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It’s a big week for the baseball and softball teams at Foothill as the Falcons have advanced to the North Coast Section Division I tournaments.
In baseball the Falcons were seeded No. 3 behind Granada and De La Salle.
Drawing No. 14 Liberty should have guaranteed the Falcons a first-round home game, but it didn’t. Given Liberty’s status as a league champion, it gave the Lions a chance to host a first-round game.
Undaunted by the slight, the Falcons made the trip east and handed Liberty an 8-2 loss to advance to the second round.
Now at home, the Falcons faced No. 6 Benicia and advanced to the semifinals with a 10-4 win. The win put them into a semifinal date with No. 2 De La Salle this Tuesday, with the result pending.
Win or lose, the Falcons will play either Friday or Saturday for either the championship, or a third-place game that could put them into the CIF NorCal tournament.
In the softball tournament, the Falcons were slighted with the No. 13 seed when realistically, they should have been seeded much higher.
The first round saw the team go to No. 4 Castro Valley and come out with a 2-0 win. In the second round the Falcons beat No. 5 California 3-2 to advance to the semifinals on Wednesday, again with the result pending.
In the semifinals, the Falcons face No. 1 seeded Liberty. The Lions are a prolific home run hitting team as they have three players – Isabella Rice (12), Taylor Jennings (10), and Kaitlyn Macias (10) – that are in double digits in home runs.
Like the boys, the girls will play in the semifinals, then either play in finals or for third place with the games set for either Friday or Saturday.
There is possible conflict for both teams as the Foothill graduation is set for Friday, the 30th.
Hopefully both second games will be set for Saturday (May 31) which would be a tough time, the day after graduation but it’s better than forcing the athletes to choose between their teammates or graduation.
It’s the same decision Foothill runner Edward Boeschenstein faced. The senior won the 300 hurdles at the NCS Meet of Champions last weekend to qualify for the CIF State meet Friday to Saturday in Clovis.
Boeschenstein made the decision to bypass the state meet in favor of attending his high school graduation.
Amador Valley badminton
The Dons ended their strong season with a fifth-place team finish in the NCS playoffs.
The top five teams were Dougherty Valley (73 points), Irvington (69), Mission San Jose (60), American (51), and Amador Valley (34).
The big parts of the Amador points came from Kayosh Kumar Mohapatra who was third in the boys’ singles tournament. Riya Natarajan was fifth in girls’ singles and the girls’ doubles team of Varshini Subramanian/Aishani Pramod was fourth.
Foothill boys’ golf
The Falcons finished third as a team in the NCS D-I qualifier, good enough to get the team a berth in the CIF State NorCal tournament this week at the Berkeley Country Club in El Cerrito.
De La Salle won the section tournament with a score of 358, with Dougherty Valley second at 372, edging out Foothill that finished with a 378.
Individually, Sean Kwok led the Falcons with a 67. Brandon Yeh (75), Ethan Cheng (80), Alex Chang (80), Nathan Yun (76) and Jake Odom (85) were the other Foothill scores.
The Falcons are competing in NorCal to try to earn a berth in the CIF State finals next Tuesday (June 3) at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
