Valley Christian baseball ends De La Salle's 53-game playoff home win streak

Great pitching will stop great hitting all the time. And miraculous comebacks as well.

Valley Christian, the fourth-seed in the CIF Northern California Division 1 playoffs, extended its pitching scoreless streak to 32 innings with a 3-0 win at top seed De La Salle on Thursday.

Alex Kim with strikeout. Valley Christian will not be denied or scored upon. Ends De La Salle 54-game home playoff win streak with 3-0 win. NorCal D1 semifinal! VC has gone 32 innings without giving up a run. pic.twitter.com/WMe0tVnhNk
— Mitch Stephens (@MitchBookLive) June 5, 2026

Gabe Felix and Alex Kim combined on a seven-hitter to not only avenge a bitter 11-8 loss to De La Salle in the 2023 NorCal finals, but also end the Spartans' remarkable 53-game home playoff win streak that dates back to 2006.

De La Salle had not lost a home playoff game since a 4-3 defeat to Bishop O'Dowd on May 31, 2006.

Alex Moutzouridis drove in two runs for Valley christian (22-9), including a solo home run in the fourth inning, a deep drive to right-center. He also drove in a run on a groundout in the first after losing pitcher Kaleo Jones gave up a single, walk and hit batsman. Jones dropped a popup to score logan Mull to make it 2-0.

From there it was all Felix, who improved to 9-3 and lowered his ERA to less than 1.00. Kim recorded his fifth save, by striking out two including freshman Brandon Manlvong with two on to end it.

Alex Moutzouridis with mammoth solo homer gives Valley Christian a 3-0 lead at top seed ⁦@DLSBaseball⁩. T4. Great call on NFHS Network by Pat O’Rourke. pic.twitter.com/gycOslTwsh
— Mitch Stephens (@MitchBookLive) June 5, 2026

De La Salle (23-5, 23-2 on the field) had won NorCal titles in 2022, 2023 and 2025, all with seventh inning rallies including a six-ran uprising at Valley Christian in 2023, when the Warriors led 8-5 entering the last frame. The Spartans celebrated wildly on the Warriors’ home field that day.

Because Valley Christian has one more game left, its celebration was much more subdued but the win was most gratifying, especially for a second-place West Catholic Athletic League team that had four league losses. Since then, the Warriors have won five straight in the playoffs, outscoring opponents 19-2.

Valley Christian will now play at second-seed Elk Grove, an 11-7 winner over Granada, in Saturday's championship game.

De La Salle got a single and double from Jacob Gray, and made a lot of loud contact for outs. But Felix, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound left-hander, eventually settled down, retiring 10 straight after Gray’s leadoff double in the fourth. After a one-out single by Bubba Vargas in the seventh, Kim entered, got one strikeout, gave up a walk to Emmet Freeman, then struck out freshman Brandon Manivong to end it.

After the game, De La Salle coach David Jeans announced his retirement after 14 seasons as head coach (25 seasons overall) and a teacher on campus. His varsity record was 327-78 with nine North Coast Section and three NorCal titles. The 2026 team was one of his favorites, he said, especially considering the Spartans returned just two starters from their 2025 NorCal title team, although their top star, Stanford-bound shortstop Tyler Spanger, a projected first-round pick in the July MLB draft, missed the entire season due to a back injury.

The Spartans actually went 23-2 on the field, having forfeited three games to start the season for breaking unspecified school rules. Despite that and Thursday’s defeat, Jeans said “It was an amazing group,” he said. “The mix of older pitchers with the young position guys was fantastic. The new guys stepped into their roles and didn’t miss a beat. This group was so close to each other. Their relationships defined them.”

Jeans said he was most proud of his program’s “family” approach over the years. “Baseball gets such a bad rap in terms of individual achievement and ‘me’ over ‘we.’ The families and players bought into the bigger picture. … The players were selfless.”

Check back for more on this game and other CIF baseball semifinal action later.

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