High school baseball, softball: Monday morning’s Top 15 roundup

Baseball: No. 1 Valley Christian routs another opponent, will play Los Gatos, Palo Alto this week

Baseball

John Diatte, the longtime Valley Christian baseball coach, had just watched his team win big again. His Warriors have played five games, won them all, none close.

The roster is loaded with 10-12 Division I college prospects, including two more who have committed to Stanford. Eddie Park, a senior last year, has already left for the school up the road.

Saturday, Valley put away Willow Glen early — four runs in the first, five in the second, two more in the third.

The 11-1 final was the same result Valley had two days earlier against Leland and nearly identical to the 11-0 rout of Leigh two days before that.

In five games, Valley, the Bay Area News Group’s top-ranked team, has outscored its opponents 55-5.

Diatte, whose program has won the Central Coast Section’s top division the past three times the playoffs were held, is taking none of this for granted.

He knows his team is talented, but he knows there are many more games to play, many more challenges ahead, including Monday against No. 8 Los Gatos and Saturday against No. 7 Palo Alto.

“It’s a four-game week, too,” said Diatte, whose team plays Christopher on Wednesday and Gilroy on Thursday. “When I did it, I told the guys maybe you need to talk to the AD about me because I put us in a bad spot with a four-game week and playing those two teams who are probably two of the better teams in our section, Los Gatos and Palo Alto.

“We’ll see what next week brings,” Diatte added Saturday. “We might be on a high right now and a low by the end of the next week.”

Saturday, Jeff Heard, a Sacramento State commit, doubled, tripled, drove in three runs and scored twice. Jacob Schlesselman had two hits, knocked in three runs and scored one.

Senior shortstop Trevor Haskins, bound for Stanford, walked twice and scored a run, and Tatum Marsh, a freshman right fielder who has committed to Stanford, had a hit and an RBI.

“It’s definitely one of our better hitting teams,” Diatte said. “We’re mature. We have quite a few seniors and most of them start. We’re in a good spot, for sure.”

Griffin Allen, a Grand Canyon commit, pitched the first three innings Saturday, struck out five and got the win.

With so much talent, how does a coach keep everyone happy?

“The biggest thing we have done is talk a whole bunch about being good teammates,” Diatte said. “As you know, we live in a ‘me, I’ society and trying to get young people to realize the importance of being great teammates is just something that we have emhpasized with our guys.

“To be honest with you … that’s been our strength (the past five years) — the quality of kids that we have in our dugout, their ability to put the team first. ‘Hey, Coach, when I get my opportunity, when my chance comes, I am going to do the best that I can.’ Of course, as coaches, we’re looking for the chance to give every guy that’s on the bench an opportunity to show himself.”

No. 2 De La Salle 4, Folsom 3

De La Salle stretched its winning streak to three games, rallying from a 3-1 deficit after five innings to prevail on the road. The Spartans erased the deficit with three runs in the sixth. Blake Burke and Alec Nava each had two hits and scored a run for De La Salle. One of Nava’s hits was a triple, one of Blake’s was a double. The Spartans play Monday at home against Northgate.

No. 9 Serra 11, Menlo-Atherton 3

Serra improved to 3-0 with a victory on the road over a team that had just beaten St. Francis. USF commit Patrick Keighran hit two home runs and had five RBIs. He finished the day with three hits. Will Bowen also homered for the Padres, and Joey Lee had two hits and two RBIs. Serra travels to Los Altos on Tuesday. M-A plays host to Bellarmine on Tuesday.

No. 13 St. Francis 5, No. 10 Carlmont 0

Ryan Lee had two hits, including a double, and knocked in two runs to lead St. Francis to the non-league victory. St. Francis (2-1) plays host to Los Gatos on Tuesday. Carlmont (2-2) visits Serra on Wednesday.

St. Mary’s-Berkeley 4, No. 15 Berkeley 0

Tristan Huerta, Evan Kleinhans and Jr Bedford each drove in a run and Noah Zirkle pitched a shut out for St. Mary’s. The loss was Berkeley’s second in a row. The Yellowjackets were beaten by Alameda 17-4 on Friday after routing Alameda 14-4 on Wednesday. St. Mary’s (4-3) will play host to Pinole Valley on Wednesday. Berkeley (8-4) will be at home Wednesday to play Bishop O’Dowd.

Softball

No. 15 Valley Christian 16, 10, Capuchino 0, 7

Valley Christian scored 12 runs in the fourth inning to break open the first game of a season-opening doubleheader in San Jose. In the second game, Valley led 10-1 after scoring four in the sixth. Capuchino made things interesting by erupting for six in the seventh. Valley Christian (2-0) visits Wilcox on Tuesday. Capuchino (0-2) travels to Sequoia on Tuesday.