Edwards, Smith Spur Royal’s Win

The Marmonte League baseball race probably won’t sort itself out anytime soon, but Simi Valley Royal took a small step toward the title Friday.

The host Highlanders, ranked No. 15 in the Southland by The Times, defeated No. 11 Simi Valley, 3-2, to keep its grip on at least a share of first place at the halfway point of league play.

Clayton Edwards did not give up an earned run in six innings to improve to 7-0; and D.J. Smith -- who entered the game with a league-leading .518 batting average, five home runs and 29 runs batted in -- drove in all three runs for Royal (16-2, 5-2).

Smith gave the Highlanders a 2-0 lead with an opposite-field double in the third. Simi Valley (12-5, 3-3) tied the score in the fifth with a one-out error followed by three consecutive singles and a sacrifice fly. Smith then hit a two-out double to right-center in the bottom half of the inning to put the Highlanders ahead to stay.

Bryan Anderson had three hits and an RBI to lead Simi Valley.

-- Dan Arritt

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Track

Junior Anne St. Geme of Corona del Mar, running the anchor mile in 4 minutes 55.6 seconds, propelled the Sea Kings to a win in 20:30.32 in the four-mile relay at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut. The time is the fastest by a California team and sixth on the all-time national list.

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Tennis

Thousand Oaks junior Sam Querrey defeated Michael Shabaz of Vienna, Va., 6-3, 6-4, in the boys’ 18 singles semifinals Friday at the USTA Easter Bowl Spring National Championships and will play former Corona del Mar standout Carsten Ball in the final match at 11:30 a.m. today at Riviera Resort and Racquet Club. Shabaz, seeded eighth, was coming off a 6-2, 7-5 victory top-seeded Donald Young, who plays professionally, in the quarterfinals Thursday.

Tied at 2-2 in the first set, the 10th-seeded Querrey held serve and then broke Shabaz for 4-2 lead. Querrey went up, 3-1, in the second set before winning the last three games in a row.

Top-seeded Alexa Glatch of Newport Beach defeated fifth-seeded Yasmin Schnack of Sacramento, 6-0, 6-1, to advance to the girls’ 18s championship match at 9:30 a.m. today against No. 2-seeded Jennifer Lee Heinser of Miami.

Glatch teamed with Lindsay Burdette of Atlanta to win the girls’ 18 doubles title Friday.

-- Lauren Peterson