After a long regular season, Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley’s softball teams are eager to jump right into the upcoming Central Coast Section playoffs, which are set to begin Saturday.
The Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League champion Falcons (21-5-1, 14-1) earned the No. 7 seed in the Division I bracket and will play at No. 2 Gilroy (18-7, 11-3)—runner-up in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division.
“We’re going to have our work cut out for us, but I believe we’re a good team, as well,” said Scotts Valley head coach Jeremy Wilson. “If we could just have good, competitive at-bats and not just swing at anything, play solid defense and pitch like we know we can, I think we can give anybody a game.”
The Cougars (12-9, 10-5), who placed third in the SCCAL, were handed the No. 6 seed in the D-IV bracket. They will play at No. 3 Woodside (13-11, 7-7)—fifth-place finishers in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division.
Scotts Valley and SLV both had a week to prepare for their opponents. Wilson gave his team time to rest and work on some simple mechanics, including time in the batting cage.
“I gave them a little bit of a break,” Wilson said. “It’s long, especially because this high school season is so long.”
Winning a second consecutive SCCAL title was a goal for the Falcons prior to the beginning of the regular season. However, it almost seems as if the league champion is punished rather than rewarded for a great season.
The Falcons had the No. 5 seed in the D-II playoffs in 2024, and played against a Milpitas school that has five times the student enrollment size than Scotts Valley. In 2023, SLV was tossed into the Open Division as the No. 8 seeded team but was quickly ousted by powerhouse Saint Francis of Mountain View—which at the time was the top team in California.
“That’s ridiculous,” Wilson said. “I think there should be some sort of alignment based on population and by school population. We’re 600 kids at Scotts Valley…We would like to keep playing, that’s the thing.”
“If we’re placed in the proper division against what I would say would be comparable teams, I think we could really hold our own. But that’s not to say we can’t do well against Gilroy, either,” he added.
Scotts Valley and Gilroy are scheduled for first-pitch at 11am, while SLV and Woodside play at 1pm.
Baseball
No. 3 Scotts Valley vs. No. 6 Homestead: The Falcons (12-15, 8-7) will get to host at least one more game this season as they get set to take on the Mustangs (12-15, 5-9) in the D-IV quarterfinals on Saturday at 1pm.
“All the teams in the bracket are really talented and obviously earned their way,” said Scotts Valley head coach Kevin Taylor. “Homestead’s really talented and well coached. It’s gonna be a tough matchup.”
This upcoming weekend’s game will be a rematch of last year’s D-IV semifinals in which Homestead won, 3-0.
Scotts Valley—third-place finishers in the SCCAL—is scheduled to have senior Kaleb Wing start on the mound for the Falcons. Taylor gave his ace pitcher some time to rest during the week-long break and is hoping Wing will be ready come gameday.
“I think it’s a benefit for us to kind of give him a little extra break and give his arm some extra time to get ready,” Taylor said.
Track and field
Locals advance to CCS finals: Scotts Valley junior Ava Decleve had the fastest qualifying mark of 2 minutes, 12.70 seconds in the 800-meters at the CCC Track and Field Championships preliminaries in Gilroy on May 17.
The Falcons’ star runner advanced to the finals set for Saturday at Gilroy High School. Teammate junior Aaron Weiss also advanced in the 800 race with a qualifying mark of 1:54.95.
San Lorenzo Valley senior Orea Pollock advanced in the high jump finals with a mark of 5 feet. The field events are scheduled to begin at 3pm, while track events are set for 4:45pm.
The top three finishers in each event automatically qualify for the California Interscholastic Federation State Meet at Buchanan High School in Clovis on May 30-31.
