UPDATE: South Hills avenged Saturday’s 5-3 tournament loss to Northview by defeating the Vikings 8-3 in Tuesday’s non-league charity game.

By Steve Ramirez
Northview High School outlasted South Hills this past Saturday in an epic battle pitting two of the area’s best baseball teams.
The Vikings and Huskies will go at it again tonight, but for entirely different reasons.
The Valley stalwarts will meet at 7 p.m. at Mt. San Antonio College’s Mazmanian Field for a fundraiser to support Nathan Perez. The 10-year-old son of Northview football coach Marcel Perez suffers from Aplastic Anemia, a rare autoimmune disorder in which the bone marrow and blood stem sells are damaged.

Event organizers are asking for a $3 donation for admission to support the family. ATMs also will be set up for fans wishing to donate more.

“Originally, it was a scheduled game,” Northview coach Darren Murphy said. “Then when this happened and Nathan was diagnosed, I asked Kevin (South Hills coach Kevin Smith) if he was OK with making it a fundraiser. A lot of the teachers in the school district know each other, so it was a natural fit.

“South Hills was very gracious and wanted to do it.”

It will feature two of the area’s better teams who just faced each other three days ago in a classic encounter won by Northview, 5-3.

The Vikings, getting two RBIs each from Jake Grijalva and Alex Labor and a solid six innings on the mound from Nick Chico, led 5-0 before the Huskies rallied on RBIs from Adrian De Horta and Conor Pearson.

Kolby Oriti retired Jon Ayala with the tying runs on base to end it.
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Murphy is expecting a similar battle tonight.

“If it was another team that we didn’t have a connection with, it would feel like a fundraiser, a fun game,” Murphy said. “But to be honest, these boys want to compete and get after each other.

“I’m sure it will be the same in the stands. We want to bring the people out and hopefully we can have another game like Saturday.”