QUINCY -- After a strong postseason run that saw the Vikings win four straight games with their backs against the wall in the Regional and sweep the top-ranked team in the state in the Super Regional, West Valley's quest for three straight trips to the State Championship Series ended just one game short. In a best-of-three set against the No. 5 seed in the North, the Feather River Golden Eagles, the Vikings dropped game one in heartbreaking fashion and rebounded in game two, but went quiet in the finale as their season came to a close.
West Valley got off to a good start in game one. Third baseman and recently-named West Valley male athlete of the year David Estrada hit an RBI double and Jordan Montez hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning and Parker Kristall tacked on another in the third. But starting pitcher Julian Ito, who had been solid through a pair, allowed three runs to score in the bottom half of the third to tie the game up and two more in the bottom of the fourth to give Feather River the lead.
But the Vikings responded immediately, scoring the games' next six runs. Sacrifice flies from Estrada and Montez in the sixth pushed two across, and freshman left hander Aaron Baum escaped a bases-loaded, no out jam in the bottom half of the fifth. Eric Altmark hit a two-out, two-run triple in the top of the sixth, and Baum worked around a one-out walk. A Montez double and a sacrfiice fly from Joey Damelio put the Vikings ahead 9-5 going into the bottom of the seventh.
However, that's when the wheels began to come off for West Valley. Tre LaGrone III replaced Baum and got the first batter he faced to fly out. But he walked a pair, and a pair of wild pitched and a single ended his afternoon prematurely. Colin Melrose entered and hit a batter, coaxed a sacrifice bunt and walked another to load the bases with two outs. The Vikings countered Legend Lancaster, arguably the biggest clutch hitter for the Golden Eagles, with Kristall, who had become the Vikings' stopper out of the bullpen. Lancaster won the battle, lining a single up the middle to tie the game at nine.
In the top of the eighth inning, the Vikings took the lead right back. A pair of walks and an RBI double from Kristall put the Vikings ahead, 10-9, and an intentional walk of Estrada loaded the bases for Montez. His sharp ground ball to third found the pocket of Noah Carrington's glove, and the Golden Eagle third baseman tapped on his bag and completed the double play at first to end the inning. It was the second time in the ballgame that the Vikings had the bases loaded and fewer than one out but could only push across one run.
That haunted them in the bottom of the ninth. A tight strike zone and quality patience from the Golden Eagles led to the bases filling up with just one out. Kristall then walked Kory Chu to tie the game and, in an 0-2 count, Kristall's offspeed offering to Carrington hit his left hand to end the ballgame.
Now with their back completely against the wall, the Vikings turned to freshman right hander Apolo Lapiz in game two. He was exceptional, working around a leadoff hit by pitch in the first inning, and a sacrifice fly from Estrada put the Vikings on top after one. They continued to add, with sophomore second baseman Kenji Colston bringing home a run in the second inning as Lapiz continued to cruise.
In one of the most symbolically-important at-bats of the season, sophomore catcher Ryan Bays came up with two out and one on in the bottom of the third and mashed a home run to straightaway right field, the first for either team in the regional final. It was Bays' first action since April 16, exactly a month prior, and he delivered to put the Vikings up 4-0. That's where the score stayed until the fifth inning, when an RBI double from Carrington brought home an unearned run.
Lapiz, who had steadied the ship with his fearless strike-pumping and poise well beyond his years, entered the top of the seventh with 100 pitches and had maybe his most dominant inning. He struck out Jackson Phillips, Feather River's most powerful hitter, and got a popup and a ground ball to end the side 1-2-3.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Vikings blew the game wide open. A two-run single from Kristall made it 6-1 Vikings, and Estrada followed with an RBI double of his own to put West Valley ahead 7-1. The RBI was Estrada's 75th of the season, breaking a nearly 25-year-old record set by Josh Kreuzer in 2002. Montez and Joey Damelio each tacked on with RBI singles, and AJ Ljepava's sacrifice fly capped off the six-run frame.
