PLEASANT HILL >> They hoisted RJ Meyn into the air during the postgame celebration, the De La Salle pitcher getting the hero’s treatment after he led his teammates to another North Coast Section championship.

Meyn, a junior left-hander committed to Santa Clara University, pitched a complete game Friday as top-seeded De La Salle won its sixth consecutive Division I title with a 7-3 victory over Clayton Valley Charter before an overflow crowd at Diablo Valley College.

“I just did it for all my seniors,” Meyn said. “They’ve been grinding for four years, day in and day out. To be honest, I really just wanted to do it for all of them.”

De La Salle took charge in the first inning. The Spartans scored four runs as Hank Tripaldi drove in one with a double inside the bag at third and Alec Blair followed with a two-run double inside the bag at first.

Third-seeded Clayton Valley cut the deficit in half with two runs in the top of the second. Jerry Coakley knocked in one with a bloop single to right and Hank Phifer made it 4-2 with a single to left.

But De La Salle (24-5) responded with two in the home half of the second and then rode Meyn’s pitching arm and spectacular outfield defense to win its 24th consecutive section playoff game dating to 2016.

St. Mary’s-bound right fielder Tanner Griffith, a human vacuum, lived up to his reputation and then some. He made a couple of highlight-reel plays.

“I told all my seniors the other day, we graduated two weeks ago, but our time at De La Salle is not over,” Griffith said. “We still have unfinished business. Today, we took care of that business.”

CCS Division II final

Bellarmine 2, Leigh 0 >> Paul Montgomery was the story of the game. The senior right-hander heading to Cal Poly-SLO for college was simply dominating Friday, pitching a three-hit shutout with one walk and nine strikeouts at Excite Ballpark in San Jose as Bellarmine defeated Leigh for the Central Coast Section Division II championship.

“It was nerve-wracking but I’m glad I got through it,” Montgomery said. “It was super exciting.”

Montgomery improved to 7-1 on the season and lowered his ERA to 0.93.

“Paul was unbelievable,” Bellarmine coach Nate Sutton said. “Over 100 pitches, out there all night, hitting his spots, a tremendous job, Hats off to him. He’s been unbelievable all season.”

CCS Division IV final

Santa Teresa 2, Palma 0 >> No one can score off these guys. Santa Teresa concluded the CCS playoffs with a 27-inning scoreless streak.

The Saints were coming off a remarkable 14-inning shutout of Leland in the Division IV semifinals, a game in which the team’s two top starting pitchers went seven innings apiece. So Anthony Dela Cruz was called upon to take the mound in the biggest game in program history.

Dela Cruz hadn’t pitched more than four innings in a game this season, but all he did Friday was throw seven innings of four-hit shutout baseball as Santa Teresa won the first CCS baseball championship in school history with a win over Palma at Excite Ballpark.

“He’s been our closer at times during the year,” Santa Teresa coach Patrick Hawk said. “He’s been our number three starter when we’ve had a three-game week and I knew this kind of competition, this moment would not be too big for him.”

Santa Teresa, the No. 8 seed, beat No. 1 Wilcox 5-2 in eight innings in the quarterfinals, holding the Chargers scoreless the final six innings of that game. Then that crazy 14-inning shutout over No. 4 Leland, and finally seven more scoreless innings in the championship game against No. 2 Palma.

“I was nervous, but I put it behind me,” Dela Cruz said. “I focused on my fastball and slider combination. It was my best stuff all year.”

Oakland Section final

Skyline 3, Oakland Tech 0 >> Skyline established itself as a dynasty on Friday afternoon, claiming its third consecutive Oakland Section title with a victory over Oakland Tech at Laney College.

Senior pitcher Joseph Salazar was phenomenal for the Titans, throwing a complete game and striking out four while allowing just five hits, all singles.

Salazar was just as fearsome at the plate, where he went 3 for 3 and scored two runs. Fellow senior Michael ODonal had Skyline’s other hit, a double off Tech’s Drew Kaplan.

Skyline scored one run in the first inning and two more in the bottom of the fifth.

Kaplan pitched well and kept Tech in the game, striking out two and allowing just two earned runs in six innings. Tech senior Shaun Mante also pitched an inning and struck out two.

Mante, Kaplan, Hayden Burton, Rasheed Pittman and Brandon Hemphill each had one hit for Oakland Tech, which finished the season 13-11 and proved to be the only Oakland Section team that could play Skyline (17-4) tough.

Softball

NCS Division I final

California 5, San Ramon Valley 1 >> Though gold medals were draped around their necks, the California softball team’s attention wasn’t focused on the hardware they had earned after defeating San Ramon Valley in the NCS Division I title game.

Instead, they looked and listened to coach Tony Bari, who told the underclassmen to cherish the school’s first section championship.

“Freshmen, this doesn’t happen every year,” Bari declared in a postgame speech.

Alyssa Villarde, among the many circled around Bari in the Saint Mary’s College outfield, was a senior who appreciated the message.

“It means a lot, because all of us seniors started with the COVID year, so it was hard from the get-go,” Villarde said. “I’m super-excited because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We’d never even been this far.”

Bari admitted he had his doubts about his team’s ability to reach the NCS’s pinnacle after it began the season 4-5 and went two weeks without being able to practice outside due to rain.

Stuck training inside the San Ramon school’s basketball gymnasium, it was in those less-than-ideal circumstances that the team found its groove.

“We were in the gym for most of our practices, so it brought us all together,” sophomore Jayda Crosby said. “We talked, and we knew what we wanted to accomplish. ”

– Darren Sabedra, Joseph Dycus and Glenn Reeves contributed to this report