scoreless innings

Birmingham never wins the West Valley League baseball championship. But the Patriots are certainly putting themselves within striking distance of first-place El Camino Real.

They remained one game behind El Camino Real after an 8-0 win over Granada Hills on Tuesday in which Carlos Acuna gave up one hit in six innings and struck out 11. He also had two hits. Sebastian Valadez and Toni Mendoza each had two hits and two RBIs.

El Camino Real and Birmingham play a two-game series beginning April 29.

Harvard-Westlake 2, St. Francis 0: Junior Justin Kirchner threw six scoreless innings with 14 strikeouts and Ira Rootman had a home run and two RBIs.

Loyola 9, Bishop Alemany 3: Sophomore Austin Junk had a three-run home run and double and Luca Marucci also homered in the Cubs’ Mission League win. Mikey Martinez homered for Alemany.

Chaminade 12, Crespi 5: Bronson Jackson, Isaiah Hearn and Robby Morgan each hit home runs in the Mission League win. Kystan Bell had three hits for Crespi.

St. John Bosco 6, Servite 0: Julian Garcia showed off overpowering stuff, striking out 12 with no walks while giving up two hits to help the Braves (17-5, 9-1) remain in first place in the Trinity League. Jaden Jackson had two hits and two RBIs.

Orange Lutheran 6, Santa Margarita 3: The top-ranked Lancers scored four runs in the seventh to overcome a 3-2 deficit. Hamilton Friedberg had three hits and three RBIs and CJ Weinstein added three hits.

Newbury Park 6, Calabasas 5: Jack Laubacher had two hits and three RBIs in the Panthers’ eight-inning win.

Westlake 5, Thousand Oaks 3: The Warriors stayed in first place in the Marmonte League. Jaxson Necklen hit two home runs and Blake Miller added a home run, double, single and two RBIs.

Newport Harbor 8, Fountain Valley 1: Gavin Guy threw six innings in the Sunset League win.

Huntington Beach 6, Los Alamitos 3: Jared Grindlinger hit two doubles to keep Huntington Beach unbeaten in the Sunset League.

Gahr 2, Warren 1: Andres Gonzalez hit a two-run home run in the first inning for Gahr.

La Mirada 6, Downey 1: Michael Burgueno went four for four and Jacob Oropeza contributed two doubles.

San Clemente 4, Aliso Niguel 1: Bob Erspamer gave up two hits with six strikeouts in a complete game.

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.

Xander Bogaerts and Bryce Johnson delivered two-out RBIs as the San Diego Padres defeated the Angels 2-1 on Sunday.

Bogaerts broke a scoreless tie with an RBI single in the fourth inning, and Johnson added a two-out RBI single in the seventh as San Diego took two of three games in the series. Johnson finished with two of San Diego’s five hits for his multihit game of the season.

Michael King (3-1) gave up one hit over five scoreless innings, striking out six and walking four while working through traffic. He combined with Ron Marinaccio, Kyle Hart, Bradgley Rodriguez and Mason Miller to hold Los Angeles to two hits.

Miller struck out two in a perfect ninth for his eighth save. He is one inning shy of the longest scoreless streak in Padres history, set by Cla Meredith with 33 2/3 innings in 2006.

The Angels mounted a late threat but couldn’t tie it. Oswald Peraza doubled in the seventh and scored on a sacrifice fly by Zach Neto. But the Angels went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and struck out 11 times.

Walbert Ureña (0-2) made his first career start for the Angels, striking out eight and giving up two runs over six-plus innings. He became the fourth pitcher in franchise history to record at least eight strikeouts in his debut.

Strong pitching, good hitting and solid hitting has led to a 9-0 start for the Sherman Oaks Notre Dame baseball team.

On Wednesday, Malakye Matsumoto threw two scoreless innings of relief and had three hits and four RBIs in Notre Dame’s 11-0 win over Chaminade. The Knights are 4-0 in Mission League play. Dru Wilson homered and had two RBIs. Troy Trejo added two RBIs.

Corona 8, King 3: Anthony Murphy hit for the cycle — home run, triple, double and single — in the Big VIII League win.

Norco 12, Corona Centennial 4: Dylan Seward had three hits and Zion Martinez added three hits and four RBIs.

Corona Santiago 9, Roosevelt 4: Striker Pence struck out eight and gave up no hits in four innings.

