Serra of San Mateo baseball players (left) get their CCS D1 title photo taken after win Saturday night at Excite Park in San Jose. At right, St. Francis of Mountain View softball players have collected their CCS Open Division title trophy after win earlier Saturday at West Valley College. Photos: Mark Tennis.
Serra of San Mateo caps a busy day/night on Saturday of CIF Central Coast Section championships with a triumph over Valley Christian of San Jose to win the D1 baseball crown just a few hours after St. Francis of Mountain View won the Open Division softball title by handing Willow Glen of San Jose its first loss of the season.
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A sophomore with an older senior brother teammate and a freshman with an older senior sister teammate were in starring roles on Saturday in the CIF Central Coast Section top divisional baseball and softball championship games.
The sophomore was San Mateo Serra’s Aaron Minton, who had a two-run double during a big three-run inning that helped the Padres defeat Valley Christian of San Jose, 3-2, in the CCS D1 final played at Excite Park in San Jose. The freshman was Mountain View St. Francis’ Bianka Fisher, who was just brought up from the JV team but pitched three scoreless innings that was critical in the Lancers’ 9-6 victory in eight innings over previously unbeaten Willow Glen of San Jose in the CCS Open Division final played earlier on Saturday at West Valley College in Saratoga.
It’s often possible to see both the top divisional championships in baseball and softball on the same date in the CCS since the section has tended to schedule its last baseball game at night at the longtime home of the San Jose Giants’ minor league team, which is currently known as Excite Park with the top softball game set for earlier in the day. We did that doubleheader just two years ago when it was eventual State Team of the Year Hollister winning the earlier softball game and Valley Christian winning in the night baseball game.
This Wasn’t Supposed To Be Serra’s Year
With 18 players who graduated off last season’s team and with a number of highly-ranked prospects coming back for Valley Christian, the Serra of San Mateo squad came into 2025 a bit under the radar. But this ended up being the group of seniors that broke a drought of winning CCS titles for the program that counts Barry Bonds and Tom Brady as former players that had been going on since 2009.
Sophomore Aaron Minton had the big hit of the game for Serra in its 3-2 win vs Valley Christian. Photo: Mark Tennis.
“I’m so happy for these guys,” said head coach Mat Keplinger, who is just in his second season at the school after being an assistant at Delta College in Stockton, USF and San Jose State. “We knew we had a talented club. And just the work ethic of this senior class has changed the culture of the program.”
Serra earlier showed it was capable of winning the CCS D1 title by winning the regular season crown in the West Catholic Athletic League, which included a split of two games with Valley Christian. Despite Bellarmine of San Jose winning the WCAL playoff title, the Padres were the top seed in the CCS D1 bracket. They’re now 26-6, including a semifinal win from earlier in the week vs St. Francis of Mountain View, and will move on into this week’s CIF NorCal D1 playoffs.
“We haven’t even talked about the NorCals and it doesn’t carry a ton of weight for us as this is the one that has really mattered,” said Keplinger, whose team received the No. 3 seed in the NorCal D1 bracket and will play next on Tuesday at home vs CIF North Coast Section D1 runner-up College Park of Pleasant Hill. “We’re just excited to be able to keep playing.”
Valley Christian, which won its 11th CCS title in that second part of the doubleheader we saw two years ago, will still go on to this week’s NorCal playoffs but will be on the road and like last year will be playing Tuesday at St. Mary’s of Stockton. The Warriors (25-7) notched their spot in Saturday’s final with a semifinal win earlier in the week against Los Gatos.
Head coach John Diatte’s club took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning after starting pitcher and outfielder Brock Ketelsen opened up the game with a sharp single. He went to third on a single by Christian Nevarez, then scored on a safety squeeze bunt by Jordan Ortiz.
Ketelsen also cruised through Serra’s lineup the first time he went through it. In the top of the third, Valley Christian added another run on an RBI single by Quinten Marsh, but junior pitcher Riley Lim limited the damage by inducing a double play.
That big inning for the Padres was the fourth. Jack Armstrong led off with a single, Tyler Harrison walked and up stepped Aaron Minton. He drove a pitch toward the left corner of the wall that couldn’t be caught and the double scored both Armstrong and Harrison. Minton eventually scored what proved to be the go-ahead run on an infield hit by Evan Bradshaw. The inning ended with Ketelsen out of the game and the Padres leaving the bases loaded.
Serra could not add on in the fifth and sixth innings against VC’s Rohan Kasanagottu, but Armstrong had his second hit of the game. Lim was replaced in the sixth by junior Nate Hui. He gave up two hits in the top of the sixth, but a diving catch in left field by Aaron Maier saved one run and arguably two since the next batter also singled.
A leadoff walk drawn by Ethan Flynn in the top of the seventh gave the Warriors a chance to score the tying run. A sacrifice bunt, a passed ball and another walk put runners on the corners with one out. Diatte went for another squeeze bunt, but this time the Padres were more ready for it as Lim charged off the mound and did a back-hand flip of the ball to Armstrong (the catcher) to get the out at the plate. Marsh then stepped in and obviously still had a chance to bring in not one but two runs. He and Lim battled for 10 pitches and Marsh had several good swings that were foul balls that he seemed to just miss. Still on a 2-2 count, Lim recorded the final out on a called third strike.
