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This article, Following The Plan | Valley Christian Baseball At It Again, was first published on SportStarsMag.com.
One Year After A Heartbreaking NorCal Championship Loss, Valley Christian-San Jose Baseball Is Off To A 7-0 Start Behind Loads Of Returning Talent And A Familiar Guide PICTURED ABOVE: Quinten Marsh crosses the plate against Elk Grove on Feb. 24. (David Gershon photo)
Watching another team skip, flail and rejoice on your field was borderline unbearable, but John Diatte and his Valley Christian-San Jose Warriors’ baseball team had no choice.
De La Salle-Concord had just scored six runs in the top of the seventh last June, capped by a two-out grand slam by Hank Tripaldi, to pull out one of the more emotional and unlikely comebacks imaginable to win the epic Northern California Division I championship game, 11-8, between NorCal’s two most dominating programs.
Valley Christian’s brilliant 31-4 season, highlighted with an improbable perfect 14-0 West Catholic Athletic League crown and fifth Central Coast Section title in six years — along with a seemingly secure three-run seventh-inning lead — all came crashing down with a crushing season-ending defeat.
“It was definitely tough to stomach,” Diatte said.
The gut-punch was later softened somewhat when he learned that the game’s hero had lost his mother to breast cancer earlier in the spring, igniting the extra...
More...
One Year After A Heartbreaking NorCal Championship Loss, Valley Christian-San Jose Baseball Is Off To A 7-0 Start Behind Loads Of Returning Talent And A Familiar Guide PICTURED ABOVE: Quinten Marsh crosses the plate against Elk Grove on Feb. 24. (David Gershon photo)
Watching another team skip, flail and rejoice on your field was borderline unbearable, but John Diatte and his Valley Christian-San Jose Warriors’ baseball team had no choice.
De La Salle-Concord had just scored six runs in the top of the seventh last June, capped by a two-out grand slam by Hank Tripaldi, to pull out one of the more emotional and unlikely comebacks imaginable to win the epic Northern California Division I championship game, 11-8, between NorCal’s two most dominating programs.
Valley Christian’s brilliant 31-4 season, highlighted with an improbable perfect 14-0 West Catholic Athletic League crown and fifth Central Coast Section title in six years — along with a seemingly secure three-run seventh-inning lead — all came crashing down with a crushing season-ending defeat.
“It was definitely tough to stomach,” Diatte said.
The gut-punch was later softened somewhat when he learned that the game’s hero had lost his mother to breast cancer earlier in the spring, igniting the extra...
More...