Valley Christian extends shutout streak to four, beats defending champ De La Salle to reach NorCal D-I final
CONCORD - No one is beating Valley Christian right now.
They're not even scoring against the Warriors.
Valley Christian added another chapter Thursday afternoon to what is becoming an historic run of pitching success, blanking top seed De La Salle 3-0 to advance to the CIF NorCal Division I championship game Saturday at Elk Grove.
The fourth-seeded Warriors (22-9) have shut out four consecutive opponents dating back to last week's Central Coast Section Division I semifinal win over Los Gatos. Their scoreless streak has reached 32 innings.
The last team to score against Valley Christian was Willow Glen in the first round of the CCS playoffs on May 23.
Since the beginning of the playoffs, Valley Christian coach John Diatte has stressed that the Warriors had a plan for how to manage their pitchers and keep them fresh for a long playoff run.
It's working beyond any reasonable expectation.
"So far, we’ve done OK," Diatte said with typical understatement.
Just like in the CCS championship against Soquel on Saturday, Gabe Felix started the game and set a strong foundation. Unlike last Saturday, he nearly finished off the contest himself, pitching efficiently into the seventh and going 6 ⅓ innings in all.
Then his tag-team partner from the Soquel and Willow Glen wins, Alex Kim, recorded the final two outs, stranding runners on first and second to end the game.
It's a seamless routine that has the Warriors back in the NorCal title game for the first time in three years. VC lost that game 11-8 to De La Salle on its home field in San Jose.
That was a few more runs than this Valley one-two punch was willing to concede.
"When we met out there, I said what we always say," Felix said of his conversation with Kim. "Whenever he comes out of the game and I go in, or when I come out of the game and he goes in, I just say, ‘Give me that win.'"
Mission accomplished. Kim has now closed out Valley Christian's last three games, with only Rahul Patel's complete-game gem against Los Gatos preventing him from finishing five in a row.
For De La Salle (23-5), the result was a rare letdown in a tournament that has been very kind to the Spartans over the years.
DLS had not lost a playoff game at home since 2006, a 53-game streak that predated the creation of the NorCal tournament in 2022.
The Spartans had been dominant in NorCals, winning three of the first four titles in the top division, including last season's. But it was not in the cards this year.
Instead, another team will win the NorCal Division I championship and become the third school to do so. Granada beat St. Mary's-Stockton to win the 2024 title.
"It’s baseball," DLS coach David Jeans said. "We hit some balls hard, and their guys ran some balls down with runners in scoring position. We’ve been getting big hits. We put on good swings, and they went at people.
"I always feel for the seniors, but I’m not disappointed at all. They played the game right all the way until the very end, and they had a heck of a season. They lost two games on the field. They’re a good team."
The loss brought an end to another stellar season for the Spartans that began amid turmoil.
De La Salle served a self-imposed five-game suspension to start the year due to violations of school policy, team rules and code of conduct, three of which resulted in forfeits.
The Spartans were also without their best player, Stanford-bound Tyler Spangler, all season because of an undisclosed injury. Stanford-bound ace Graham Schlicht, who broke the state record for consecutive scoreless innings, has not pitched since the NCS opening round on May 19. Jeans said Thursday the pitcher was unavailable but would not elaborate.
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This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 9:27 PM.