An All-Wold Effort for Valley North

The right arm of Valley North pitcher Greg Wold certainly hurt after it delivered 156 pitches Saturday, but at least he knew he had done his job.

Valley North (26-9) advanced to the Area 6 championship game with a 4-2 victory over the Pomona Kings in an elimination game at Jackie Robinson Stadium. And it used the maximum out of Wold.

Shortly after pitching four innings in a come-from-behind victory over Newhall-Saugus in the afternoon, Wold (5-1) threw eight innings against the Pomona Kings (12-12), scattering nine hits and giving up two runs for his second victory of the day.

“It’s really sore,” Wold said. “I put ice on it between games and I’ll put ice on it when I get home.”

After throwing 57 pitches over the final four innings of the early game, Wold borrowed teammate Jacob Gutzman’s “lucky” long-sleeve shirt to keep his arm loose before abandoning it after the early innings.

“I just got too hot to wear the shirt,” he said. “But it did what it needed to.”

Wold got all the support he needed in the first inning, when Valley North scored three times on run-scoring singles by Frank Dipoma, Micah Berger and Kevin O’Hara.

But Valley North was held to four hits and one run over the next seven innings by left-hander Erik Marquez.

Stuart Sellz, who pitched a complete game Thursday against the Pomona Kings, allowed one hit in the ninth to earn his first save.

Even if he wanted to pitch against Westlake-Royal Oak today, Wold couldn’t. Legion rules limit pitchers to 12 innings over three days.

So Valley North must resort to other options if it wants to advance to the state playoffs in Yountville on Saturday. Valley North, with one loss, must defeat undefeated Westlake-Royal Oak twice.

Westlake-Royal Oak will be at full strength for today’s championship that begins at noon at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Scott Christensen and Dan Wasserman of Oak Park High, who had been declared ineligible Friday over a residency issue, were reinstated by the state Legion office and are available for the championship game.

Valley North 8, Newhall-Saugus 7--Dipoma’s run-scoring single drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth to cap a three-run inning and eliminate Newhall-Saugus (27-8).

After a leadoff single by Chris Baker to open the ninth, Wold struck out the side for the victory.

Kevin Hyde (0-1), pitching for the first time all season, relieved Chris Coash of Newhall-Saugus in the third inning. Hyde had given up only one hit and one run over the first 4 2/3 innings before he allowed three hits in the eighth.

Hyde had four hits, including the tournament’s first home run.

Dipoma had three runs batted in for Valley North.

This was the third time the teams met in the 10 days. Newhall-Saugus defeated Valley North last Sunday to win the District 20 title.