Isaac Hawthrone's two-out single in the bottom of the 10th moved West Valley a step closer to a return to the 3C2A State Championship tournament Saturday. The 7-6 if-necessary-game win over No. 7 Skyline (33-12) gave No. 2 West Valley (36-10) a 2-1 series win in the double-elimination Super Regional at Valhalla.

Skyline knotted the game at 6-6 with a four-run seventh, but didn't score again. Viking relieiver Bryce Berry set the stage for Hawthrone's heroics by setting the Trojans down in order in the top of the 10th. Xander Sielken opened the inning with a single and moved to second on Jordan Hall's groundout to short. Hawthrone roped a shot up the middle that scored Sielken and touched off an ecstatic Viking dogpile.

Sielken had three of WVC's 14 hits, while Andrew Bonfigli, Hall and Colin Spear each had two. Kai Laxa had an RBI-double and run-scoring SAC fly. Berry picked up the win to move to 4-2.

Skyline forced game three by rallying from a 6-4 deficit with three runs in the sixth and two in the eighth for a 9-6 game-two win. David Estrada paced the scorebook with a 4-for-5, two-RBI outing. Eric Altmark was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI, while Carmelo Rivera went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. Jake Jones dropped to 3-2 with the loss on the hill.

The Vikings held off the Trojans 11-10 to take Friday's game one. WVC took an 11-7 lead into the ninth and then held on as Skyline scored three runs to close to within 11-10. Reliever Ahmed Brown struck out a swinging Vinny Smith to end it.

West Valley opened the Super Regional Thursday with a methodical 13-4 win over No. 13 Los Medanos.

Next up for the Vikings is a double-elimination Regional Final date with Fresno City May 16-18 at Valhalla. The Rams (36-7) topped Marin 12-3, and the College of San Mateo 8-6 and 14-11 to take the Fresno City Super Regional. First pitch Friday is 2:00pm, with a 1:00pm start Saturday and, if necessary, a noon first pitch Sunday.