During the next two days, all but one Division will have its semi-final in the baseball and softball playoffs.
The only one that won’t is the Division 6 Baseball, which already has its championship game set up. That will be Saturday at 1 pm when Defending Champion and No. 2 Point Arena travels to No. 1 Tomales.
The rest will be played either on Tuesday and Wednesday and counting the two in the Division 6 baseball championship, there are eight local teams still alive, five baseball teams along with three softball.
Most of the games involving local teams are on Wednesday (the local schedule is below).
There are two softball games on Tuesday involving local teams and both are in Petaluma.
One is the NCS Division 2 softball semi-final. If you follow this division, it shouldn’t come as a major surprise that Concord is meeting Petaluma.
These two programs have had a lot of success over the few years. Success to the point, that in the last three years, if one team hasn’t won the section championship, the other team has.
Concord won it in 2010 and 2012, while Petaluma won in 2011.
The two years Concord won it, they needed to beat Petaluma along the way. If Petaluma can take any lessons from those two games it would be get out of the first inning.
In 2010, in a second round game, Concord scored a first inning run and made it stand up in a 1-0 win.
Then last year in the section championship game, Concord scored two in the first and made that stand up in a 2-1 win.
As for this year, Concord finished in a first place tie with Clayton Valley in Diablo Valley League, both going 9-1. The way the schedule was set up, they met the last two games of league play which they split. Clayton Valley won the tie-breaker and are the No. 3 seed and in the other semi-final game at No. 2 Alhambra. In the last round, Clayton Valley defeated Maria Carrillo 5-3.
Against Clayton Valley, Concord won the first game, and then lost the second. The loss snapped a fourteen game winning streak. The only games during that streak they gave up more than two runs was the 4-3 win over Clayton Valley. Eight of the wins were shutout, including four straight in the middle of the streak when they outscored opponents 49-0.
Of course anything you say about the Concord season, you can be pretty sure Petaluma has been better.
Example One: Concord is 20-4, Petaluma is 26-1.
Example Two: Concord has outscored opponents 197-46.
Petaluma has outscored opponents 211-25
Example Three:
Concord’s main pitcher is Kelly Drake. Her record is 16-3 and has an ERA of 1.41.
Petaluma’s main pitcher is Dana Thomsen. Her record is 17-1 and has an ERA of 0.71.
Yes Petaluma’s numbers are better, but Concord’s numbers are pretty good to. They have to be to have the record they have and to be this far.
By the way the game before the Concord fourteen games winning streak: On March 26th…final score…Petaluma 3 Concord 0.
That shouldn’t give Petaluma fans that much more confidence about this game. In the opening regular season last year…Petaluma 1 Concord 0. We explained what happened later in the championship game.
You can see what happens when Petaluma doesn’t give up that first inning score.
The other playoff game in Petaluma on Thursday is St. Vincent, the No. 2 seed in Division 5, meeting No. 3 Holy Names who is a school from Oakland that finished second in the Bay Counties East League. The champion in that league is Redwood Christian, who was the No. 1 seed and had a record of 22-0 before being shocked by No. 9 St. Bernard 5-4 in the second round.
Holy Names came close to getting a win against Redwood Christian. In the first of two league meetings, they led 8-3 after three before losing 13-9. In the second game, not that much suspense as they lost 17-2.
Holy Names appears to be a program on the way up. In 2009 they went 0-20 which was the second winless season in three years. They have improved each year since.
These are the top two highest seeds left in Division 4.
The other semi-final is between No. 9 St. Bernard and No. 4 College Prep. That game will be played on Wednesday.
NCS SEMI-FINAL SCHEDULE
BASEBALL
DIVISION 2
No. 5 College Park (20-5-1) at No. 1 Casa Grande (26-2)…Wednesday 4 pm
DIVISION 3
No. 3 Analy (22-5) vs. No. 2 Drake (22-5) at Albert Park, San Rafael…Wednesday 7 pm
No. 4 Sonoma Valley (19-9) at No. 1 Acalanes (18-7)…Wednesday 4 pm
DIVISION 6
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
No. 2 Point Arena (14-1) at No. 1 Tomales (11-7)…Saturday 1 pm
SOFTBALL
DIVISION 2
No. 4 Concord (20-4) at No. 1 Petaluma (26-1)…Tuesday 4 pm
DIVISION 5
No. 3 Holy Names (15-5) at No. 2 St. Vincent (15-8)…Tuesday 4 pm
DIVISION 6
No. 5 Anderson Valley (8-8) at No. 1 Ferndale (18-6)…Wednesday 4 pm
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net