SARATOGA -- West Valley baseball took on a team that traditionally plays clean small-ball and, over a two-game series, were the cleaner team as the Vikings continue a terrific start to the 2026 season.

Off to its best ten game start in recorded program history, West Valley (9-1) has played anything but a cupcake of a schedule, with impressive wins against top-25 teams like Butte and Santa Rosa. In a pair of games against Lassen, the Vikings outscored the Cougars (8-6), 17-4.

"Bats started off slow," said head coach Bobby Hill after the first game of the series. "But, once again, we figured out: timely hitting is good. We just picked our time to score. Sometimes it wasn't pretty, but at the end, we got the job done how we needed to do it."

Both games featured new-look lineups for the Vikings, with freshman David Colon starting at shortstop in the first game of the series followed by Joseph Tapia in his spot in the second. After starting the first nine games of the season in center field following a remarkable freshman campaign, Eric Altmark got a well-deserved rest on Sunday.

"That's the fun part of my job, right? Trying to find the best lineup for this team. Max [Ghiglieri] does a really good job of that nine-hole. He's almost like another leadoff guy. I can allow him to be more aggressive there. He turns the lineup over. He's got some speed. He's hit nine, but it's another leadoff guy."

Ghiglieri was the Vikings' most important offensive player in the first game of the series, driving in three runs in the last spot in the lineup after spending most of the season hitting sixth. But on the mound, Tre LaGrone III continued his ascension to stardom with another marquee outing.

Hill applauded LaGrone III, who at times struggles with control, for bullying his way through five innings of one-run ball with no earned runs. After going just two innings out of the bullpen in his season-debut, LaGrone III has gone 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA and one strikeout per inning in his three games since.

Still a one-run game in the bottom of the seventh, West Valley first baseman Jordan Montez opened the inning with a dinger to left, his fifth of the year and the 11^th of his career. Montez, who redshirted in 2024, is now close to the top 15 all-time in home runs and continues to pace the team in that category. For Montez, it's been all about development, both on and off the field.

"[The coaching staff has] always told me," said Montez, "I've been here three years, this is my third year. Since I got in, I was always a pretty good hitter from what they told me. All I needed to do was lose a good amount of weight. So over this last summer, I just had double-days and I put in as much work as I could. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it [in] the end. I feel a lot better. I feel like I move a lot better and just in general, life, not even just baseball. I just feel like a lot better as a man."

After Kenji Colston had a sac fly later in the inning, the Vikings scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth on a pair of bases loaded walks and another sacrifice fly to push the lead to six, where freshman reliever Apolo Lapiz shut the door in his second scoreless appearance of the season as the Vikings won 7-1.

In the second game of the series, sophomore Julian Ito had a terrific bounce-back start, completing five innings for the first time this season while picking up his second victory. Ito anchored the Vikings' back end of the rotation last year but was the opening day starter in his second year and has gotten stronger in each start.

"He got a lot of big innings last year," said Hill. "I know he was off to a little slow start for him, and something he's not used to, but I know he's going to be there when we need him, and he showed signs of that today. Of old Ito. And he had smiles on his face, which is a good sign. It was a good outing from him."

In all, the sophomore completed five innings while allowing a pair of earned runs, both coming in the fifth inning. He also picked up three strikeouts without walking a batter, flashing more of his strikeout stuff early on with his fastball-changeup combination while picking and choosing his spots with his slider.

"It leaves the door open to throw whatever I want if you're ahead in the count," said Ito, acknowledging that the lack of walks and falling behind contributed to his success. "That's what I did today: I got ahead, and that throws hitters off balance because they don't know what's going to come late. And that's when I can mix in those offspeeds and even get the fastball by them when I need."

Game two had another new-look lineup, as Ghiglieri moved from the "second leadoff" slot to the true top spot, with Parker Kristall and company slotting behind him. While the top of the order struggled early, Colston continued his strong play and clutch hitting by knocking home a pair of runners with two outs in the bottom of the second inning.

"Once again," said Hill, "timely hitting. It's not just one person. I don't know who it's going to be right now. It could be my one hitter, it could be my six hitter, it could be my two hitter, my nine hitter. It doesn't matter right now. It's a good thing to have for a team."

