NCS roundup: Defending champ Granada falls to Casa Grande in D-I baseball

There will be a new North Coast Section and NorCal Division I baseball champion this season Defending champ Granada bowed out of the section playoffs on its home field in Livermore on Friday falling to ninth-seeded Casa Grande - in a quarterfinal tournament Casa Granda - moves on to play at fifth-seeded College Park on Tuesday The season is over for top-seeded Granada - It looked like business as usual for the Matadors in the first inning as they opened a - lead But Casa Grande the NCS s Division II champion in cut the margin in half with a run in the second Then Granada s defense went sideways The Matadors had four errors in the third inning leading to two Casa Grande runs and sophomore left-hander Adam Mercado made the slim margin stand up He pitched a complete encounter striking out eight while scattering seven hits and two walks After giving up the two first-inning runs Mercado was lights out as the -foot- -pound pitcher retired the final seven Granada batters In the bottom of the seventh he struck out the first batter retired the next batter on a ground out and then ended the match with another strikeout Granada wasn t as dominant this season as it was last spring when the Livermore school captured NCS and NorCal Division I championships But the Matadors were good enough to win the East Bay Athletic League title last week beating De La Salle in the final and earn the top seed in the NCS Division I bracket They opened the playoffs on Tuesday with a - supremacy over San Ramon Valley and promptly took charge Friday A wild pitch brought in Granada s first run and Estevan Duarte s single drove in Peyton Richards to make it - But that was all the offense Granada generated No De La Salle No Petaluma innings The host Spartans needed only innings to advance to the semifinals as Alec Blair and Jacob Gray each went for with three RBIs and Roman Bartosh allowed one hit and struck out eight while pitching a complete meeting to lead the way De La Salle scored two in the first five in the third and eight in the fourth to bury the visitors from the North Bay The Spartans who have won of their past NCS playoff games dating to will play host to Foothill on Tuesday in the semifinals No College Park No Clayton Valley Charter Sebastian Alvarez allowed one run in six innings and Connor Berkowitz Trent TJ Lanza Dante Nishizawa each knocked in a run as College Park prevailed over Clayton Valley in a matchup between Diablo Athletic League teams College Park scored three in the second and added a run in the third to open a - cushion Clayton Valley scored its run in the sixth The Falcons - advance to play at home Tuesday against Casa Grande Clayton Valley finished the season - Division III No California No Washington-Fremont Ryan Giffins and Ryken Redondo combined on a three-hitter and Logan Kellogg had two hits including a home run and three RBIs as California beat Washington to advance to the semifinals The Grizzlies led - through four innings then broke open the battle with three in the fifth which included a two-run homer by Kellogg California - will be at home on Tuesday to face th-seeded Freedom Washington finished - No Freedom No El Cerrito Caleb Emmons pitched a four-hitter and Colton Vick and Devan Carmignani each drove in a run to lead the Falcons to an upset supremacy on the road over El Cerrito Freedom scored in the second and third innings then let Emmons take care of the rest with his effectiveness on the mound The Falcons improved to - El Cerrito finished - No Northgate No Piedmont Nate Luehs struck out in innings and also doubled and knocked in a run to lead Northgate to its second consecutive upset conquest this week Christopher Flores doubled and drove in a run as well for the Broncos - who will excursion to sixth-seeded Marin Catholic for a semifinal matchup on Tuesday Northgate beat seventh-seeded Bishop O Dowd in the first round Piedmont finished - Softball Division I No Liberty No San Marin Liberty in fact trailed San Marin - going into the bottom of the second inning but the Lions - equalized in the bottom of the frame and never looked back Liberty took a - lead in the fourth inning then pulled away with five in the fifth and three more in the sixth Junior Isabella Rice drove in three runs for the Lions Senior Isabel Mercado sophomore Jewel Cooper and sophomore Taylor Jennings each batted in two runs for Liberty Jennings hit a pair of solo home runs Mercado and Rice each homered once as well for the Lions Junior Kate Skinner pitched a complete battle for Liberty allowing four earned runs on as multiple hits with four walks and nine strikeouts No Foothill No California Foothill got the big hit in the top of the seventh inning to win this quarterfinal thriller in San Ramon The Falcons - - may have waited until the final inning to swoop in and strike but they didn t waste any time once the seventh got started Leadoff hitter Naima Braham roped a homer to left giving Foothill a lead it would not relinquish Myra Galzie swiftly slammed the door on a anticipated California comeback in the bottom of the seventh retiring the Grizzlies in order The freshman finished off a complete competition with one earned run allowed on five hits notching five strikeouts without a walk Related Articles NCS baseball softball scoreboard Friday s quarterfinals results Hilding Tex Ronning - Santa Cruz mourns loss of inspirational coach educator NorCal volleyball roundup No Oakland sweeps top seed Ben Holt of Stockton Mitty awaits Division I opponent Bay Area News Group girls athlete of the week Cynthia Wang Mitty Bay Area News Group boys athlete of the week Drew Diffenderfer Santa Clara baseball Brea Olsen drove in the other two runs for Foothill California finishes the season with a record of - No Casa Grande No San Ramon Valley San Ramon Valley and Casa Grande were deadlocked after the fifth inning and remained so until the ninth when the host Gauchos sent everyone home Veronica Nunez-Miller reached on an error with one out and advanced to second on the play She moved to third on Lauren Ketchu s groundout Then with two outs Kansas commit Lila Mae Partridge played the hero for Casa sending the home fans into euphoria with a game-winning single to right Lila McLeod pitched the full event for SRV going innings with no earned runs allowed Kaysen West and Isla Higgins drove in runs for the Wolves SRV finished - - Casa Grande is - -