HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL: Valley Christian all over Artesia as both teams search for answers to pitching staffs

March 23, 2026

 By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X  

 Valley Christian High may have dominated Artesia High last Friday night, but head coach Eric Stater is probably more concerned about injuries to two key players and how he is going to navigate his pitching staff as Olympic League action begins this week. Artesia head coach Jose Serrano is also concerned, but his issues lie in commitment and leadership.

Either way, the host Defenders routed the Pioneers 18-3 and that’s despite Artesia scoring twice in the top of the first inning. After that, V.C. reeled off a dozen unanswered runs in a contest in which eight starters had at least a hit with six of them collecting at least two hits.

The game got off to an auspicious start as senior pitcher Josh Hulse hit senior center fielder Emmanuel Rocha on the second pitch of the game, then walked senior shortstop Devon Torrez on four pitches. Slater came out to the mound and replaced Hulse with junior John Cardenas who limited the damage to a one-out, two-run single by junior second baseman Jorge Vidal.

Hulse said he felt something in his neck on the last pitch of his bullpen session prior to the start of the game and it’s believed that he has some muscle nerve damage. This is coming after senior catcher Nolan Dietz, who last played on Feb. 26, injured his arm.

“We just know that he has some arm issues that we’re trying to diagnose and take care of,” said Slater. “We’re working hard with our training staff to get him ready to roll. We definitely miss him out here having that senior leadership and just the ability to kind of galvanize this ball club. It’s hard for us not having him out there, but he’s at our games and he’s making sure we’re locked in. It’s almost like having an extra coach on the bench when he’s with us, which is a good thing.”

The Defenders shrugged off those two key injuries and got back into the game with a run in their half of the inning on a two-out single from senior center fielder Max Douglas, plating senior third baseman Lucas Witt. V.C. continued to swing the bats in the second inning when senior second baseman Cole Hefner singled on the first pitch from senior Ivan Rodriguez and scored on senior first baseman Isaac Morales’ double to the right field gap on a 0-2 count.

On the next pitch, junior right fielder Lincoln Slater singled, which would be followed by a base hit to right from sophomore catcher Trevor Torres, bringing home Morales. The next three V.C. batters would reach base, and another run would be tacked on the board for a 4-2 lead.

“Just in general, we’re not baseball ready, not mentally ready; it’s a struggle,” said Serrano. “Just not knowing what the next option is…I’ve tried so many things from moving two or three guys around and trying to figure out if somebody clicks, if somebody turns it around or if somebody pretty much wants to be the guy to step up. It’s hard to pinpoint what’s wrong because there’s so many things going wrong right now.”

The only inning in which V.C. did not score was in the third, but the onslaught continued in the fourth with three runs on three hits with junior left fielder Mack Lynott bringing in a pair of runs on a first-pitch double to the right field gap and a single from Morales, allowing Hefner to make it 7-2.

Five more runs came across in the fifth and six more in the sixth, but the other story of the game as far as Eric Slater and his team were concerned came from the pitching of Cardenas. He pitched five solid innings in relief of Hulse, striking out four batters, allowing a pair of hits and walking one batter, which came in between two stretches of retiring five batters.

“One of the great things is that we had John Cardenas come in and close out a very tough situation for us,” said Eric Slater. “Obviously, whenever you put the first two guys on base it make it very, very difficult to get out of that inning from it being a big inning. For us to get out of that with two was a big deal. This is a team that is competitive and will score runs against you if you give them the opportunity to do so, and that’s absolutely what they did.”

Offensively, the Defenders scored at least 10 runs for the fourth straight game, all resulting in wins, and the 19 hits they got off Rodriguez, senior Daniel Jimenez and junior Cameron Garrison is a season high. All nine starters scored at least once as Douglas went three for five, scored twice and drove in a pair while Lincoln Slater and Torres each went three for four and drove in a pair. Even senior Derek Hofius and juniors Brody Fowler and Luke Gisler came off the bench late to pick up a hit.

“It’s like Valley, Cerritos, even Oxford [Academy],” said Serrano. “The kids show up and they’re already panicking; they’re already scared. They’re looking for an excuse than a solution. I think that’s what we’re lacking of; figuring out what is it that I can do as a player to make sure that I’m ready.”

“As a coach, it’s a wonderful thing to look at your lineup and see it go pretty strong from top to bottom,” said Eric Slater. “We have guys who compete at the plate right now and I can honestly say that I’m truly blessed to have nine guys in my lineup that are absolutely going to compete.

“Trevor is a sophomore; this is his first year on varsity baseball right now and he is absolutely doing an amazing job,” he continued. “He’s getting better every day behind the plate and he’s getting a lot of hits for us and driving in a lot of runs. To have that come out of the nine hole, that’s a big deal because it sets the table for our veterans to come up at the top of the lineup and take care of business.”

Artesia was able to collect four hits from four different players, but the defense committed five errors. Making matters worse is the fact that the pitching staff has allowed 18 runs in consecutive games and 17 before that as its record dropped to 2-8. It won’t get better for the Pioneers as they begin a home and home series with perennial 605 League power Cerritos High with the first one to be played on Mar. 24 on the road. The red and black will also host John Glenn High on Tuesday in the beginning of that home and home series with the Eagles.

Artesia has lost 19 straight games to Cerritos, getting outscored 196-25 in those games. The last time the red and black defeated the Dons game on Mar. 28, 2014 in a 3-1 contest.

“We start with Cerritos every year; I wonder who makes the schedule,” said Serrano. “That’s why I schedule [Long Beach] Poly and Valley Christian, knowing that we’re going to play Cerritos [soon]. So I wanted to see some good pitching. We’re only one play away, one hit away from turning things around. I know we can do it. I think the kids need to believe it. That’s all it is.”

For V.C. it begins Olympic League action on Mar. 24 with a home game against Village Christian High, then face the Crusaders on the road two days later before hosting them on Friday. Since 2004, the Defenders trail the series with Village Christian 28-16. They split a home and home series last season but before that, when the league went with a three-game weekly series, the Defenders were swept in 2024, lost two of three in 2023, took two of three in 2022 and swept the Crusaders in 2021.

After that, the Defenders will entertain Schurr High on Monday and Santa Barbara High on Tuesday. And despite the pitching situation, all is good with Eric Slater.

“I love our bullpen and right now, we have a very, very strong bullpen and we don’t have a whole lot of starters, and I’m okay with that,” he said. “In the new style of baseball these days, you roll what you think is going to work out here, and right now I have confidence in every single one of our guys who comes out on the mound. We have a couple of position players who are ready to throw at any given time and they’re very successful.”