After the Cougars scored twice in the top of the fifth to tie the game, freshman catcher Kaden Smith led off the bottom of the fifth inning and cracked a ball over the wall in left-center for his first home run as a Viking. As a team, the Vikings play a catcher-by-committee style, but Hill appreciates how there's no animosity between the teammates in a situation where lesser humans might not do the same.

"It's something I addressed with them today," said Hill, "and I commend them. They're handling it with maturity, professionalism, and to me, I'm very grateful for how they're going about it. It goes a long way in my eyes, and they're ready. That's the thing. Kaden, he stepped in today, and he hasn't played in a week or so, and he went in there today, and he played well. And we got that yesterday from Ryan Bays. And, you know, [catcher Anthony] Rael catching the ball [well] when he gets in the game, too, so it's good, and I'm happy for Kaden. I tip my hat to them because it's not easy, not knowing who's going to get the start that day, but they're doing it with maturity. They're good teammates, and that's big for us, so I commend them. I tip my cap to them. I'm thankful for them for having an attitude like that, and we've tried to build our culture and our team around team guys, and that's just a statement of who we are when you have four catchers like that. When they're not playing, they're top-stepping it. They're cheering us on. They got the stopwatches, getting pitcher's times, so it's not like they're just sitting on the bench mad because they're not playing. They're cheering each other on, and it's hard, but they're doing a great job, and I'm very, very thankful for how they're going about it."

Quincy Winkler was first out of the bullpen in game two for the Vikings, and after a rough second start of the year, was much more composed and pitching at his tempo coming out of the bullpen. Before a rocky last couple of batters, Winkler retired each of the first eight batters he faced.

"I know him and [pitching coach Darold Brown] have been working," said Hill. "They tweaked a little bit of his stuff during the week in the bullpen, and today I think he just went out there and trusted it and showed. He kept us where we needed to get back in the dugout and hit, and he did a great job doing it. It was good for him to have an outing like that."

The Vikings scored three in the bottom of the seventh to extend their lead, with Kalen Clemmens delivering the biggest blow: a two-run double down the rightfield line. It was Clemmens' first hit as a Viking and spoke to the depth of the team.

After Kristall came in and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning, the Vikings led by five and decided to push the rest of their bench in. Rael, AJ Ljepava and Tony Romano all entered the game that already had Joseph Tapia and Clemmens, who had both come exclusively off the bench this season. Montez talked about the culture that he feels the sophomore class has helped create to get a smaller freshman class game-ready.

"[It's like] an older brother type of thing," said Montez about his role as a leader. "If someone is kind of lost, or not understanding what they're doing, just, 'hey, next time this, next time that', just guiding them in the right way, especially the freshmen. Sophomore-wise, just making sure they're in check too. And I feel like we all are, we have a good connection to where if a sophomore is messing up, another sophomore would be like, 'all right, hey, come on, lock in'. We have a lot of guys who, they're silent leaders. They'll look at you and let you know, but they won't speak up. I feel like I'm one of the ones that will say something and speak up to these guys and let them know."

Brice Brunson finished the two-game sweep with a clean ninth inning. Even at 9-1, the Vikings still feel like there's more in the tank, with everyone saying it doesn't feel like the team has played its best baseball yet.

"Last year there was definitely more troughs," said Ito. "I feel like we're just scratching the tip of the iceberg right now and we're 9-1."

"I would say our ceiling's a lot higher than what we're playing right now," Montez echoed. "But, as long as we're taking care of the baseball, hitting the ball hard, and getting runs and pitchers are throwing good, I feel like we're going to keep taking wins. And it's great. Nine and one is electric. Still got little things to work on to get to our main goal."

With that, the team acknowledges that there's a difference in how this team prepares from the last couple of seasons, focusing more on the details in practice while cleaning up the defensive game. After making five errors in their first three games, the Vikings have played uber-clean defense while posting a clean sheet against Lassen in game two. 

"Practices we've kind of dialed in a little bit more," said Montez. "Last year we had some talented guys and sometimes it seemed like practice, it was a little slow. This year we take practice a lot more serious and the little things like fielding ground balls are habitual work that we do every day."

After a six-game homestand, the Vikings play two games on the road this week, starting with a difficult matchup against Santa Rosa on Wednesday.