CIF NorCal baseball-softball playoffs: Roseville rolls, DCA wins and more
The Roseville Tigers are well stocked in starting pitching, and their two aces have their Placer County school on the cusp of a CIF Northern California championship.
Two days after teammate Tyler Ritter hurled a one-hitter over six innings in a NorCal opener, Ethan Gustus offered up his own masterpiece. The 6-foot-6 Vanderbilt-committed junior fired a one-hitter over six innings with 14 strikeouts as the top-seeded Tigers beat the No. 5 Wheatland Pirates 4-0 in a Division III semifinal.
Winners of 13 consecutive games and sporting an overall record of 29-4, Roseville will host Saturday’s title game at 4 p.m. against second-seeded Menlo School of Atherton, a 2-1 winner over Alameda in the other D-III semifinal.
Regardless of how that game turns out, this will go down as perhaps the best athletic year in the 114-year history of the school that has aged well with sparkling additions, including a $14 million renovation to its aquatics complex.
The Tigers over Thanksgiving weekend won their first CIF Sac-Joaquin Section football championship since 1987, the boys water polo team won a section crown, and the baseball squad repeated as section champions with a chance to win the school’s first NorCal title in this sport. Several Tigers players competed in football and/or water polo as playing multiple sports remains a big thing on campus.
Ashton Chang had an RBI hit and Jacob Welch scored on a passed ball in the first inning, Devin Johnson stole home with two outs in the fourth to make it 3-0, and Benjamin Jordan homered to left for the final score in the sixth for Roseville. Otherwise, it was all Gustus. He improved to 7-1. The UC Davis Ritter is 11-0. Roseville reliever Dustin Holcomb pitched the seventh and final inning of Tuesday’s 5-0 win over Santa Cruz with two strikeouts, and he struck out two in the seventh inning on Thursday.
Jaxon Becker allowed four hits and struck out eight for Wheatland, which finished 25-9 and winners of the section Division IV championship.
Elk Grove 11, Granada 7: In Division I play, the No. 3-seeded Thundering Herd received a three-run home run to centerfield in the bottom of the sixth inning from fourth-year starting infielder Chase Groves that put his team up for good at 9-7 to secure a home game on Saturday for the championship.
No. 7 Granada of Livermore eliminated No. 2-seeded St. Mary’s Rams of Stockton on Tuesday, and top-seeded De La Salle of Contra Costa County was upset on Thursday at home to fourth-seeded Valley Christian of San Jose, 3-0. DLS won four of the five NorCal D-I titles since the tournament was created.
The Cal-bound Groves had five RBI, leadoff hitter Tristen Bartlett had two and catcher Hudson Hall one. Bartlett, Brayden Ford and Chase Dyer each scored two runs for Elk Grove. Dyer struck out two as the starting pitcher, and Brady Ramirez earned the win in relief, allowing no runs, no walks and striking out two as Elk Grove extended its winning streak to 12 in improving to 29-6 overall.
Franklin 7, Los Gatos 6: In Division II action, the second-seeded Wildcats of Elk Grove won it in extra innings when Easton Fernald scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the eight innings to advance his team to a home title match against Mitty of San Jose, which beat Rodriguez of Fairfield 3-2 in the other semifinal.
Fernald, a shortstop, had four hits, walked once and scored three runs. David Hernandez had three hits and two RBI, and Dylan Minnatee and Brandon Williams each drove in a run for Franklin (24-9-1).
CIF NorCal Softball
Destiny Christian Academy 4, Saint Francis 3: Takiyah Haygood had a two-run home run in the first inning for a 3-1 lead, the team’s 60th homer of the season, and LSU-bound senior star Ayla Tuua was able to strike out Aryka Gunsager swinging to seal it as the Division I top-seeded Lions advanced to their third NorCal final in four years in eliminating the Lancers of Santa Clara County.
DCA is the No. 1-ranked team in the state by CalHi Sports, and the Lions roll into Saturday’s final at 30-0. DCA will face the winner of Friday’s other D-I semifinal between Whitney and No. 2-seeded Clovis East of Fresno County. That game was moved from Thursday to Friday to accommodate Whitney’s graduation ceremony in Placer County.
DCA beat Saint Francis 1-0 in a nonleague game in March, and this was a similarly tight game. Saint Francis is a storied program, having won the NorCal D-I title in 2022 and coming in state-ranked 11th. DCA leadoff hitter KK Fulmer, headed to Vanguard, had two hits, and the Delaware State-bound Haygood had three hits and three RBI.
Del Oro 6, Willow Glen 0: In Division II action, Emma Johnson hit a two-run homer in the first inning, Chloe Champas had a two-run base hit in the second and an RBI hit in the fifth, and pitchers Mikayla Finn and Katharine Popovski combined on a thee-hitter, walking one and striking out five for the Golden Eagles of Loomis.
Leadoff hitter Caelyn Campos walked twice and scored two runs to set the pace for Del Oro (22-8), the 2025 NorCal Division I champion. Willow Glen of San Jose won the Division II NorCal title in 2023.
Baseball
Division I
Valley Christian 3, De La Salle 0
Elk Grove 11, Granada 7
Saturday championship
No. 4 Valley Christian at No. 3 Elk Grove, 4 p.m.
Division II
Mitty 3, Rodriguez 2
Franklin 7, Los Gatos 6
Saturday championship
No. 8 Mitty at No. 2 Franklin, 4 p.m.
Division III
Roseville 4, Wheatland 0
Menlo School 2, Alameda 1
Saturday championship
No. 2 Menlo School at No. 1 Roseville, 4 p.m.
Division IV
Half Moon Bay 10, West Valley 0
Livermore 13, Immanuel 5
Saturday championship
No. 2 Livermore at No. 1 Half Moon Bay, 4 p.m.
Division V
Minarets 5, Roosevelt 4
Pacific Grove 9, Skyline 3
Saturday championship
No. 3 Pacific Grove at No. 1 Minarets
Softball
Division I
Destiny Christian 4, Saint Francis 3
No. 6 Whitney at No. 2 Clovis East, Friday, 4 p.m.
Saturday championship
Whitney/Clovis East at No. 1 Destiny Christian, 4 p.m.
Division II
Del Oro 6, Willow Glen 0
Alameda 7, Hollister 3
Saturday championship
No. 2 Del Oro at No. 1 Alameda, 4 p.m.
Division III
Chico 5, Monterey 2
Las Plumas 7, East Nicolaus 6
Saturday championship
No. 5 Chico at No. 2 Las Plumas, 4 p.m.
Division IV
West Valley 14, Escalon 5
Alisal 5, Live Oak 4
Saturday championship
No. 2 Alisal at No. 1 West Valley, 4 p.m.
Division V
Moreau Catholic 7, Notre Dame 3
Le Grand 5, Durham 1
Saturday championship
No. 4 Moreau Catholic at No. 2 Le Grand, 4 p.m.