The Valencia Vikings’ baseball Division 1 playoff run and season was ended by Bishop Amat Tuesday afternoon in a 3-0 home loss. Bishop Amat’s Blake Archuleta threw a great game against the Valencia Vikings, going six innings and allowing no runs over that span. Even Valencia’s Luke Chung, the league’s top hitter this year, couldn’t get anything going as the whole team had just three hits on the day.

It was a tough day for the Valencia Vikings as they came into the game riding the momentum of an incredible 8-4 upset win over No. 3 Harvard-Westlake on the road in the first round of the Division 1 playoffs last Friday. Hoping for more magic, Valencia could all but watch as their offense was snubbed by the killer pitching of Bishop Amat’s Blake Archuleta. Archuleta was dominant allowing zero runs with five strikeouts, and only walking two batters in his six innings. Steven Loera came out in the seventh inning to finish the game for Bishop Amat.

Valencia’s starting pitcher, Lukas White, was off to a great start of his own, but his team’s lack of offense was becoming an issue as Bishop Amat got on the board first in the top of the fourth inning to make it 1-0 thanks to an RBI single from Richard Castro. The game had remained scoreless until this point, the action for both sides coming mainly from defensive stops to keep the score even. Aside from Castro’s one RBI, the only other runs of the game came again from Bishop Amat; this time in the top of the sixth inning on a huge two-RBI double from, once again, Richard Castro who had the only three runs batted in by either side on the day.

Valencia’s Seniors pose for a final group photo after the game.

The two runs allowed in the top of the 6th, to make Bishop Amat’s lead 3-0, was all she wrote as Valencia continued their struggles at the plate, only managing one more hit in the final two innings. After seven lackluster innings, Valencia’s exciting playoff run had come to an end.

Although the loss was tough, Valencia has a lot to appreciate from this recent season. They finished the regular season with a record of 9-6 in the Foothill League (third place), and made it into the second round of Division 1 playoffs with a win against the No. 3 ranked team in the country. Not too shabby. Also, Valencia’s 25-man roster had as many seniors as it did sophomores (ten) so there will be plenty of talent to supersede the seniors that are graduating this summer.

Valencia boys’ baseball has officially concluded its 2017-2018 season.

KHTS Sports is your place for Santa Clarita Sports Report and your Santa Clarita Dodgers coverage. Find all the latest news and updates on your hometown schools here as they compete in the Foothill League, Heritage League, Western State Conference and GSAC. If you have any news and notes about our teams and players to share please send them to jp@hometownstation.com, like us on facebook.com/khtssports and follow us @KHTSSports on Twitter.