Serra might be best known these days for its football success, but the San Mateo school’s baseball history runs deep, too.
Maybe more so than football.
Barry Bonds, Tom Brady, Jim Fregosi and Gregg Jefferies are some of the names who have worn the blue and gold for a baseball program that has captured six Central Coast Section and 21 West Catholic Athletic League championships through the years.
The new group of Padres clearly are doing what they can to live up to the standards.
On Friday, they continued their torrid start to the season in dramatic fashion as Nate Hui ripped a two-out double to center to drive in William Walbridge with the winning run.
Final in nine innings: Serra 2, Bellarmine 1.
The Bay Area News Group’s top-ranked team completed a two-game WCAL sweep of the Bells, following a 4-1 win in San Jose on Tuesday with the extra-innings victory at home on Friday in San Mateo.
Serra improved to 10-0, 2-0. Bellarmine fell to 5-4, 0-2.
Riley Lim allowed one run in six innings for the Padres. Hui pitched a scoreless seventh and Ian Josephson kept Bellarmine off the scoreboard in the eighth and ninth.
Davis Minton’s lead-off home run in the fourth gave Serra a 1-0 lead. Bellarmine evened the score in the fifth when Arleigh Souza scored on a groundout.
Livermore 13, California 9
Trailing 9-2 on the road after five innings, Livermore made itself at home in the sixth as the Cowboys erupted for 11 runs to stun California in an East Bay Athletic League game.
Elias Ferran had three hits and was one of five Livermore players to drive in two runs. The others were Hayden Maas, Griffin Lee, Braden Ford and Dylan Wherry.
Jacob Casiano finished with three hits, including a homer, and knocked in two runs for California.
Livermore improved to 7-3, 1-1. California is 4-2, 1-1.
No. 5 St. Francis 2, No. 3 Valley Christian 1
Bobby Hill’s bat accounted for all of St. Francis’ scoring and Nick Chow pitched six strong innings as the Lancers completed a two-game sweep of Valley Christian in WCAL play.
Hill’s second-inning single drove in freshmen twins Siale Tulua and Sione Tulua to give visiting St. Francis a 2-0 lead.
That was enough for Chow as the senior allowed just one run, on Hunter Fujimoto’s sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Ian McMahon pitched a scoreless seventh for the save as St. Francis improved to 8-2, 2-0.
Valley, which got five shutout innings from Brock Ketelsen, fell to 6-3, 0-2.
No. 15 Archbishop Mitty 4, Archbishop Riordan 3
Waylon Walsh, who is measured at 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, slugged a two-run homer in the top of the seventh to erase a one-run deficit as Mitty edged host Riordan in San Francisco.
The Crusaders went ahead 3-2 in the fourth on run-scoring singles by Nathan Zuromski and Keoni Ordonez.
Mitty is 7-2, 2-0. Riordan dropped to 4-5-1, 0-2.
Dublin 4, No. 16 San Ramon Valley 2
Dublin won for the ninth time in 10 games this season, bouncing back from an extra-innings loss to California on Wednesday to edge visiting San Ramon Valley in EBAL play.
The Gaels scored three in the fifth to stretch their lead to 4-0 and then held on as San Ramon Valley pushed across single runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
Elijah McNeal had two hits, knocked in a run and scored a run and Kolby Breining had two RBIs for Dublin (9-1, 1-1).
Willie Maya didn’t allow an earned run in 5 2/3 innings for the Gaels. Jacob Witherby and Matthew Phelps got the final four outs to lock down the victory for Maya.
Lucas Glazier and Mitch Nelson each had two hits for SRV (4-5, 1-1).
Softball
Livermore 5, No. 15 Foothill 3
Kerigan Coates, Eliza Gerochi, Grace Phillips and Sophia Gerochi each had a hit and an RBI to lead Livermore to a victory at home over Foothill in an EBAL game.
Ellie Novitske doubled and knocked in three runs for Foothill, which fell to 5-3-1, 1-1.
Livermore is 5-2, 1-0.
Pinole Valley 4, Albany 0
McKenzie Ortega pitched a two-hitter with 14 strikeouts and also had a hit and scored twice to lead Pinole Valley to a victory over Albany in Tri-County Athletic League Rock Division play.
The big game for Ortega was nothing new.
Wednesday, she pitched a one-hitter with 15 strikeouts in a rout of De Anza.
Ayla Serrano had two hits and two RBIs for Pinole Valley on Friday.
The victory improved Pinole Valley’s record to 7-1, 5-0. Albany fell to 3-5, 3-2.
No. 17 Valley Christian 8, Branham 0
Freshman Melody Gonzales pitched a two-hitter and Shyla Paredes, another freshman, had three hits and scored twice to lift host Valley Christian over Branham in a non-league game.
Sophomore Sia Marsh added two hits and scored two runs as Valley Christian improved to 9-2.
Branham is 4-7.
No. 6 El Cerrito 15, Swett 2
Arlie Tatum doubled twice and knocked in three runs and Ashlynne Hollins had a double and two RBIs as El Cerrito cruised past host Swett in a TCAL Stone Division game called after five innings because of the 10-run rule.
El Cerrito is 8-0, 6-0. Swett is 5-2, 5-2.