Cirillo Paces North Valley to 8-1 Victory

Jeff Cirillo, who will attend USC in the fall, drove in four runs on three hits and was the winning pitcher as the North Valley Palomino all-star team defeated Ocean View, 8-1, Saturday in the Western zone tournament at San Diego State.

Cirillo, the Southern Section Small Schools Player of the Year at Providence last spring, worked 6 innings, allowing one unearned run on five hits and two walks, and struck out five. Kevin Gelbhard recorded the final two outs of the game to secure the victory in the six-team, double-elimination tournament.

North Valley put together a nine-hit attack, including two doubles by Cirillo. Jeff Light had two hits and three runs batted in, and Dain Turner added two hits and a run scored.

The victory was the third straight for North Valley, which opened the tournament with a 4-3 loss to Helix. North Valley can avenge that defeat today at 1 p.m., with the winner advancing to Monday’s final against Peninsula of San Diego, which is undefeated in the tournament.

North Valley will pitch Tim DeGrasse, who joined the team Saturday after his American Legion team, Van Nuys-Notre Dame, was eliminated from the Area 6 playoffs Friday.

In a late game Friday night, North Valley scored eight runs in the first two innings and then held on to defeat the Puyallup Royals of Washington, 9-7. Jeff Adams and Tim Laker combined on a five-hitter but had to survive seven North Valley errors.

Cirillo doubled, tripled and scored a run to lead the North Valley offense, but Scott Sharts had the longest hit of the night. His solo home run in the bottom of the sixth cleared the 412 mark in center field and traveled an estimated 430 feet. Sharts, who has two home runs in the tournament, had two hits, two walks and three RBIs against Ocean View.

Contributing RBIs were Jordan Cook, Ernie Perez, J.R. Trujillo and Turner.