52nd ANAHEIM LIONS BASEBALL TOURNAMENT: Valley Christian’s altered lineup with newcomers aid Defenders in victory over Schurr

April 4, 2026

By Loren Kopff • [email protected]

Coming off a series win over Village Christian High to begin Olympic League action, Valley Christian High began its Spring Break with three straight games in as many days. The first was against Schurr High this past Monday in the second of four scheduled games in the 52^nd Annual Lions Baseball Tournament.

It was also a chance for V.C. newcomers Brody Beck, a junior transfer from Calvary Chapel Santa Ana High, to get his first start at his new school, and for sophomore Hunter Deeble, a transfer from St. John Bosco High, to get some late inning action.

Both responded as Beck, who was the starting third baseman batting in the sixth spot, went three for three and drove in a pair while Deeble threw six pitches in the top of the seventh inning with the bases loaded and got the final two outs for his first save as the Defenders knocked off the Spartans 6-2.

“Having that, to be able to come in and help us score some runs…we scored six today and he’s responsible for three of them,” said V.C. head coach Eric Slater of Beck. “That’s a big component; it adds another bat to an already very, very hot lineup that we already have. We have a lot of guys who are having a pretty good year so far. So if we add another wrinkle to that equation, we’re looking pretty good to score some runs.”

“I just tried to [be] calm; get all the nerves out,” said Beck. “After the last game, I just tried to do what I could to help the team.”

Beck appeared as a pinch hitter last Friday against Village Christian, drew a walk and was replaced by a pinch runner. Also making an impact in his first start of the season was junior pitcher Lincoln Slater, who allowed one run, no hits and struck out two as he worked into the fifth inning. And if it wasn’t for a slight movement on the mound before he threw the first pitch to Joseph Tapia in the first inning, he wouldn’t have allowed the one run.

On the third pitch of the game, Slater hit Ivan Quintero, who then advanced to second on a sacrifice and went to third on a groundout from Isaiah Trevino. But then Slater was called for a balk and five pitches in, it was 1-0. Slater would allow three more runners to reach base before he was replaced by sophomore Shae Delahanty with one out in the fifth, retiring the last seven he faced.

In the bottom of the first inning with two outs and junior center fielder Quintin Ekstrom standing at second, junior designated hitter Mack Lynott singled to center to tie the game. After senior third baseman Cole Hefner reached on an error, Beck singled to the right field gap on the second pitch he saw for the go-ahead hit.

“Usually, I was looking in the middle away because that’s mostly what I see being a bigger guy,” said Beck. “When I saw [the pitch] go down and away, I just went with it and took it to right.”

In the third, senior shortstop Lucas Witt was safe on an error and two batters later, Hefner singled to left before Beck doubled to the right field corner to make it 3-1. Senior right fielder Derek Hofius followed with a base hit up the middle to bring in Hefner.

The score would balloon to 5-1 in the fifth inning when Lynott led off with a single to the left field gap and scored on a sacrifice fly from Hofius shortly after Beck’s third hit of the game on a 3-0 count. The last V.C. run came in the sixth when senior second baseman Nico Villafana doubled to center, moved to third on a groundout from Ekstrom and touched home plate after Witt singled to right.

“We’re getting healthier every single day,” said Eric Slater. “We’re adding some more offense to our team and the bottom line is that the players are playing together as a team and making the adjustments necessary to score runs. In practice, we work a lot on situational hitting to make sure we can get runners on, get runners over and get runners in. Right now, that’s starting to be the equation. We’re getting a lot more efficient than we were [at the beginning of the season].”

“I turned my head and coach Slater was nodding his head at me,” said Beck of the 3-0 count. “Then I got in the box, and I looked back over, and he was still nodding his head. [I was thinking] if I was going to get my pitch, I might as well do it now. I got jammed a little bit but still got it in the outfield.”

As stellar as Lincoln Slater’s pitching was, it didn’t stop there with Delahanty or Deeble. After completing a perfect top of the fifth inning, Delahanty gave up a leadoff single to Elias Villalpando in the next inning and a two-out single to Trevino. But with a pair of runners on base, she got Tapia to line out on the first pitch.

In the final inning, Delahanty loaded the bases by hitting Joshua Talavera on the first pitch, walking Javion Bryant and giving up a one-out single to James Borbon to load the bases. That was followed by a first-pitch single from Villalpando before Deeble came to shut the door.

“You always go into a game with a plan and what you want to accomplish, and this is what we had set up to work on,” said Eric Slater. “We had a couple of other guys ready to go just in case things went sideways. But the three people we wanted to rely on today all performed and got exactly what we wanted them to do. The goal was to get Lincoln through four, and he went four and a third. The goal was to have Shae throw two, and she got through two, then it was to have Deeble clean it up.”

The Defenders were all over Santa Barbara High 11-3 this past Tuesday in the third game of the tournament as Hefner worked four innings on the mound before Deeble got his second save with three innings of action. Offensively, V.C. pounded out 14 hits, marking the ninth straight game it has recorded at least 10 hits.

After rallying for a 13-11 victory over Ocean View High this past Wednesday in which they scored four runs in the top of the seventh the Defenders (10-4) are on a five-game winning streak and have won nine of their last 10 games. They will make up a game with Sunny Hills High on Wednesday before travelling to Cerritos High on Thursday. The game with Sunny Hills, originally scheduled for Mar. 17, is another contest from the Anaheim Lions Tournament and was postponed because of the excessive heat wave that rolled through the Southland.