The Peninsula Athletic League baseball managers all got together at the end of the regular season — and before the start of the Central Coast Section playoffs — to determine players and pitchers of the year in all three divisions, as well as all-league first and second-team selections.

Some guys are at their best when the lights are shining bright. During Half Moon Bay’s historic run through the CIF Northern California Division IV baseball tournament, junior slugger Riley Jackson proved he is one of those guys.

Hailey Truong, Notre Dame-Belmont softball. The four-year varsity player wrapped up her high school career against Moreau Catholic in the CIF Northern California Division V semifinals, a 7-3 Tigers’ loss. Hitting in the leadoff spot, Truong went 2 for 3, with a hustle double, a triple and a …

With Half Moon Bay winning a Northern California baseball title and the Menlo baseball team coming up short Saturday, the 2025-26 high school athletic season is officially over.

Every baseball team begins the season with championship dreams. For the Half Moon Bay baseball team, those dreams became reality.

ROSEVILLE — For a team that homered at a prolific rate all season, the long ball proved to be Menlo School’s undoing.

“It’s been one of the best months of my life,” said Half Moon Bay star shortstop Riley Jackson after the Cougars beat Sonoma Valley 3-0 in the first round of the CIF Northern California Division IV playoffs Tuesday.

It was a big day on the Half Moon Bay High campus, as Thursday was graduation day for approximately 250 of the school’s seniors. For five of them, however, graduation, and even the proceeding grad night, wasn’t exactly the priority.

Sophomore right-hander Reid Plamondon has been a big arm for the Menlo Knights all season, especially in the playoffs. And while his stuff was, as he termed it, “gross,” in his second straight relief appearance in the CIF Northern California baseball tournament, his pickoff move was grosser …

Football isn’t the only game decided by inches. Softball can be just as exacting and a pitch just off of its intended target can be the difference between winning and losing.

The Half Moon Bay football team won three straight Central Coast Section championships from 2015 to 2017. The boys’ basketball team won the 2018 CCS crown and was in the Northern California final this past season. The Lady Cougars won titles in 2017, 2020 and 2021 and played in the Open Divi…

When I got to the upper parking lot at Half Moon Bay High School Tuesday afternoon and started my walk to the school’s baseball field, there were quite a few people also making the trek.

The Half Moon Bay baseball team has accomplished a number of firsts over the last four days.

The comeback kids still have their mojo working.

With all due respect to Mike Leach and all he’s done to innovate the college football passing game, who would have thought there could ever be such a thing as the Air Raid Defense?

Anna Salter, Crystal girls’ track and field. The senior finished her great Gryphons career with a podium finish Saturday at the CIF State Track & Field Championships. Salter focused on the girls’ 1,600 meters, and ran to a fourth-place finish in a personal record 4 minutes, 45.29 seconds.

It used to be that the CIF State Track & Field meet was the final event of the high school athletic season. But with the inclusion of regional playoffs in baseball and softball, track is no longer the end of the year.

OKLAHOMA CITY — UCLA senior Megan Grant’s historic season fell short of her College Women’s World Series championship dreams, as the Bruins were eliminated Sunday night in an 8-7 extra-inning loss to Texas Tech.

Central Coast Section shot putters put on quite a big show Saturday, May 23, at the CCS track and field championships. Heck, they put on quite a big show all season.

SAN JOSE — Entering the 2025 season, it had been generations since either El Camino or South City were relevant on the Central Coast Section baseball playoff stage.

A state championship was the final piece, and the Menlo boys’ tennis team claimed a first CIF crown, finishing an unblemished season with a 6-1 win over Harvard-Westlake at Fresno State on Saturday.

SAN JOSE — Walking off the diamond for the last time went from surreal to unreal for the Hillsdale softball team after falling in the Central Coast Section Division I finals.

SAN JOSE — Three of Notre Dame-Belmont’s most tenured softball players hardly had time to celebrate.

SAN JOSE — In 1969, Three Dog Night sang one of the most famous lyrics in the history of rock and roll: “One is the loneliest number.”

