south hills

Corona baseball is receiving some competition in Big VIII League play this season. Norco is supposed to be the Panthers’ primary competition, but it was Corona Santiago handing the Panthers their first defeat Monday.

Troy Randall had three hits and threw three innings of scoreless relief in a 6-2 home victory. The teams play again Wednesday at Corona, with ace Striker Pence on the mound for Santiago.

Santiago (10-2) took advantage of rare wildness by Corona starting pitcher Mason Sims, who walked four in two innings. Randall and starting pitcher Ben Lewis held Corona’s top four batters hitless with eight strikeouts.

Cleveland 6, Chatsworth 2: The Cavaliers continued their march toward third place in the West Valley League. Max Salazar had three hits. Joshua Pearlstein threw a complete game with five strikeouts.

Taft 9, Granada Hills 7: The Toreadors scored three runs in the ninth inning for a West Valley League win. Nathan Swinson had a home run and Julian Antolin recorded three hits and three RBIs. Max Szczech had four hits, including a home run, for Granada Hills.

Garfield 10, Huntington Park 0: Omar Martinez had two hits and two RBIs and Michael Agredano struck out six in 3⅔ innings for Garfield.

South Hills 4, San Dimas 1: Marc Morales threw three scoreless innings of relief for South Hills.

Loyola 12, Paramount 2: Jack Murray contributed three hits for the Cubs.

Etiwanda 19, Los Osos 5: Angel Mejia finished with three hits and seven RBIs, including a grand slam.

Waiting patiently as he watched Ethan Schiefelbein, then Seth Hernandez perform as ace pitchers for Corona, junior left-hander Mason Sims has now assumed that role — and what a performance he turned in Monday during a Big VIII League game.

Sims struck out 12 with no walks in six innings of Corona’s 3-0 win over King. He gave up four hits. Anakin Tolman picked up the save in the seventh. Sims learned from the two current minor-league pitchers when he was a freshman and sophomore. He showed potential and is set to lead the Panthers’ pitching staff for the next two years.

Norco 8, Corona Centennial 4: Dylan Seward had a triple and three RBIs for the Cougars. Centennial got nine hits off Norco ace Landon Hovermale.

Corona Santiago 11, Eastvale Roosevelt 3: Striker Pence hit a home run, double and finished with four RBIs and Ben Lewis struck out 11 in five innings for Santiago. Max Eldridge had three hits and three RBIs.

San Juan Hills 7, El Dorado 2: Derrick Robertson contributed three hits for San Juan Hills.

Santa Margarita 13, Mountain Vista 2: Cooper Holland had three hits and six RBIs, including a grand slam, for the Eagles. Luke Blanchard added three hits.

South Hills 10, Los Altos 1: Diego Villarreal hit a grand slam for South Hills.

Carson 5, Narbonne 3: Joseph Meza struck out seven in five innings and Skylar Vinson and Fernando Barajas each had two hits for Carson in the Marine League opener.

Banning 3, San Pedro 2: AJ Herrera had the save and Oscar Chavez and Ethan Camejo contributed two hits each for Banning.

Calabasas 12, Taft 1: Trevor Chang had a grand slam and seven RBIs for Calabasas.

Garfield 9, Roosevelt 4: Angel Zamudio had a two-run double and Nate Vasquez had two hits and RBIs for Garfield.

San Fernando 6, Kennedy 4: Alex Torres improved to 3-0 and Armando Villegas had a double and single in the Valley Mission League win.

Sylmar 6, Verdugo Hills 2: Rickee Luevano went four for four and delivered a three-run home run for Sylmar.