The 2012-2013 school sports year is at its last moments.
For most seniors, when they take the field on Saturday, they are officially no longer in high school, having graduated.
The sports year ends with the State Track and Field finals in Clovis and Championship Saturday for baseball and softball in the North and East Bay.
Six local teams are still going in the race for a baseball and softball championship.
It is quite a list of teams still going.
You’ve got two teams that are trying to continue to establish themselves as a dynasty.
Two of the local teams are meeting each other and you’ve got defending champions in all five games.
You even have a Cinderella.
And as an added bonus, you have the NBL and SCL League Baseball Champions.
Casa Grande and Analy are coming off the amazing wins on Wednesday, and when you add that to a week that includes finals and graduation ceremonies, you wonder how much gas they will have left in their tanks.
The two teams have a lot in common in their title games.
They are both meeting teams that are close to dynasty status and where they are playing the game was basically decided by a head to head meeting earlier this year.
SRJC is the scene for the Division 2 game between the two top seeds Casa Grande and Campolindo. The reason the game is at SRJC, instead of in the East Bay, is because the game between the two on March 12th was won by Casa Grande 9-3.
The score doesn’t sound like your typical 2013 Casa Grande game. A closer look and it looks a little more like one. After falling behind 3-0, Casa Grande rallied and broke a 3-3 tie with a six run seventh. It was the fifth game of a 21 game winning streak for Casa Grande.
Campolindo may have reached dynasty status. On May 23rd, 2009, Campolindo lost to Novato 9-3 in the second round in the North Coast Section Division 3 playoffs. That is the last playoff game they have lost.
The following year they moved to Division 2 and have won three straight section championships and fifteen straight playoff games.
Game six of that streak was against Casa Grande. Campolindo won it in Casa Grande 2013 like fashion by scoring three in the bottom of the seventh to take a 4-3 win.
This year they have been as consistent as you can be in these playoffs, winning all three games by the same 2-0 score. Actually Campolindo has given up less runs in the last thirteen games than Casa Grande gave up in its win on Wednesday to get to this game.
This is almost a cheap shot at Casa Grande. Another stat that makes the win over College Park such a wow going into the game, Casa Grande gave up less than two runs a game. In fact, the five runs that they gave up in the sixth inning matches the most runs they gave up in any game this season and they did that once on March 16th in a 8-5 win over Livermore. In that game they trailed 5-0 after three.
So Casa like.
Casa Grande is looking for its sixth North Coast Section championship.
Analy is also looking for its third NCS championship, the first was in 1921.
They are the No. 3 seed and are meeting No. 1 Acalanes at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. The game is in the East Bay, partly because of the head to head game on April 23rd when Acalanes came to Analy and took a 3-1 win.
That shouldn’t bug Analy all that much because it is a repeat of the Semi-Final set up. Analy had to travel to San Rafael for its game with Drake because of a regular season loss. Analy got revenge by taking that extra inning thriller.
The semi-final win got overshadowed a bit because of the time of the game and being out of the area.
Analy scored two runs in the first and that would be its only scoring until the tenth inning when they scored two more. Drake tied the game in the bottom of the inning before Dylan Mathias drove in the game winning run with a double in the 11th.
That tenth inning could have ended a lot different. After Analy scored its two runs, they had the bases loaded and one out and couldn’t add more. It turns out they needed more as Drake, who didn’t have a hit until the sixth inning, tied the game. After the tie they had a runner at third and one out and couldn’t get the winning run home. After a strike out, Analy ended up walking two intentionally to load the bases before the third out was on an attempted steal of home.
After Analy took the lead in the 11th, they picked off a runner at second base that ended the four hour game at a little after 11:30.
Acalanes has a nice little playoff streak going itself. Their last playoff loss was on May 26, 2010. Since then, they have played nine games without a loss. You can’t say it is a nine game winning streak because they had a 4-4 ten inning tie with San Marin in the 2011 championship game that was called because of darkness. During that week, the weather was iffy and the game had already been postponed once by rain, so both teams agreed to not finish the game and take a co-championship.
A win for Acalanes will not only match last year’s championship, but will match last year’s record of 20-7.
Campolindo and Acalanes are both in the Diablo Foothill League. Campolindo won the league championship with an 11-1 record. The only loss was to Acalanes on March 19th by a 2-1 score. That was the score Campolindo won by in the other league game between the two.
Two of the other three local teams are defending its title.
Point Arena is the defending Division 6 baseball champions and has a 14-1 record. Somehow they are the No. 2 seed, so they have to go on the road to meet No. 1 Tomales.
Point Arena was the No. 3 seed last season and beat No. 2 Tomales in the semi-finals on its way to the championship.
It was Point Arena’s first NCS championship. Tomales is looking for its first.
Point Arena’s only loss was to Archbishop Hannah, who was a No. 6 seed and went to No. 3 Ferndale and lost a 2-1 eight inning game. In the win over Point Arena, they were behind 5-1 going into the fifth and rallied for a 6-5 win.
The St. Vincent softball team is also trying to defend its NCS Championship. Last year they were a No. 1 seed and got to host the section championship game. No such luck this time, although as a No. 2 seed they are the highest seed in the championship game.
St. Vincent is meeting the Cinderella team of the playoffs. St. Bernard, who is coming from Eureka and went into the playoffs with an 11-13 record. They have had to go on a long road trip for every game of the playoffs and pulled the shocker of these playoffs by beating No. 1 and undefeated Redwood Christian.
St. Bernard’s round trip for its first three playoff games was over 500 miles. The trip to the championship game in San Marin is only 480.
There is one other NCL team in a championship game. That is the Laytonville softball team who has the Division 6 championship game in Ferndale. This is a rematch of last year’s championship game won by Ferndale 17-1. The two teams played to regular season games this year and Ferndale won both by similar scores.
BASEBALL
DIVISION 2
No. 1 Casa Grande (27-2) vs. No. 2 Campolindo (20-6-1) at SRJC…1 pm
DIVISION 3
No. 1 Acalanes (19-7) vs. No. 3 Analy (23-5) at St. Mary’s College…1 pm
DIVISION 6
No. 2 Point Arena (14-1) at No. 1 Tomales (11-7)…2:30 pm
SOFTBALL
DIVISION 5
No. 2 St. Vincent (16-8) vs. No. 9 St. Bernards (14-13) at San Marin High School…4:30 pm
DIVISION 6
No. 2 Laytonville (13-8) at No. 1 Ferndale (19-6)…1 pm
STATE TRACK AND FIELD FINALS IN CLOVIS
LOCAL PARTICIPANTS
Kathleen Durand, Maria Carrillo—Girls Discus
Kiana Herold, Sonoma Academy—High Jump
Helen Ann Haun, Healdsburg—Girls Pole Vault
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net