During the final inning of Burlingame’s non-league preseason schedule, junior third baseman Aaron Lau turned in what was nearly the defensive play of the year.

In 2024, Nick Dykes, with Eryn Butcher serving as his assistant, led the Hillsdale softball team to a spot in the Central Coast Section Open Division bracket.

SAN JOSE — Menlo junior Matthew Majalya was the only player not quite riding high after the Knights’ dramatic extra-inning win in Tuesday’s Central Coast Section Division III baseball semifinals.

There will be no secrets in the Central Coast Section Division V baseball championship game as the two teams in the final are very well acquainted with each other.

Carlmont senior Andrew Dent had some poignant advice after running the final race of his varsity career at the Central Coast Section track and field championships: Just roll with it, baby.

SARATOGA — El Camino pitcher Michael McCauley stands just 5-9 with his spikes on. When he stepped onto the mound in the Central Coast Section Division VI baseball semifinals Wednesday at West Valley College, though, he looked like he was 6 feet tall. Maybe 7.

The San Mateo softball team was looking like a team of destiny in 2026. Not only did the Bearcats beat Hillsdale for the first time since 2006, they ended up sweeping the regular-season series from the Knights.

It was a PAL ocean versus PAL Bay Division when fifth-seeded The King’s Academy softball team faced off with top-seeded Notre Dame-Belmont Wednesday at Capuchino High School.

The Sports Lounge was on hiatus last week. Not for anything fun, I was covering for our normal production person who out on vacation, and then there was the Memorial Day holiday and I don’t write on those days, either.

GILROY — Menlo-Atherton junior Evan Chopra made his move in the boys’ 800 meters with well over a half lap to go. It seemed much too early to dart ahead of the Central Coast Section track and field championship field Saturday at Gilroy High School, but as he accelerated through the final tur…

Menlo School baseball won a late-night thriller after Renner Barnett’s walk-off hit in the ninth inning lifted the Knights past Aptos 7-6 to advance to the Central Coast Section Division III championship.

Menlo junior Henry Hauser likes to run from behind. A tactical middle-distance competitor, he generally likes to draft one runner. Maybe two.

Aliyah Scheller, San Mateo softball. The sophomore slugger got the Bearcats off to a good start in their quest to return to the CCS championship stage for the second straight year. In a crosstown matchup against Aragon, the PAL Bay Division’s best hitting team this season, Scheller showed Sa…

The Capuchino softball team looked poised to return to the Central Coast Section finals for the second time in three years Tuesday night.

The Burlingame softball team not only went into the Central Coast Section Division II tournament with a head of steam, the Panthers were peaking at the right time.

GILROY — Westmoor senior Benicio Labuguen is still waiting to tap in to his best triple jump of the season. That should frighten the entire state of California.

Aliyah Scheller settled the issue loudly and early, blasting a majestic first-inning, three-run home run to lead San Mateo High to a 4-1 win Saturday over visiting Aragon in a Central Coast Section Division I softball game.

It was a strange Central Coast Section baseball playoff host site for the Burlingame Panthers to welcome Leigh-San Jose down the road at Capuchino High School. Despite manager Shawn Scott’s squad playing as the home team, the green-and-gold playoff banners provided by Cap matched not the red…

SATURDAY

SATURDAY

Pitching, defense and — because its offense has struggled at times this season — small ball, have been the calling cards of the Sacred Heart Prep baseball team this season.

The chase for the NCAA softball single-season record tightened up Friday night as Super Regional play opened around the nation.

Carlmont sophomore Lucas Rowe has been full of surprises this season.

Burlingame senior Liam Philibosian was lacing line drives down the right-field line Wednesday during the Panthers’ baseball batting practice at Capuchino High School.

Alicia Perez, a longtime employee of the South San Francisco Unified School District, had her three children enrolled at South City campuses as middle and grade schoolers. When the 1993 graduate of Westmoor confirmed her old cross country and track mentor Ron DiMaggio was still coaching at t…

After bringing home the first Central Coast Section championship in program history, the season came to an end Tuesday for the Aragon boys’ volleyball team.