Sierra Canyon 14, Crespi 3: Bryaden Goldstein and Cody Gallegos each had two hits and three RBIs.

Loyola 11, St. Francis 0: Robert Rapp had three hits and five RBIs.

Harvard-Westlake 17, Bishop Alemany 0: Avenging its first loss in Mission League play Tuesday, the Wolverines received home runs from James Tronstein and Jake Kim. Ethan Alexander gave up one hit in 5 1/3 innings.

Carson 3, San Pedro 1: Sal Carrillo picked up the save in the Marine League.

Banning 4, Narbonne 3: Santiago Meza had the game-winning single in the ninth and AJ Herrera threw all nine innings for Banning.

El Camino Real 5, Taft 0: Jackson Sellz struck out 10 and RJ De La Rosa had two hits and three RBIs.

Cleveland 10, Granada Hills 4: Joshua Pearlstein and Elliot Schoenwald each had three hits for Cleveland.

Birmingham 9, Chatsworth 3: Julius Monroe-Truitt broke through for three hits in the West Valley League win.

Bell 12, Huntington Park 0: Vincent Rubio led Bell with three hits and four RBIs in a five-inning win. Jayden Rojas struck out six in three innings.

Garfield 6, Roosevelt 1: Mayo Robles went three for three to lead the Bulldogs.

St. John Bosco 5, JSerra 1: Jhett Ohira hit a two-run home run and Jack Champlin continued perfection as a closer for the Braves.

Orange Lutheran 8, Damien 5: Gavin Hottie hit two home runs for Orange Lutheran.

Santa Margarita 15, Brother Rice 3: Freshman Cooper Holland continued his impressive hitting in Las Vegas

Los Alamitos 7, Edison 6: Rowan Shelley had two hits and four RBIs in the eight-inning victory.

Fountain Valley 7, Capistrano Valley 2: Ethan Cortez had two hits and two RBIs for Fountain Valley.

Huntington Beach 5, Marina 3: Tanner Brown homered and Christian Haupt threw four innings of scoreless relief for Huntington Beach.

Newport Harbor 4, Corona del Mar 2: Henry Mann’s two-run triple in the fifth broke a 2-2 tie.

Palos Verdes 7, Torrance 3: Charles Hoye finished with three hits for Palos Verdes.

Ayala 7, Northview 1: Jaden Valenzuela and Caleb Trugman each had three hits for Ayala.

Sophomore pitcher Carlos Acuna, building upon his outstanding freshman season, threw a one-hit shutout on Friday in Birmingham’s 5-0 West Valley League win over Taft.

He lost his no-hit bid when the first hitter of the seventh inning singled. He finished with seven strikeouts. In 24 innings this season, Acuna is 3-0 with 29 strikeouts, eight walks and a 1.16 earned-run average.

Cypress 14, JSerra 2: Tyler Vladic had five hits and Noah Johnson contributed five RBIs to lead Cypress.

Foothill 7, Cajon 0: Evrett Rycroft struck out two and walked none in six scoreless innings.

Huntington Beach 4, Edison 1: Tanner Brown struck out seven with no walks in six innings and Jared Grindlinger had two hits for the Oilers.

El Camino Real 6, Cleveland 1: Hudson December threw a complete game for the Royals.

Granada Hills 8, Chatsworth 5: Nicholas Penaranda finished with three hits for Granada Hills.

Villa Park 6, La Habra 1: Jack McGuire struck out 10 and threw 6 2/3 innings for Villa Park.

Garfield 3, Venice 2: The Bulldogs scored a run in the ninth on an error to break a 2-2 deadlock. Michael Santillan had three hits for Garfield.

Bell 11, Palisades 3: Jayden Gonzalez had a home run and three RBIs for 10-1 Bell.

Palos Verdes 3, Mira Costa 1: Kai Van Scoyoc struck out nine in 4⅓ innings to lead Palos Verdes.

Fountain Valley 6, Los Alamitos 2: Ethan Cortez had a two-run single for Fountain Valley.

Marina 5, Newport Harbor 4: Three hits from Elijah Herald helped Marina hand Newport Harbor its first loss.

Santa Margarita 19, Los Osos 9: Brody Schumacher drove in seven runs on four hits, including a home run and double.