second in the nation.
Kaylee Davis went the distance in the circle for the Dons. She allowed five hits, struck out six and walked five.
On offense, Kaylee Davis had a single and double, Emerson Giles adding a pair of doubles. Lauren Tran had two singles, with Taylor Oxe and Riya Sharda each getting a hit in the 4-1 win.
In the semifinals, the Dons beat Clovis North 7-2, with Kaylee Davis again going the distance. She allowed nine hits, struck out four and yielded zero walks.
Sharda was huge at the plate with a double and two singles. McKenna Charbonneau had a single and a big two-run home run for the Dons in the third.
Ava Davis, Kaylee Davis, Giles and Tran each had a hit.
In the title game, it was all about the guts and determination of Kaylee Davis and her teammates to the extra-inning win.
She went eight innings in the circle, throwing 124 pitches, facing 43 batters and allowing 13 hits. Emily Bull pitched one inning, facing three batters and retiring all three.
Kaylee Davis also got the game-winning hit when she homered in the top of the ninth, scoring Tran and herself.
Mai Falcone had a two-run homer with hers coming in the eighth. Oxe had a solo home run in the eighth.
Tran ended the game with three singles, as did Sharda. Kaylee Davis had a double to go with her home run, with Charbonneau a pair of doubles.
Oxe also had a double to go with her solo shot, and Falcone tacked on a single to go with her bomb. Ava Davis and Bull added singles.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
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