Roundup: Birmingham is one win away from declaring it is best soccer team in SoCal

It was last summer when Lake Balboa Birmingham soccer coach EB Madha made a phone call to England to find out if his program’s star player, David Diaz, planned to return home. Diaz was spending six months playing for a club team.

“Don’t worry coach. I wouldn’t miss high school for anything,” Diaz told him.

Birmingham (18-0-1) is one win from winning the Southern California Division I regional championship after a 4-2 semifinal victory over visiting Clovis on Thursday. Diaz, who has an innate ability to kick the ball to an open teammate, had another spectacular assist to leading goal scorer Enrique Pineda, who had two goals Thursday.

Anthony Miron and Diego Nava also scored for the Patriots, who will face Southern Section Division 1 champion Mira Costa in Saturday’s 1 p.m. final at Birmingham. Mira Costa defeated Servite 1-0 in the other semifinal. Thomas Southey scored the only goal.

Salesian 5, West Torrance 0: Ernesto Vergara scored three goals to send Salesian into the Division 3 boys’ championship game.

Harvard-Westlake 2, Villa Park 1: The Wolverines (18-0) qualified for the Division 1 girls’ regional final. They will play Garden Grove Pacifica on Saturday at home at 2 p.m.

Baseball

Huntington Beach 1, Santa Margarita 0: A bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the eighth gave the Oilers a hard-fought Division 1 victory. Caden Aoki threw all eight innings for Huntington Beach. Sophomore Jack Svinth held the Oilers to two hits in seven innings.

Mira Costa 4, Foothill 3: A three-run sixth turned around the game for Mira Costa. Connor Meidroth had a two-run single to tie the score, then Ben Gneiser delivered the game-winning RBI single. Mira Costa advances to play on the road against No. 3-seeded Orange Lutheran. Thatcher Hurd picked up the victory with three innings of relief.

La Mirada 3, West Ranch 0: Christian Gutierrez threw the shutout with seven strikeouts.

Harvard-Westlake 9, Temescal Canyon 0: David Lozano and Toussaint Bythewood each contributed two-run singles, Jordan Kang had a two-run double and Christian Becerra struck out 10. Bythewood had three hits.

King 7, Servite 2: John Stark hit two home runs and finished with five RBIs. Evan Yates also homered.

Laguna Hills 3, Citrus Hill 2: Scotty Kato and Zach Ferranto each had two hits.

Damien 2, South Hills 0: Alec Beck came through with the shutout.

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 4, Crescenta Valley 0: Jack Snyder and Zack Romero combined for a three-hit shutout.

Corona 13, Redondo Union 4: The Panthers advance in Division 1 and will face Huntington Beach on Tuesday. Andrew Walters, Josh Springer and Danny Perez each had three hits. Ethan Schiefelbein, a freshman, improved to 8-0 on the mound.

Ayala 3, Beckman 2: Ryan Moreno’s sacrifice fly drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh. Cole Koniarsky hit a home run and went four for four. Paul Murrow and Zack McAlister each had three hits for Beckman.

Cypress 7, Temecula Valley 2: Christian Landeros and Christian Thompson each had two hits.

Fountain Valley 6, Don Lugo 5: Keith Aguilar had three hits and two RBIs.

Calabasas 7, Pasadena Poly 0: Brandon Pink threw five scoreless innings for the Coyotes.

Softball

Chino Hills 2, Corona Santiago 0: Maria Luna threw the shutout.

Villa Park 4, Diamond Bar 0: Sydney Somerndike came through with a no-hitter and 19 strikeouts in the Division 2 opener.

Norco 11, Aliso Niguel 0: Stevie Hansen threw a no-hitter for top-seeded Norco.

Orange Lutheran 7, California 2: Reagan Lennon finished with four RBIs.

Pacifica 3, Marina 2: Pacifica got a walk-off victory in the 11th inning.

Boys’ basketball

Marina 76, Shalhevet 74: The Vikings eliminated top-seeded Shalhevet in a 3A semifinal.