BASEBALL: Damien 5, La Mirada 2: The Spartans, despite what some parent-bloggers think, take care of business to earn first-round berth. How’s that for team unity?
BASEBALL, La Serna 6, Diamond Bar 2: Diamond Bar’s end-of-season free-fall continues in loss to La Serna
SOFTBALL, Charter Oak 12, St. Paul 8: Chargers overcome early deficit to beat Swordsmen
SOFTBALL, Diamond Bar 8, Rialto 6: Gritty Brahmas rally in last at-bat to get the victory.
Northview baseball playoff photo gallery
Grijalva and Chico lead the way for Vikings
By Fred J. Robledo, SGVN, twitter@sgvtribpreps
Northview avoided a second-straight loss in a CIF-Southern Section wild-card with a 5-1 victory over visiting Nordhoff to open the Division 4 baseball playoffs.
Northview junior Jake Grijalva doubled to lead off the game and later scored in the first inning on a sacrifice fly.
Grijalva, who was 2-for-3, scored again in the third inning to spur a three-run rally and starting pitcher Nick Chico was steady, scattering four hits with six strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings to get the victory.
“We didn’t want to lose again in the wild-card,” Chico said. “Not after last year.”
Northview (16-8-1) advances to Thursday’s first-round against Freeway League champion La Habra (16-10). (To conintue click thread)
TUESDAY’S BASEBALL WILD CARD RESULTS
Division 2
Chino Hills 9, Righetti 0
Claremont 6, Burbank 1
Damien 5, La Mirada 2
Division 3
La Serna 6, Diamond Bar 2
Warren 7, West Covina 5
Division 4
Northview 5, Nordhoff 1
Indio 7, Covina 5
San Dimas 3, Troy 2
Division 5
Linfield Christian 7, South El Monte 0
Sultana 10, Gladstone 5
Rim of the World 9, Duarte 4
TUESDAY’S SOFTBALL WILD CARD RESULTS
Division 2
West Covina 14, Arroyo Valley 3
Diamond Bar 8, Rialto 6
Division 3
Ayala 6, Lancaster 1
Charter Oak 12, St. Paul 8
Division 4
San Marcos 4, Covina 2, 8 innings
Wilson 19, Hawthorne 4
Division 5
Lompoc 21, Gladstone 1
West Valley 20, Sierra Vista 1
Magnolia 10, La Puente 9
For those who never heard of Chico and the Man, here you go….Am I really that old?
Grijalva thinks the Valle Vista League prepared them for the do-or-die scenario’s of the playoffs. Northview was in a four-team race for first over the last two weeks and finished third.
“Our league was tough,” Grijalva said. “We were in a lot of big games and didn’t hit as well as we should have. Hopefully a game like today where we scored early and played good defense is something we continue to do.
“Our pitching and defense is pretty good, we just have to score runs.” Grijalva gave the Vikings a 2-1 lead in the third inning. He stole third and scored on an errant throw.
Later that inning, Gabe Rojo’s bases-loaded bloop single to right scored Jake Harrison and Dominic Baca to go up 4-1.
“Usually how we start is a good factor,” Grijalva said. “When we score first it’s a good indicator for our team. But this is just the wild card, we have to keep it going against La Habra, so we’ll see.”
Chico gave up a run on three hits in the third inning, but he was solid after that, not allowing another hit until the seventh.
Chico struck out the side in the fourth and after giving up a lead-off hit in the seventh, he got a fly-out and then an error allowed a second runner on base. That was enough for coach Darren Murphy, who allowed Chris Elias to close the game and get the last two outs.
Chico would have liked to finish, but he did more than enough.
“My curveball wasn’t on at all, but I was working the change-up and challenging them with my fastball, that’s how I got some strikeouts,” Chico said. “It was great to see our bats come alive. When we score runs we can win games.”
