South Coast League

SAN CLEMENTE (4-3, 1-1) VS. TESORO (3-4, 0-2)

Where, when: Tesoro High, Thursday, 7 p.m.

Outlook: Both teams have lost to Dana Hills, and last week Tesoro got hammered by Mission Viejo, 60-14. This is a crucial game for both. Mission Viejo and Dana Hills are going to finish in the top two positions in the final South Coast standings (Dana-at-Mission is Nov. 13, the final week of the regular season). That leaves one guaranteed playoff berth in the South Coast League, and the winner of this game is in the driver’s seat for that No. 3 spot.

San Clemente lost to Dana Hills by 24 points, and Tesoro lost to Dana by three – but I still think San Clemente’s offensive versatility, with Chase Rettig at quarterback and David Espino at running back, makes the Tritons the better team.

Winner: San Clemente

Frankly Fryer: Valencia vs. Kennedy

Frankly Fryer: Fountain Valley vs. Newport Harbor

Frankly Fryer: Villa Park vs. El Dorado

Frankly Fryer: Orange vs. Segerstrom

Frankly Fryer: Los Alamitos vs. Edison

Frankly Fryer: Mater Dei vs. JSerra

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Records: Tesoro 6-3, 2-1; Capo Valley 3-3, 1-2

Impact: There's a three-way fight for the No. 2 and 3 spots in the South Coast League with Tesoro, Capistrano Valley and San Clemente. SC beat Tesoro, 11-7, last week, so the Titans didn't want to fall behind in the race early, and got a big win. The Cougars will have a shot at the Titans in the next portion of league, but could create quite a race by beating San Clemente when they meet.

Match of the day: Titans No. 3 Kathlyn Kordestani vs. Cougars No. 2 Ashley Ta. Kordestani upset Ta, 7-6, to finish off Round 2 and give Tesoro an 8-4 advantage.

“To be 8-4 instead of 7-5 is a different thing,” Titans coach Tim DiLeo said. “Kathlyn was pivotal. That was our biggest match.”

Sweeps: Titans No. 1 singles Mayci Jones and No. 2 doubles Tammy Taylor and Ariel Aung.

Read the full story.

More from the girls tennis blog:

Both players were big contributors to the Titans' great 13-1 season last year. Injuries have kept them out of the lineup for the first two Tesoro games, both losses.

Check out highlights from the game and postgame interviews with Middlebrooks and the Barons' coaches in a video by OCVarsity.com's Jonathan Khamis.

GLENDORA (22-4) VS. TESORO (26-4)

Saturday, 12:30 p.m., at Bill Barber Park, Irvine

How they got here
Glendora: defeated Dana Hills, 3-0; defeated Knight of Palmdale, 2-1; defeated Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, 3-0; and defeated Chino Hills, 3-0.

 Tesoro: defeated Sunny Hills, 5-0; defeated Bloomington, 15-0; defeated Warren of Downey, 6-0; defeated Chino, 1-0, in 10 innings; and defeated Los Altos of Hacienda Heights, 8-0.

A look at the matchup
Tesoro is making its first appearance in the finals. Glendora is in the finals for the second consecutive season.

The Tartans lost to El Modena, 12-4, in last year's Division II championship game.

Tesoro is led by Oregon-bound Samantha Pappas (.441, 32 R, 21 RBIs) and first baseman Kasey Lange (.351, 6 HR, 38 RBIs). Pappas (25-4, 0.95 ERA, 222 K, 191 IP) has been nearly untouchable in the postseason, allowing 15 hits, no runs and striking out 38 in 38 innings.

Brandi Andrews is batting .357 with nine homers and 30 RBIs to lead the Tartans.

UC Davis-bound Dana Waldusky is 17-2 with a 0.74 ERA and 169 strikeouts in 123 innings for Glendora.

Top 25: Teams 11-15

(Quality victories are victories over top-25 teams or top non-county teams)

11. TESORO (South Coast) 20-3

Streak: 1 W

Quality victories: Beckman, 4-0; Edison, 1-0; Downey, 9-2; Northwood, 5-0; Laguna Hills, 7-2 Ayala (Chino Hills), 3-1; Ayala (Chino Hills), 3-0; Aliso Niguel, 2-0; Dana Hills, 1-0; and Aliso Niguel, 4-3.

Losses: Mission Viejo, 0-3; San Clemente, 1-8; and Capistrano Valley, 1-4.

12. ALISO NIGUEL (South Coast) 17-9-1

Streak: 1 L

Quality victories: Cimarron Memorial (Las Vegas), 6-2; Shadow Ridge (Las Vegas), 3-2; Canyon, 5-1; Trabuco Hills, 2-0; Northwood, 8-2; Laguna Hills, 4-1; Mission Viejo, 11-7; Dana Hills, 2-1; Mission Viejo, 5-2; and Dana Hills, 6-1.

Losses: Canyon, 7-13; Rosary, 1-3; Marina, 2-4; El Toro, 3-6; Norwalk, 0-1; Orange Lutheran, 2-7; Woodbridge, 3-5; Tesoro, 0-2; and Tesoro, 3-4.

Ties: Laguna Hills, 3-3.

13. ORANGE LUTHERAN (Trinity) 18-10

Streak: 1 W

Quality victories: Dana Hills, 6-0; La Mirada, 5-3; Beckman, 2-0; Aliso Niguel, 7-2; Foothill, 3-2; Rosary, 6-2; and Santa Margarita, 4-1.

Losses: Glendora, 1-3; Laguna Hills, 4-5; Dana Hills, 4-5; Mission Viejo, 5-6; La Mirada, 0-1; Rosary, 2-3; Edison, 2-6; Santa Margarita, 2-5; Mater Dei, 1-2; and Fontana, 3-7.

