SUNNYVALE — A special season for the Santa Clara High School baseball team continued Tuesday.

The Bruins won their 13th in a row, improved to 22-3 and clinched the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division title with a 5-1 victory over second-place Fremont.

“We’re feeling really good about ourselves right now, that’s for sure,” Santa Clara coach Pedro Martinez said.

The team has also equaled the most wins by a Santa Clara team in the MaxPreps era, since 2004. The 2005 team, which lost in the Central Coast Section Division I championship game to Archbishop Mitty, also had 22 wins, postseason included. The current team still has two regular-season games remaining.

And the objective is to emulate the 2005 team with a deep run into the CCS playoffs.

“We’ve beat five ‘A’ league teams, including Leigh,” Martinez said. “I believe we belong in the discussion of being one of the top teams in the section.”

Fremont (15-6, 11-3) handed Santa Clara its one El Camino Division loss. But Santa Clara (15-1 El Camino) has now defeated the Firebirds two out of three and gained the tie-breaker should the regular season conclude with a tie for first place.

On Tuesday, Jaxton Chao led off the top of the first with a single, stole second and scored on a wild pitch. His two-out single in the second inning drove home Greg Salgado to make it 2-0.

Chao was batting .608 going into the game. A 2-for-4 day made his average plummet to .603.

“It’s not a soft .600, either,” Martinez said.

The score stayed 2-0 until the fifth when the Bruins scored three runs to make it a five-run advantage. Andrew Traffes led off with a shot over the right field fence for his third home run of the season. Catcher Charles Conley and Dominick Chavarria added RBI singles.

Five runs was plenty as Drew Diffenderfer went five shutout innings on the mound, allowing three hits and no walks while striking out three. Diffenderfer, coming back off an elbow injury, was described by Martinez as the staff ace. He improved to 4-0 on the season and lowered his ERA to 0.41.

“The goal is to keep rolling, keep winning,” Diffenderfer said. “Even against the better teams we’ve proven we can beat them, will beat them. Our goal is to go deep and win CCS.”

Connor Armstrong led off the sixth for Fremont with a double. He scored on a single by Kevin Koval. But Santa Clara reliever John Kepner settled down after that and retired the last four batters he faced on strikes to close out the win.

Serra 13, Riordan 0: Davis Minton threw 91 pitches Tuesday. He struck out 11 — six more than he had fanned all season — and walked just two. But the number he’ll remember is zero.

The Serra senior pitched a no-hitter as the Padres — ranked fourth by the Bay Area News Group — breezed on the road in San Francisco over Archbishop Riordan 13-0 in West Catholic Athletic League play.

In addition to his pitching dominance, Davis had three hits and scored twice. But his younger brother, Aaron, was the offensive star.

The sophomore went 4 for 4 with a homer, knocked in six runs and scored three runs.

The first-place Padres improved to 21-5, 11-2. Riordan is 8-16-1, 2-11.

No. 9 St. Ignatius 11, No. 6 St. Francis 1: Leading 2-1 after four innings, visiting St. Ignatius erupted for four runs in the fifth, one in the sixth and three in the seventh to record a stunning rout of St. Francis in a WCAL game.

DJ Delaney went 3 for 3 with a double, a triple and three RBIs and Emmett Johnson had two hits and two RBIs to power St. Ignatius (15-8-2, 9-4 WCAL).

Chase Gordon pitched six innings for the Wildcats (19-7, 9-4), allowing one run and four hits.

No. 12 Benicia 5, No. 15 College Park 3 (8 innings): Benicia rallied for two runs in the top of the eighth after the first two batters were retired, pulling to within a game of first-place College Park in the Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division standings.

Beckett Miyamoto’s single to right drove in Coleton Pult to break a 3-3 tie. An error on the play brought in Jackson Habegger to stretch the lead to two.

Nash Rubins had two hits, including a home run, and Myles Cooper singled and doubled to help lead Benicia (14-6, 4-3).

Trent Lanza had two hits for College Park (11-10, 5-2).