Somewhat shockingly, Lapiz started the top of the eighth inning with 115 pitches. He got a popup, but walked Nick Anderson. Notably, following a game where the Vikings had allowed 19 free passes, it was the first walk of the day issued by Lapiz. He then punched out Lancaster looking, ending his day. Head coach Bobby Hill made a slow walk out to the mound as Lapiz pleaded his case to stay in the ballgame, but the righty eventually exited, receiving hugs from his entire infield and walking off the field to a thunderous applause from the Viking faithful that made the five-hour trek.
To some extent, it felt like a passing of the torch moment. Around the infield, Montez, Colston, Estrada and Bays are all sophomores. The only freshman of the group, shortstop David Colon, replaced redshirt sophomore Eric Altmark early in the game. Each of them have talked about how excited they have been to see the growth of Lapiz throughout the season, and it's clear the team feels it's in good hands with Lapiz as its ace. All in all, the freshman picked up his team-high seventh victory of the season, throwing 7.2 innings without allowing an earned run.
But the season came to an end not even 24 hours later. Feather River tallied runs in the first and second inning, and a three-run bottom of the third blew the game open. Colston hit a two-run single in the top of the fourth that brought the score to 5-2, but Feather River scored two of its own in the bottom half, making the score 7-2. Brice Brunson, another freshman, was outstanding out of the bullpen with four scoreless innings of one-hit ball, but West Valley didn't even get a runner past second from the fifth inning on as its season finished.
It closes the book on the West Valley careers of an incredible, culture-setting sophomore class. Notably, Estrada became the first Viking ever to play 100 career games while smashing the all-time record in hits (158, previous 132), doubles (49, previous 29), runs scored (128, previous 112), walks (72, previous 63) and finishing 8th all-time in batting average. Montez, who walked just 13 times as a freshman, set the Viking single-season record by doing so 47 times as a sophomore while hitting 16 home runs. While Palomar's Landon McDonald (15) has a dog in the fight for the state lead, Montez currently leads the pack and would become the first Viking since Brett Bonvechio in 2001 with at least a share of the state home run title. In just one season, Kristall swiped 33 bases, the most by a Viking in a single season while adding 15 home runs and five saves on the bump. And Ito, who pitched out of the bullpen in the regular season but reclaimed his spot in the rotation in the postseason, finished his Viking career with 138 innings, good for fourth-most in a career.
As for the freshman class, the pitching class shined. Lapiz, the headliner, finished 7-1 with a team-best 3.46 ERA in 67.2 innings. Baum bounced back after a rough patch near the end of the regular season and threw 6.2 innings of strong baseball out of the bullpen in the postseason. Quincy Winkler started a team-high 13 games and finished with a solid 5.05 ERA. LaGrone was exceptional before a midseason injury and features some of the best strikeout stuff in the state. And Brunson tossed 6.2 scoreless innings in the postseason and rocked a 2.81 ERA in his first season as a full-time pitcher.
Offensively, a couple players paved the foundation for next season. Shortstop Bobby Hill was named all-conference defensively while rebounding from a difficult first half of the season to finish third on the team, behind Estrada and Kristall, amongst Viking-qualifiers with a .326 batting average. Center fielder AJ Ljepava is one of the fastest and most defensively-skilled options for the Vikings in the outfield and had hits in 7-of-8 postseason contests. Colon had just the second two-triple game in Viking history in his first career start. Kalen Clemmens, an on-base machine, spent a portion of the season in the Viking starting nine and became a dangerous bat, especially against left-handed pitching. And catcher Kaden Smith, a 6-foot-4 power threat, hit two doubles and a home run in his first four games of the season.
The foundation on both sides of the ball is there for Hill as he enters his fourth season at the helm of the Vikings. With even more additions ahead of fall baseball, the turn of the calendar to 2027 should bring another big season for Viking baseball.