Monta Vista will be among six complete teams competing at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League golf finals April 29 at Santa Teresa Golf Course.
The Matadors, Los Gatos and division champion Saratoga will represent the El Camino Division, while Palo Alto, Gunn and likely Mountain View will represent the De Anza Division in the 18-hole contest. The six teams that can field complete six-player line-ups will be joined by 16 individuals from the eight non-qualifying teams.
Saratoga entered the week at 10-0 and needed wins against Santa Clara and Wilcox to conclude an undefeated regular season. Meanwhile, Monta Vista and Los Gatos both went 9-3 and tied for second place behind the Falcons.
Monta Vista and Los Gatos each lost twice against Saratoga and split their matches with each other. The Matadors lost to Los Gatos 217-221 in the first meeting, but beat the Wildcats 202-204 in their second match.
Lucas Harjono, Dustin Maenaga and Marcus Harjono have been the top three players for Monta Vista. Other team members include Alex Erf, Pranav Mayuram, Karjik Shankar, Grant Powell and Karan Malhotra.
Matthew Kadiu and German Alvarez of Cupertino, Nikhil Sharma, Joson Ralph, Nick Elias and Henry Greco of Homestead, Ian Pearman of Lynbrook and Justin Young of Fremont all qualified to compete as individuals at league finals.
Only two of the six SCVAL teams, plus five individuals, will earn automatic berths into the Central Coast Section regional tournaments on May 6-7 at Rancho Canada’s West Course in Carmel.
Top teams and individuals from the regionals will advance to the CCS finals on May 13, also at Rancho Canada.
Baseball
Homestead kept its hopes of finishing among the top four in the SCVAL De Anza Division alive with a 4-1 triumph over visiting Palo Alto on April 18.
The Mustangs, who lost a tough 3-2 decision to Paly two days earlier, bounced back behind the play of sophomores Bobby Wood and Nathan Wipfler to even their league record at 6-6 and 9-9-1 overall.
Wipfler’s three hits and RBI paced Homestead’s 10-hit attack. Wood was the winning pitcher, as the Vikings managed just two hits in the game.
Homestead, which was set to play non-league home games against San Benito, Oakdale and Overfelt this week, will resume division play next week tied for fourth place with Saratoga.
Either Saratoga or Homestead will join Los Gatos, Wilcox (9-3) and Palo Alto (7-3) in the De Anza Division’s post-season tournament, which decides the SCVAL’s top seed into the CCS playoffs.
The Falcons, who already own a tiebreaker because they swept both games against the Mustangs, will have an advantage in next week’s schedule also.
While Homestead plays its final home-and-home series against division leader Los Gatos, Saratoga will take on last-place Gunn. Heading into a series with Palo Alto this week, Los Gatos was 9-1 and 18-4. Meanwhile, Gunn entered a series with Los Altos winless in 10 division games and 1-18 overall.
Even if Homestead can beat Los Gatos twice, it would need Saratoga to lose at least once to Gunn.
Whichever team does not finish in the top four will join Mountain View (4-8), Los Altos (3-9) and Gunn in the consolation tournament.
In non-league games last week, Fremont improved to 10-6 overall with a 10-3 triumph over Mt. Pleasant, Cupertino lost 9-1 to Pinole Valley and Monta Vista (4-14) lost four straight in the Cupertino Lions tourney.
Fremont out-hit Mt. Pleasant 9-7 and the Firebirds committed just one error in support of senior left-hander Alex Bernauer, who was the winning pitcher.
Sam Nastari’s solo home run and Surya Kumaraguru’s two doubles were not enough for Monta Vista in a 10-3 loss to Willow Glen on April 18, the Matadors’ last game of the Lions tourney. Earlier in the week, the Mats fell 13-3 to Leland, 9-2 to Monterey and 12-3 to Redwood.
Pinole Valley scored three times in the top of the first and cruised to victory over Cupertino on April 19. PV led 9-0 before Anthony Pozzetti doubled and scored the Pioneers’ only run.
Cupertino (4-4 in El Camino division and 6-10 overall) and Fremont were set to play a home-and-home series this week, before the Pioneers travel to Los Altos on April 26 for a 1 p.m. contest.