Acalanes 3, No. 10 Clayton Valley 2: With a chance to pull even with College Park atop the DAL Foothill standings, Clayton Valley was unable to hold off visiting Acalanes. The Dons scored a run in the fourth to tie the score and one in the fifth for the final margin.

Austin McMannamon pitched five scoreless innings for Acalanes (12-7-1, 3-4). Clayton Valley is 16-5, 4-3.

No. 3 Valley Christian 2, Sacred Heart Cathedral 0: Quinten Marsh pitched six scoreless innings, singled to knock in a run in the third and hit a sacrifice fly to drive in another run in the fifth as Valley Christian won at home in San Jose in a WCAL game. Valley Christian improved to 20-5-1, 9-4. SHC is 12-14, 3-10.

No. 8 Heritage 7, Antioch 0: Logan Nelson pitched five scoreless innings and Tyler Williams hit a two-run homer to help lift Heritage to a victory at home in Brentwood in Bay Valley Athletic League play.

Jace Bernard had a hit and knocked in three runs to help lead the Patriots (17-4, 6-1). Antioch is 8-13, 2-5.

No. 17 Pittsburg 16, Deer Valley 0: Pittsburg scored six runs in the first inning, led by 10 after the third and cruised the rest of the way to snap a three-game losing streak.

Ty Thompson, Diego Deluna and Santino Valle each knocked in two runs for the Pirates (16-5, 3-4). Deer Valley is 9-13, 0-6.

Softball

No. 3 Liberty 6, Freedom 5 (8 innings): Kylee McKinney’s single in the bottom of the eighth brought home Maddie Banchieri as Liberty rallied tn a matchup for first place in the BVAL.

Freedom was two outs from victory in the bottom of the seventh when Kelsie Skaggs hit a two-run homer to center that tied the score.

Isabella Rice and Kaitlyn Macias also homered for Liberty (17-4, 7-0). Jaiden Proctor hit a home run for Freedom (7-8-1, 6-1).

No. 6 Castro Valley 3, No. 13 Alameda 2: Trailing 2-1, Castro Valley scored two runs in the home half of the fifth to clinch the West Alameda County Conference Foothill Division regular-season championship.

Miley Snellgrove led Castro Valley with two hits and two RBIs. Aaliyah Soderlund had a hit and two RBIs for Alameda.

Castro Valley is 15-3, 5-0. Alameda fell to 13-9-1, 3-2.

No. 5 Valley Christian 7, No. 8 Live Oak 3: Valley Christian found its offense just in time to rally past host Live Oak in a nonleague game in Morgan Hill.

The visitors scored two in the sixth to make it 3-3 and four in the seventh to prevail. Sia Marsh homered and drove in three runs and Shyla Paredes also homered to lead the way for Valley Christian (17-5).

Julianna Altamirano knocked in two runs for Live Oak (18-2).

No. 16 Clayton Valley 6, Alhambra 5: Chloe Herico’s two-run double in the bottom of the seventh tied the score and a passed ball brought in Victoria Collins from third as Clayton Valley rallied to stay undefeated in Diablo Athletic League Foothill Division play. Clayton Valley is 13-5-1, 7-0. Alhambra is 12-9, 3-4.

Carondelet 10, No. 14 Foothill 0 (5 innings): Angela Gates and Norie Umene each drove in two runs and Maia Scholtens scattered five hits and a walk to lead Carondelet to a run-rule rout at home in an East Bay Athletic League game.

Carondelet (12-11, 10-2) remained tied with California atop the league standings. Foothill is 13-6-1, 8-4.

No. 15 San Ramon Valley 5, Amador Valley 4 (8 innings): Gia Ryan’s two-out double in the top of the eighth knocked in Charlie Callison with the tiebreaking run as San Ramon Valley edged Amador Valley in EBAL play.

Addie Layous had three hits, including a double, and drove in two runs to lead SRV, (14-7-1, 8-4). Abbie Hiller had two hits and two RBIs for Amador Valley (10-13, 4-8).

— Assistant Sports Editor Darren Sabedra contributed to this report.