A Taylor-Made Victory for Valencia

Jordan Taylor pitched four innings of one-hit relief and Valencia, ranked the No. 7 softball team in the Southland by The Times, battled back from a two-run deficit to beat No. 4 El Toro, 7-4, in the championship game of the Irvine Woodbridge Warrior Classic on Saturday.

El Toro led, 4-2, on the strength of Jennifer Ulrich’s two-run double, and Amanda Ford-Feitz’s two-run home run against senior Courtney Baughman. But Taylor, who earlier pitched a six-hitter to beat No. 1 Corona, 3-0, shut the door with five strikeouts over the last four innings.

Valencia took advantage of five El Toro errors, and scored four unearned runs. The Vikings outhit El Toro, 10-4. Whitney Lowe had three hits, an RBI and a run, and Kristen Aiden had two hits, two runs and two RBIs, including the game-winner in the bottom of the fifth.

To win the title, Valencia (15-1) beat four ranked teams. In addition to Corona and El Toro (15-6), the Vikings defeated No. 9 Rosary and No. 19 Anaheim Canyon.

Martin Henderson

Tennis

Thousand Oaks junior Sam Querrey continued a recent winning streak with his biggest victory yet as he upset No. 2-seeded Carsten Ball of Newport Beach, 6-3, 6-3, in the boys’ 18 division championship match Saturday at the U.S. Tennis Assn. Easter Bowl Spring National Championships.

The 10th-seeded Querrey left Riviera Resort and Racquet Club in Palm Springs with his second consecutive title, enough International Tennis Federation ranking points to earn his first berths in the upcoming French Open and Wimbledon junior tournaments and an automatic entry into the main draw of the Mercedes-Benz Cup men’s professional tournament in July.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Querrey said. “I’m just getting more and more confident and just playing really well.”

Querrey won the Easter Bowl’s boys’ 16 singles championship last year, and, with his victory over Ball, ran his winning streak over the past two weeks to 12 consecutive matches. He won the boys’ title at the USTA International Spring Championships in Carson last week.

Querrey, at 6-foot-5 and 190 pounds, is the owner of a huge serve and forehand. He unleashed both on the left-handed Ball to take 4-1 and 5-2 leads in the first set and break Ball three times in the second set.

“Going up early helped a lot,” Querrey said. “It gave me a lot of confidence and I had the momentum the whole time.”

The girls’ 18 division singles title was won by Alexa Glatch, a Newport Beach 15-year-old who rallied to defeat Jennifer Lee Heinser of Miami, Fla., 6-7 (1), 6-0, 6-3, and claim her second title in two days. Glatch teamed with Lindsay Burdette of Jackson, Ga., to win the girls’ 18 doubles championship on Friday.

-- Lauren Peterson