Casa Grande High School is two wins from its 5th North Coast Section Title in 6 years. Its 7th in 11 years. Tonight the Gauchos travel to Concord to face Clayton Valley. The winner advances to the NCS Division II Final at the Oakland Coliseum Saturday afternoon at 4pm.
The Final Three's Road To The NCS:
Clayton Valley amassed a impressive 22-3 record this season. They were undefeated in league play, losing only to top seeded Alameda, Monte Vista (a larger Div I school) and Div II Concord. MaxPreps currently ranks Clayton Valley #4 among all NCS schools regardless of size, taking stength of schedule and league record into account.
Casa Grande is ranked #8 by MaxPreps. The Gauchos won the Sonoma County League losing only to cross town rival, Petaluma High. They were 9-4 in non-league play with key wins against Central Coast Section powerhouse Bellarmine (#5) and a close game against CSS top ranked Serra. Casa's other three losses were to Dublin, Ukiah and Analy.
Tonight's winner will face top seeded Alameda on Saturday, ranked 19th with a 21-4 record. Their only league loss was to El Cerrito and non-league losses were to Irvington (Fremont), Newark, Antioch. Alameda's win over Clayton Valley loomed large in tournament seeding.
Scouting Report on The Clayton Valley Eagles... they'll need to do their own homework on our Gauchos ;-)
Offensively:
CV's offense is powered by Senior Vince Bruno, batting .548, slugging .881 and boasting a .581 OBP. He leads the Diablo Valley League in Average and has hit safely in all but one game this season. Bruno leads the team in hits (46) and RBIs (34). Other hitters batting north of .400 include Darrel Matthews (.442 with 9 doubles and 7 triples), Cody Stephens (.407 with 33 hits and 34 runs scored), Julian Thornton (.407 with 7 doubles and 23 RBIs), and Wesley Darrow (.405 with 30 hits and 25 RBIs). Clayton Valley holds the 2-5 positions on the league leader board for Home Runs with Andrew Lassen (5), Vince Bruno (3), Johnny Bekakis (2) and Julian Thornton (2). The team also dominates the leader board for Slugging and RBIs. Bruno and Matthews are base stealing threats with 15 and 10 respectively.
From the mound:
Clayton Valley's staff is anchored by Chaz Meadows with 8 wins, no losses, and a 3.05 ERA in 11 appearances. Brandon Weller is 6-1 with 4 saves and a 1.91 ERA in 16 appearances. Ricky Dunley is 2-1 with a 4.31ERA in 11 appearances. Peter Stoiber and Antonio Acosta have also piched 8 innings this season with 2.52 and 2.42 ERAs respectively. Looking at CV's stats, it would appear that the team has only given up one extra base hit all season, a double. Gulp. But my network of stats cross-checkers believe some pitching stats to be "under reported" thereby making CV look more formidable than they actually are. Polly Anna is goin' with that explanation.
Gametime weather:
Looks like 85 and sunny this afternoon in Concord. Nice night for baseball.
Let's go Gauchos. Get it done and lead the parade to the Oakland-Alameda County McAfee Coliseum this Saturday. PTown is behind you all the way!
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