granada hills

The Granada Hills and Carson softball programs know each other so well they might as well put on their MaxPreps schedule before the season a date for their annual game to decide the City Section Open Division championship.

It’s happening for a fourth consecutive season Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Legacy High in South Gate. Last season, Granada Hills ended a three-game losing streak to the Colts.

On Wednesday, both teams won their semifinal games. Granada Hills’ No. 1 and No. 2 batters in the lineup, Elysse Diaz and Zoe Justman, had big games in a 12-9 win over San Pedro. They combined to go five for eight with five RBIs. Justman had a home run. Gina Evangelista hit an inside-the-park grand slam.

San Pedro scored five runs in the seventh to give the Highlanders a little scare.

At Carson, the Colts came away with a 12-2 semifinal win over Birmingham. Sophomore Anaiyah Popoalii had a home run, double and three RBIs. Olivia Lomeli went three for four with three RBIs. Pitcher Isabella Campos threw a complete game.

SOUTHERN SECTION SOFTBALL

FINALS SCHEDULE

At Bill Barber Park, Irvine

Thursday’s Schedule

DIVISION 7

Edgewood vs. Ramona Convent, 7 p.m.

DIVISION 6

Arroyo vs. Irvine, 4 p.m.

Friday’s Schedule

DIVISION 1

La Mirada vs. JSerra, 7 p.m.

DIVISION 2

Whittier Christian vs. Mater Dei, 4 p.m.

Saturday’s Schedule

DIVISION 3

Riverside Prep vs. Great Oak, 7 p.m.

DIVISION 4

Mission Viejo at Oxnard, 4 p.m.

DIVISION 5

Grace vs. Northwood, 10 a.m.

DIVISION 8

Arroyo Valley vs. San Bernardino, 1 p.m.

SOUTHERN SECTION SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS

SATURDAY’S RESULTS

Semifinals

DIVISION 1

La Mirada 5, La Habra 1

JSerra 2, Norco 0

DIVISION 2

Whittier Christian 11, St. Paul 6

Mater Dei 4, San Clemente 2

DIVISION 3

Great Oak 4, North Torrance 3

Riverside Prep 4, Dos Pueblos 2

DIVISION 4

Oxnard 1, Monrovia 0

Mission Viejo 5, Burbank Burroughs 3

DIVISION 5

Grace 16, Patriot 10

Northwood 15, Covina 3

DIVISION 6

Irvine 16, Granite Hills 2

Arroyo 11, Hesperia Christian 4

DIVISION 7

Ramona Convent 17, Faith Baptist 9

Edgewood 6, Cathedral City 0

DIVISION 8

San Bernardino 25, Workman 3

Arroyo Valley 18, Capistrano Valley 7

Note: Finals May 28-30 at Bill Barber Memorial Park, Irvine (times TBA).

HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL

CITY SECTION PLAYOFFS

FRIDAY’S RESULTS

Quarterfinals

OPEN DIVISION

#1 Granada Hills 3, #8 Granada Hills Kennedy 2

DIVISION I

#1 Venice 2, #9 San Fernando 0

#4 Chatsworth 1, #5 Chavez 0

#6 Eagle Rock 5, #3 Port of LA 2

#10 Verdugo Hills 1, #2 Marquez 0

DIVISION II

#1 LA Marshall 10, #9 Northridge Academy 4

#5 Sylmar 12, #20 Cleveland 1

#6 Arleta 11, #19 North Hollywood 3

#18 Taft 14, #10 Sun Valley Poly 5

DIVISION III

#9 Palisades 18, #16 Van Nuys 6

#5 South East 22, #4 Maywood Academy 4

#10 Westchester 10, #14 VAAS 0

#15 Reseda 15, #7 LACES 8

DIVISION IV

#16 Vaughn 17, #9 Smidt Tech 5

#4 Huntington Park 16, #12 Downtown Magnets 2

#14 Franklin 7, #11 Bernstein 2

#18 Diego Rivera 11, #7 CALS Early College 1

WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE

(Games at 3 p.m. unless noted)

Semifinals

OPEN DIVISION

#4 San Pedro at #1 Granada Hills

#3 Birmingham at #2 Carson

DIVISION I

#4 Chatsworth at #1 Venice

#10 Verdugo Hills at #6 Eagle Rock

DIVISION II

#5 Sylmar at #1 LA Marshall

#18 Taft at #6 Arleta

DIVISION III

#9 Palisades at #5 South East

#15 Reseda at #11 Westchester

DIVISION IV

#16 Vaughn at #4 Huntington Park

#18 Diego Rivera at #14 Franklin

Note: Finals in all divisions May 29-30 at TBD.

HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL & SOFTBALL

Thursday’s Results

BASEBALL

CITY SECTION

Angelou 14, Manual Arts 0

Birmingham 1, Cleveland 0

CALS Early College 12, Esperanza College Prep 2

Chatsworth 13, Taft 3

Collins Family 21, Central City Value 1

Diego Rivera 21, West Adams 0

Franklin 8, Hacienda Heights Wilson 7

Fremont 12, Dorsey 1

Garfield 7, South Gate 6

Granada Hills 6, El Camino Real 5

Harbor Teacher 17, King/Drew 3

Lakeview Charter 18, Valley Oaks CES 4

Marshall 12, Eagle Rock 0

Roosevelt 3, Legacy 0

University 5, Fairfax 1

Port of Los Angeles 14, Locke 1

RFK Community 11, Mendez 1

San Fernando 1, Sun Valley Poly 0

San Pedro 10, Narbonne 8

Sherman Oaks CES 9, Fulton 8

Sun Valley Magnet 10, Bert Corona 0

Sylmar 11, North Hollywood 1

Triumph Charter 17, Community Charter 6

Valor Academy 19, Discovery 8

Venice 4, Palisades 3

Verdugo Hills 7, Granada Hills Kennedy 2

Banning 10, Gardena 0

SOFTBALL

CITY SECTION

Camino Nuevo 19, Alliance Ouchi 1

Carson 20, Rancho Dominguez 0

Dorsey 21, King/Drew

Hollywood 19, Roybal 4

Legacy 13, LA Roosevelt 0

Mendez 26, RFK Community 4

Northridge Academy 12, VAAS 1

Port of Los Angeles 21, Harbor Teacher 1

San Pedro 14, Narbonne 0

Triumph Charter 10, Community Charter 7

Vaughn 21, Grant 12

Wilmington Banning 22, Gardena 0

Five years ago, longtime baseball coach Joe Cascione left coaching the sport to start a women’s tennis team at Mission College.

On Wednesday, Mission College won the state women’s tennis championship armed with local players from Kennedy, Granada Hills, Sylmar and Birmingham high schools, among others.

It’s quite an achievement to win it all with local athletes.

Key contributors included Amy Nghiem, Priscilla Grinner and America Fragoso from Granada Hills; Jaelyn Rivera from Birmingham; Josilyn Rivera and Natalia Ponce from Kennedy; Alitzel Ortega Partida from Golden Valley; Genesis Nochez from West Ranch and Kristen Bonzon from Sylmar.

Cascione singled out his players for their passion and commitment.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

With more than 40 years of coaching experience, Tom Harp of Granada Hills sure knows how to pull off upsets in boys volleyball.

His team created some uncertainty for the City Section playoffs by knocking off the likely No. 1 seed, Chatsworth, on Monday with a five-set victory, 24-26, 23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 15-12.

“It was an amazing match,” Harp said. “It was some of the hardest spikes I’ve seen in a long time from both teams.”

RJ Francisco of Granada Hills had 19 kills and setter Shawn Meza contributed 46 assists. Granada Hills pulled into a first-place tie with Chatsworth in the West Valley League after losing to the Chancellors earlier this season.

Baseball

Sylmar 7, Sun Valley Poly 0: The Spartans moved two games ahead of the Parrots in the Valley Mission League race. Matthew Torres threw a no-hitter with 11 strikeouts. Rickee Luevano had two hits and three RBIs. Tim Sepulveda added two hits.

El Camino Real 6, Chatsworth 2: It was a big day for JJ Saffie, who had a home run, double and two singles for the Royals. RJ De La Rosa had a triple.

Cleveland 2, Taft 0: Joshua Pearlstein threw 6⅓ scoreless innings, with Elliot Schoenwald getting the save. Sebastian Castaneda had two hits.

Banning 5, Narbonne 3: Oscar Chavez (4-1) threw a complete game and AJ Herrera went three for three to lead Banning.

Carson 2, San Pedro 1: Noah Sandoval threw a complete game for Carson.

San Fernando 1, Verdugo Hills 0: Alex Torres threw the shutout with seven strikeouts and no walks.

South Hills 4, Alta Loma 3: Gabriel Guerrero threw 1⅓ innings of scoreless relief to get the save for South Hills.

Long Beach Millikan 6, North Torrance 3: Austin Brett struck out seven in five innings.

Corona Centennial 15, King 8: Sophomore Ethan Miller hit two home runs and finished with five RBIs. The Huskies hit four home runs and rallied from a 5-3 deficit.

Corona 16, Eastvale Roosevelt 6: Sophomore Logan Pascarella had two hits and five RBIs and Trey Ebel added two hits and three RBIs to lead Corona.

Etiwanda 12, Chino Hills 11: Derick Kim hit a walk-off, two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning for Etiwanda. Jacob Jimenez hit a grand slam for Chino Hills. LJ Roellig had four hits, including three doubles, for Etiwanda. Jaxson Milius had three hits and three RBIs.

Softball

El Camino Real 3, Birmingham 1: Audrina Gonzalez struck out eight in seven innings. Gonzalez had an RBI double and Madison Franklin added an RBI triple.

San Pedro 13, Narbonne 0: Jenna Ortega had three hits, including two doubles.