SAN BRUNO -- With their backs against the wall, the Vikings had three of their top performances of the season to dance out of the Skyline Regional in the first round of the 3C2A State Tournament. No. 12 West Valley, which entered as the ninth-overall seed, fell to Los Medanos in the opening round and, in a double-elimination setting, won each of its next three games as the Vikings reached their third straight Super Regional.

West Valley opened the weekend with a game against the Los Medanos Mustangs, a team coming off a strong end of season stretch that saw them finish second in the Bay Valley Conference. On the mound, sophomore Julian Ito took the ball and delivered his best start of the year, cruising through early frames. But after an RBI double from Coast-South MVP David Estrada and a solo home run from catcher Andrew Bonfigli made it 2-0 early, the Vikings scratched just two more runs across while leaving a handful of runners on base and allowing Los Medanos back into the game.

In the top of the sixth inning with West Valley ahead 4-1, shortstop Bobby Hill made a two-out error that would eventually come around to score on a wild pitch. Just an inning later, a two-run homer from Carlo Garcia knotted the game at four. Then in the top of the eighth, a pair of knocks with runners in scoring position gave Los Medanos a three-run lead, pushing what would eventually be the final score to 7-4 Los Medanos.

"I think they realized what that game was," said head coach Bobby Hill. "Too many lost opportunities in game one offensively. We let a team hang around. And if you let teams hang around, regular season or playoffs, it could be disastrous. 
And LMC is a good team. They did some little things right and they stayed in the game and they capitalized on our mistakes and we didn't capitalize on theirs, and we took the loss. So we knew our backs were up against the wall. I think the sophomores finally realized: we could be one more done and we're done for the year and done at West Valley, and let's just keep this thing going. And that was really my message today to them, too. I looked them all in the eyes and I said, 'I want to practice tomorrow.'
And they said, 'We do too.'"

Now playing the hosts of the regional, the Skyline Trojans, West Valley needed a spark just an hour after a heartbreaking game one. They got just that. Sophomore shortstop Eric Altmark led off by taking a walk, and moved up 180 feet on a pair of wild pitches before Estrada singled him home. After right fielder Joey Damelio took a walk, sophomore first baseman Jordan Montez hit a towering home run to left to put the Vikings up 4-0.

After Apolo Lapiz hung a 0 in the bottom of the first, West Valley continued to add. Kenji Colston led off the second with a booming double off the top of the left field fence, and with two outs, he came home on a single from Parker Kristall. Estrada and Damelio both walked to load the bases for Montez, whose sky-high popup on the infield picked up some patented San Bruno wind and evaded the glove of the Skyline third baseman as a pair of runs came home to score, and the Vikings led 7-0.

But the pesky Trojans, who rallied from down 10-0 to make it a one-run game against the Vikings in the Super Regional a year prior, kept their foot on the gas in a four-run fourth, pushing Lapiz out of the game. In one of the most symbolically-important moments of the season, right-hander Sebastian Buller made his first appearance after being shelved for over two months. With the bases loaded and just one out in a three-run game, Buller struck out Vinny Smith, the Skyline cleanup hitter, and Jack Ruegg, who rocks a strikeout rate of under 4%, to keep the Vikings ahead.

That's basically where the game stood until the top of the seventh inning, when the Vikings had a historic frame. In that inning, both Colston and Max Ghiglieri hit back-to-back home runs twice in the inning. Bonfigli, who had been 0-for-6 since his home run to start the weekend, cranked a three-run shot of his own. Freshman center fielder AJ Ljepava mashed a three-run double to the opposite gap. For Colston and Ghiglieri, who entered the inning with just five home runs between the two and ended with nine, it's a feat that has only occurred once at the major league level, all the way back in 2002.

"I think I had the best seat in the house," said Altmark, who walked and reached on an error in the 14-run frame, "because I was in the hole and on deck for both of the back-to-back home runs from Kenji and Max. It just felt like whatever we did, just the baseball gods finally were on our side. 
I feel like all season, anytime we hit a ball hard, it was always caught. Anytime the other team got a jam shot, it always found a hole. I think finally, the baseball gods were like, 'yep, it's finally these guys' turn to have some fun', and that was pretty fun. Watching every time that number [on the scoreboard] went up one to nine, and then as soon as we got the 10th run, it goes to zero. That's the's the best thing as a player just seeing the score not being able to display how many runs you scored in an inning. That is amazing." 


That inning, which set the Viking-record for most runs scored in an inning, took all wind out of Skyline's sails as the Vikings won 22-7.

"That first game kind of got away from us because we took our foot off the gas," said Estrada. "As a team, our message from Skip, he said, just keep the foot in the gas. It's having that mentality of being aggressive, getting your swings off, and not be passive, even though we're up. Keep getting hits any way you can."

Still, West Valley had to return the next day to take on Los Medanos again. This time, the Vikings made no mistake against the Mustangs, cruising to an 11-1 lead. Kristall and Montez both hit two-run home runs, pushing their state-high lead to 15, and Aaron Baum was spectacular in 4.1 innings of relief as the Vikings won 11-5.

In the fourth and final game of the weekend, West Valley again jumped out to a gargantuan lead, this time, leading by nine runs after three innings. It all started in the first inning when, after Skyline recorded two outs on just four pitches, Estrada worked a 10-pitch at-bat, cranking a fastball on the inner half over the fence in right to give West Valley the lead.

"I can't say enough about David Estrada," said Hill. "He was our conference MVP for a reason. He's one of the best hitters in the state, if not the best hitter in the state.
He just looks different in the box, and we have some big power bats in our lineup. You know, you got Montez, you got Parker, our state leaders in homers. Estrada's just different. He's the heartbeat, and MVPs are the heartbeat. And he started a spark for us today, and it was fun, and I told these guys if we can get them early and continue to stay on them and score some runs, we'll have a good chance to win."

But as everyone in the building anticipated, Skyline started crawling its way back into the game. Against Kristall, who started the game on the bump, Skyline added four in the fourth to make it 9-4. The Trojans answered when the Vikings scored two in the next inning and had runners on first and second with already two runs home as they pushed Kristall out of the game.

Enter Lapiz. Pitching on just a day and a half of rest after a difficult first start to his postseason career, the freshman pitched like an ace. He got Santino Nanez to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning, keeping West Valley up five, then did not allow a run until the game was already out of reach in the ninth. 

For the Vikings, it was Lapiz and Baum, a pair of freshman arms, that carried a huge chunk of the load in two elimination games. 

"Huge," said Hill of his two freshmen. "Baum the last couple of outings wasn't himself, but we trust into him. I trust in him. And he showed it yesterday. Same thing with Apolo today. His first outing in the first round of playoffs for a young pup was not what he wanted, but what he showed today was: give me the ball."

After losing the first game, it could have been easy for the Vikings to throw in the towel. But they did the exact opposite, and now have a chance to continue their state championship push.

"A little bit," said Altmark, asked if the team realized the significance of the opening loss, "I definitely thought, 'we're one game away from never putting on a Viking uniform again'. But I'll tip my cap to Montez. He pulled us in, spoke from his heart. And I think the whole team rallied around each other, not just us sophomores. We aren't ready to stop playing for one another."

Now, they have an opportunity to continue their season, with a best-of-three series against No. 1 Fresno City on the road starting on Thursday.