Minton is the younger brother of Serra senior Davis Minton and earlier in May the two were both honored as the NorCal co-players of the week.
“To be able to do this with him is just awesome,” Aaron said. “I still have two years to go so hopefully we’re going to be able to do this again.”
It’s always hard to contain the excitement of winning one of the major CIF section baseball titles in the state. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
Heat Hinders Pitchers in CCS Softball Final
It was easy to spot St. Francis of Mountain View freshman pitcher Bianka Fisher during the team’s excitement of winning another CCS Open Division softball championship. She was the one wearing a JV uniform and not the same one as almost all of the other players.
One player was heard mentioning: “I guess she’s going to have to be on the varsity next season.”
Freshman pitcher Bianka Fisher probably didn’t wake up on Saturday morning thinking she was going to play a huge role for St. Francis in CCS Open title game. Photo: Mark Tennis.
Lancers’ head coach Mike Oakland admitted afterward he didn’t expect to have to insert any other pitchers besides starter Ava Bulanti or junior Hailey Nguyen (who we saw combine for a no-hitter earlier this season in the title game of the Livermore Stampede), but the mid-90 degree heat during the hottest part of the day at the West Valley College field was melting the pitchers of both St. Francis and its title game opponent from Willow Glen.
Fisher, who is the younger sister of St. Francis senior Lexi Fisher, proved to be the key move on a day in which Bulanti and Willow Glen ace Alanna Clincy both came out of the game and were re-inserted. When she entered in the sixth inning, the Rams had the potential go-ahead run on base but didn’t score on a pop up and strikeout. Fisher got three straight ground outs in the bottom of the seventh with the score still tied. Then in the bottom of the eighth after the Lancers broke through for three runs she worked around two singles with two strikeouts and had to face Clincy with the game on the line. The Cal-bound standout (and probably still the player of the year in the Bay Area despite the loss) popped up for the final out of the game.
“I was just really excited to get called up,” Fisher said. “It was a little tough with the heat, but I just tried to hydrate just in case.”
“I couldn’t be more impressed for her coming into the game with no outs and a runner on,” said Oakland, who won his fifth CCS title in the program’s eighth straight CCS title game appearance. “She gave up some hits but wasn’t rattled at all.”
The combination of Fisher’s very fast windup with a changeup is what seemed to put the Willow Glen hitters off-balance.
Clincy was sensational herself in the top of the seventh inning with the score tied at 6-6 as she struck out the side. In the top of the eighth, she gave up a single to center by May Meltz (another freshman) and then walked Maya Yumiba. Sophomore Catalina Medina then replaced Clincy for the second time on the day and also had trouble throwing strikes. St. Francis scored runs on bases loaded walks by Bulanti and Hayden Hummel and added a third run in the inning on a grounder by Isabella Sandoval.
Willow Glen entered the game at 28-0 after a semifinal win earlier in the week over Capuchino of San Bruno and logically was the top seed in the Open Division. The Rams also were at No. 4 in last week’s State TOP 25 rankings due to having a win over Valley Christian of San Jose (a team that had handed St. Francis a recent loss). Still, many viewed the Lancers (27-3 and No. 5 in the state) as the favorite as the defending champions and since Willow Glen didn’t go to any of the top tournaments in the state like the Lancers did.
St. Francis took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by Peyton Tsao and then an RBI double by Hummel. Clincy then showed her two-way prowess in the bottom of the inning by launching a two-run homer.
The Lancers had a 6-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth that was built by scoring twice in the third and twice in the fourth. Gabby Rocha had a two-run double in the third while Tsao and Sandoval had RBI singles in the fourth.
To Willow Glen’s credit, which suffered a 10-0 loss to the Lancers just a year ago in the CCS playoffs, it put together a big rally in that bottom of the fifth. A double by Katelynn Dilbeck brought home the first run, then an RBI single by Clincy made it 6-4. Nguyen came in to pitch for St. Francis, but didn’t have it and walked two straight batters (one with the bases loaded) for another run. Bulanti then came back to pitch and an infield hit by Elizabeth Dilbeck tied the score. Still with the bases loaded, another freshman then came up with a big play for St. Francis as first baseman Meltz made an over-the-shoulder catch of a potential bloop single that not only saved a run but also resulted in a double play with the runner at first caught too far away from the bag.
“If that ball falls, we probably lose,” Oakland said. “To have two freshmen do what they did today was impressive.”
Both teams will now advance to the CIF NorCal D1 playoffs. In pairings announced on Sunday around 1 p.m., the Lancers were seeded third in D1 behind Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills and Del Oro of Loomis and will have a home game on Tuesday in the first round vs Rocklin. They were the No. 1 seed a year ago in the same position but lost in that first-round NorCal game in an upset to Amador Valley of Pleasanton, which then did go on to win the NorCal title. Willow Glen is going to play Tuesday at Del Oro.
“We’ll just have to reset,” Oakland said. “It’s going to be a tough week with travel ball starting as well. We’ll see who opts out and opts in and go from there.”
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
