West Valley captures second straight Coast-South championship

West Valley's 8-3 win at Gavilan Saturday clinched WVC's 2nd-straight Coast-South Conference championship. The Vikings (30-8, 16-2 Coast-South) lead the division by three games with two regular-season contests remaining. They close out the Coast with home games against Cabrillo (16-21, 9-9) Tuesday (4/22) and Coast-South runnerup Ohlone (30-8, 13-5) Thursday (4/24).

The Vikings stormed into the lead against the Rams (9-29, 4-14) on a Jordan Montez homer in the top of the 4th. The Montez round-tripper, his 5th of the season, gave West Valley a 1-0 advantage that would hold up until the 8th.

After a Charlie Kuwada RBI-single made it 2-0 in the top of the 8th, the Rams vaulted into a 3-2 lead in the home half of the frame on a SAC fly to center and a two-run double. The one-run lead was short-lived, thanks to a six-run Viking explosion in the 9th.

Isaac Hawthrone knocked in Andrew Bonfigli with the equalizer on a SAC fly to right, David Estrada doubled in Jordan Hall and Eric Altmark, and Will Bailey came home on a wild pitch to give West Valley a 6-3 adavantage. Kuwada singled in Carmelo Rivera, and then made it 8-3 when he scored on a Bonfigli E6.

The Vikings managed five efficient hits, two from Kuwada and Montez and one from Estrada, but took advantage of seven Gavilan walks and five Ram errors. Jake Jones got the win with two innings of relief to move to 4-1 on the year.

Both games this week at Valhalla start at 2:30pm.

https://athletics.westvalley.edu/sports/bsb/2024-25/releases/20250421op317c