St. Francis bounces back from loss to Livermore, beating Valley Christian with a double shot from Emi Yumiba
MOUNTAIN VIEW - Emi Yumiba is all spunk in the batters' box and the outfield for St. Francis, a 5-foot-1 bundle of pure energy.
So to bounce back from a disappointing defeat to Livermore on Saturday, St. Francis turned to the smallest player on the field.
She delivered again and again Wednesday afternoon against Valley Christian, lacing an RBI double to left-center field, rapping a line-drive homer right over the center-field fence and scoring two runs herself.
Her vibe permeated a Lancers team looking for offense, and St. Francis took home a 5-2 win by scoring in four different innings, keyed by Yumiba's ice-breaking two-bagger that kicked off the scoring in the third.
"I normally don’t tend to try to hit home runs," said Yumiba, who has two this year. "Today, I was working on keeping my front shoulder closed and staying on top, and it just happened."
"She’s a lot stronger than you think," Lancers coach Mike Oakland added.
St. Francis (15-2, 2-0 WCAL) shook off a surprising 2-1 defeat in the championship game of the Livermore Stampede Saturday night to awaken its slumbering offense.
The Lancers' bats were dormant through the first two innings as they were retired in order, but things picked up in the third. Maya Meltz got the inning going with a leadoff single, then Yumiba ripped her double into the gap to get St. Francis on the board.
Jaime Oakland's bunt single advanced Yumiba to third and set her up to score when Valley Christian made a throwing error on the play.
"Offensively, being able to put up runs against good pitching is probably the biggest key for us," Oakland said.
Valley Christian (12-3, 0-1) cut the deficit in half when Soledad Healy hit a solo home run to center in the top of the fourth, but the Lancers kept adding on.
Penny Duus countered with a solo homer to left in the bottom of the frame, then Yumiba added her solo shot in the fifth to make it 4-1.
"Our bats were a lot hotter this game," Yumiba said. "During the Stampede, not so much, but we really dialed in against Valley."
Valley mounted its best rally in the sixth, as Hannah Paquiz scored Healy with a double to left. But Yumiba and shortstop Peyton Tsao limited the damage with a perfect relay to the plate, which gave catcher Malianna Liongitau the chance to tag out Charlotte Coney to end the threat.
The play, which ended VC's turn at bat, was protested vehemently for obstruction by Warriors coach Jackie Hinojosa. But the call stood, and St. Francis added an insurance run in the bottom of the frame when Tsao scored on an error.
"I definitely did, yes," Hinojosa said of whether Coney's path to the plate was blocked. "So not gonna agree with every call that the umpires make. It’s part of the game. But yeah, I definitely thought that she beat the throw, so I thought the catcher was fully covering the whole plate. But what can you do?"
The West Catholic Athletic League matchup showcased the depth at the top of the league this season. St. Francis, Valley Christian and Archbishop Mitty all rank within the top five of the Bay Area News Group rankings and look primed to make noise in the Central Coast Section playoffs this season.
"Every time you face this level of pitching that our league has, you have to expect a lot out of our hitters to keep challenging them, swinging at strikes, staying balanced, protecting the plate when they get down in the count and fighting every pitch," said Hinojosa, who is in her fifth year coaching at VC and second as head coach. "And I thought they did an OK job at that, but we could do a lot better.
"So that’s definitely gonna be something we’re focusing on. And then honestly, the good thing about our league is we get to face another tough pitcher next week to better prepare us for the next time we see them, and we get to face them again. So it’s far from over. But they won the fight right now."
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This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 9:31 PM.