Vikings claim Coast championship behind Nakano gem

West Valley, one of the state's offensive juggernauts in 2025, clinched the Coast Conference championship Tuesday with a 1-0 pitcher's-duel victory over rival San Jose City at Viking Field. Ashlie Nakano spun a six-hit, four-strikeout complete game to outlast her Jaguar counterpart Angelina Chevarria, who allowed just three Viking hits, but surrendered Gabriella Diotalevi's game-winning RBI single in the second inning.

The win gave the Vikings (37-3, 12-2 Coast) their first Coast title since 2015 and the most victories since their 48-2 campaign in 2006. West Valley is 22-0 at Viking Field heading into the opening round of the 3C2A playoffs May 2-3. Tuesday's game was played in front of a large crowd on a pristine spring day with enough tension to dull the proverbial knife.

San Jose City (32-7, 9-5) had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out after back-to-back singles in the top of the first. But Nakano got Chevarria to pop out to WVC catcher Makayla Villapando and then struck out Maai Ulu to end the threat. The Vikings struck for what would prove to be the winning run in the home half of the frame.

Raylene Cruz earned a walk and moved to 2nd on an Alexis Bojorquez-Nava sacrifice bunt. After Villapando struck out, Diotalevi singled past the shortstop to send a sliding Cruz to the plate just ahead of the tag. Diotalevi moved to 3rd on a Tyla Arbuckle single, but both Vikings were stranded on an Andrea DeJesus 1-3 put out. The 1-0 lead would hold the rest of the afternoon.

Meanwhile, Nakano was setting the Jaguars down in order in the second, fifth and, essentially, the third. Villapando highlighted the third with a perfect strike to 2nd that thwarted a steal attempt by Linda Zuno, who had walked to open the inning. San Jose opened the fourth with a pair of singles, but fly-outs to left, 1st and short ended the inning. The Jags went down in order to end the game with pop-outs to 3rd, short and center. 11 Jaguar batters fell victim to flyball outs in the game, while the Vikings lined out four times.

Arbuckle, Diotalevi and Rylee Gomez each had singles, while Brianna Chambers Lee drew a pair of walks. Nakano, who only walked one, improved to 11-0 in 2025 with the win in the circle. Chevarria fell to 19-5.

As a team, West Valley finished the regular season in the state's top ten in 13 offensive categories, placing 2nd in runs (338), hits (413), RBI (292), batting average (.374), stolen bases (122), and total bases (591). They were 3rd in on-base % (.451), slugging % (.535), 4th in extra base hits (112), 5th in sacrifice flies (18) and triples (22), 9th in home runs (22) and 10th in doubles (68).

Arbuckle finished as the state's stolen base champion with 44, while DeJesus was 3rd in RBI with 50.

3C2A playoff seedings will be announced Saturday (4/26). Watch this space.

https://athletics.westvalley.edu/sports/sball/2024-25/releases/20250423n4sxst