14. SANTA MARGARITA (Trinity) 14-10-1

Streak: 2 L

Quality victories: Green Valley (Henderson, Nev.), 9-0; Shadow Ridge (Las Vegas), 4-1; El Toro, 2-1; Marina, 3-1; Mission Viejo, 6-5; Mater Dei, 2-0; Orange Lutheran, 5-2; and Rosary, 14-3.

Losses: Trabuco Hills, 2-7; Dana Hills, 0-2; Laguna Hills, 0-4; Bishop Amat (La Puente), 6-7; Rosary, 0-2; Foothill, 0-7; El Modena, 0-4; North Torrance, 2-9; Mater Dei, 2-4; and Orange Lutheran, 1-4.

Ties: Rancho Alamitos, 0-0.

15. ESPERANZA (Sunset) 15-12-1

Streak: 1 W

Quality victories: Rosary, 10-2; Rosary, 6-0; El Modena, 7-6; Los Alamitos, 4-2; Chino, 8-1; Sunrise Mountain (Peoria, Ariz.), 2-1; Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove), 3-1; Camarillo, 4-3; Edison, 6-5; Long Beach Wilson, 9-3; and Lakewood, 5-0.

Losses: Canyon, 1-9; Rosary, 3-5; El Modena, 1-3; Beckman, 3-5; Mater Dei, 1-4; Canyon, 3-4; Los Alamitos, 2-7; El Camino (Oceanside), 1-4; Valencia (Valencia), 1-3; Marina, 2-6; Edison, 2-3; and Los Alamitos, 1-10.

Ties: Foothill, 3-3.

*Records are through May 10

RELATED:

• Softball: O.C. power rankings (Teams 1-5)
• Softball: O.C. power rankings (Teams 6-10)
• Softball: O.C. power rankings (Teams 16-20)
• Softball: O.C. power rankings (Teams 21-25)

No. 7 Tesoro 12, No. 6 Capistrano Valley 0: Evan Finkenberg (4-3) pitched a five-hitter and the Titans (16-6, 7-4) had three four-run innings as they routed the visiting Cougars (17-6, 8-3).

Tesoro pounded out 19 hits after being held to five hits and no runs by Capistrano Valley's Tyler Matzek on Wednesday. The Cougars won that game, 6-0.

No. 7 Tesoro (15-5, 6-3) vs. No. 6 Capistrano Valley (16-5, 7-2)

When: Wednesday at Capistrano Valley; Friday at Tesoro

Outlook: Welcome to this week’s must-see South Coast League series of the week. This week, we have first-place Capistrano Valley taking on second place Tesoro.

The Cougars swept Dana Hills last week thanks to the pitching of Tyler Matzek and Kevin Chambers. Matzek tossed a complete game, two-hit shutout in a 1-0 victory over Dana Hills.

Chambers followed that up with a complete game of his own, allowing two runs in a 5-2 victory.

Matzek enters the week at 6-1 with a 1.41 ERA and Chambers is 5-3 with a 2.60 ERA.

Steve McMichael leads Capistrano Valley with a .474 batting average.

Tesoro enters the week after splitting a two-game series with San Clemente.

Anthony Hutting  (.471), Ryan Olive (.492), Austin O’Neal (.420), Conner Spencer (.456) are hitting over .400. Kris Paulino is at .500.

Will the Cougars be able to slow down this offense?

If you remember, Tesoro beat Chambers, 8-1, earlier this season.

(All games at 3:15 p.m., unless noted)

RELATED:

• Baseball games of the week: Orange vs. Ocean View
• Baseball games of the week: Brea Olinda vs. Villa Park
• Baseball games of the week: Edison vs. Marina
• Baseball games of the week: Santa Margarita vs. Mater Dei

What happened:

Records: San Clemente 7-0; Tesoro 1-7

How it looked: Streaky. San Clemente would build a 5-6 point lead and give it back. Build it up. Give it back. The Titans did a terrific job to force a fourth game after appearing like they would get swept. Grayson Koelliker provided his team a nice spark in Game 3.

Eventually San Clemente's big three of Arik Metzger, Grayson Overman and Ian Castellana would restore order and gave San Clemente enough for the victory.

Impact: Tritons coach Ken Goldstone had his team file onto the bus directly after the victory, a sign he wasn't pleased with the play. He was most upset with the lack of energy and focus, and he took responsibility for it. He said the Tritons are keying on the Redondo Tournament this weekend, a were looking ahead. It was also the third time these teams met, which is always a difficult task when the Tritons won the first time handidly.

High five to...: Tritons libero Cooper Neser. I thought he was San Clemente's most consistent player Tuesday. He had a nice serve streak to begin Game 3, and had solid defensive game, with good digging and steady passing.

More from the boys volleyball blog:

• Boys volleyball: Three of the Day
• Boys volleyball: Top 10 poll (check out the changes)
• Boys volleyball: Athlete of the Week
• Boys volleyball: Three of the Day
• Boys volleyball: Thursday’s recap
• Boys volleyball: Wednesday’s recap
• Boys volleyball: Three of the Day

CIF-SS COACHES’ SOFTBALL RANKINGS

DIVISION III

1. Tesoro

2. Oaks Christian

3. Bonita

4. Patriot

5. Crescenta Valley

6. Chino Hills

7. Cajon

8. Downey

9. Ayala

10. Los Altos

Links to the CIF softball rankings (April 27)

• CIF softball rankings: Division I
• CIF softball rankings: Division II
• CIF softball rankings: Division III
• CIF softball rankings: Division IV
• CIF softball rankings: Division V
• CIF softball rankings: Division VI
• CIF softball rankings: Division VII