El Capitan baseball plays for section title; Le Grand, Hilmar softball in semis
The El Capitan High baseball team’s late-season tear has it on the verge of a Sac-Joaquin Section Division 3 title.
The Gauchos play top-seeded Rio Americano of Sacramento in the section championship game Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Sacramento City College. It’s one game for the section banner.
El Capitan went into the playoffs as the seventh seed in Division 3, despite having won the Central California Conference. The Gauchos defeated 10th-seeded Sierra in the first round 10-0, then stunned second-seeded Vista del Lago 4-2 to reach the semifinals. El Capitan swept Manteca, winning 3-0 and 11-0, in a best-of-three semifinal series to earn a spot in the championship game.
The Gauchos have won 14 consecutive games and allowed just two runs in the past nine games, with eight shutouts.
To claim the title, El Capitan (25-7) will have to defeat Rio Americano of Sacramento (26-6), the champion of the Capital Valley Conference League.
The Raiders have had great pitching in the playoffs. In the first two rounds, starting pitchers Pierce Tully and Joey Dormann delivered back-to-back perfect games against Armijo of Fairfield (a 17-0 win) and against Patterson (a 10-0 victory).
Rio Americano then swept Christian Brothers 3-2 and 17-1 in the semifinal best-of-three series.
Win or lose, El Capitan has already qualified for the Northern California tournament, which will be played the first week of June.
Le Grand, Hilmar play in softball semifinals
The top-seeded Le Grand softball team (17-7) hosts fourth-seeded Leroy Greene Academy of Sacramento (14-3-3) in a Division 7 semifinal on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Le Grand is 17-7 and led by junior standout Ava Avila. Le Grand had a bye in the first round, then crushed Rio Vista 14-0 in the quarterfinals.
Fifth-seeded Hilmar (18-8) will be looking to pull off an upset in the Division 6 semifinal against top-seeded Amador (18-6) in Sutter Creek on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Hilmar comes off a 4-2 win over fourth-seeded Bradshaw Christian in the quarterfinals.
Section Masters track and field in Folsom
The section holds its Masters track and field meet Friday and Saturday at Folsom High. It serves as a qualifer for the state championships the following week at Buchanan High in Clovis. Medals will be awarded to the top four finishers in each final and each individual who qualifies for the state meet by reaching the at-large automatic qualifying mark.
Livingston boys volleyball faces top NorCal seed
The Livingston boys volleyball team is looking to repeat as Northern California champion, but it has a difficult task in the first round Tuesday night. The Wolves (37-7), who lost the section Division 4 title match to El Dorado of Placerville, is seeded eighth in the NorCal Division 2 tournament. Livingston will face No. 1 Granite Bay at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Wolves won the NorCal Division 4 championship last season before falling in the state title match. Granite Bay (28-9) won Division 2 section championship
