Baseball no-hitters are rare events.

Back-to-back no-hitters are even more so.

Pacifica got back-to-back no-hitters in its games Friday and Tuesday.

Three Mariners pitchers – in order of appearance, senior Ayden Valdez, junior Trent Kincade and junior Adam Louiso – combined for a no-hitter Friday in a 10-0 win over Valencia.

Matthew Futami, a senior, fired Tuesday’s no-hitter in a 3-0 win over Crean Lutheran. Futami had seven strikeouts.

Pacifica coach Mike Caira has seen many high-quality pitchers wear the Mariners uniform, including Chad Gurnea, who was last season’s Empire League MVP and now is at Cal State Fullerton, and Logan Brady, who was the league pitcher of the year last season.

“You can wait years for a no-hitter,” Caira said. “But to have them come back-to-back and in league?”

Caira is impressed by the amount of work done by this season’s pitchers, who have strived to continue the tradition of success on the Pacifica mound.

“Now it’s their time and they want to produce,” Caira said. “At Pacifica we pitch and play defense. That’s what we do, and we try to take advantage of what the other team’s defense will give you to score some runs.”

Pacifica was 9-4 overall and 3-0 in the Empire League going into its league game Wednesday against Crean Lutheran.

The Mariners are one of 13 Orange County teams that have performed well enough over the past two years to be placed among the 35 teams in CIF Southern Section Division 1 via the CIF-SS competitive equity method of placing teams into the eight playoff divisions.

“I like this group of ours,” Caira said. “We could go a long way this season, but you never know. It’s baseball.”

GAMES OF CENTURY

Century moved its Orange League record to 3-0 on Tuesday with a 3-1 home win over Savanna. It is tied for first place in the Orange League with Anaheim. The Centurions and Colonists are both 3-0 in league.

Centurions junior pitcher Miguel Ulloa threw a one-hitter Tuesday against Savanna. He struck out eight.

He also brought in the go-head run with a squeeze bunt. Freshman catcher/third baseman Alfredo Rivera drove in two runs.

Savanna is No. 1 in this week’s CIF-SS Division 6 Top 10 and Century (11-4 overall) is No. 3.

Ulloa is 6-0 with a 0.95 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 37 innings this season.

Ulloa, who is Century’s starting catcher when he is not pitching, is batting .371.

Another Century pitcher, junior Andy Santana, is 3-1 with a 1.81 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 27 innings. Santana is batting .386 with 11 RBIs, 11 runs scored and nine stolen bases in 15 games.

COMING UP

Crestview League play begins Thursday with these two games: Foothill, which is No. 13 in the Orange County Top 25, is at No. 15 El Modena; No. 18 El Dorado is at No. 8 Villa Park.

High school baseball at Angel Stadium continues Thursday with No. 25 Corona del Mar vs. No. 23 San Clemente in a nonleague game at 3:30 p.m.

Friday’s schedule includes two Surf League games at 3:15 p.m.:  No. 14 Fountain Valley at No. 4 Huntington Beach; No. 21 Edison at No. 10 Los Alamitos. In the Trinity League, No. 1 Orange Lutheran is at No. 3 Santa Margarita at 2:30 p.m., No. 2 JSerra at No. 5 Mater Dei at 6:30 p.m.; and No. 9 Servite at St. John Bosco at 3:15 p.m.

TOURNAMENTS

The 56-team Anaheim Lions Tournament continues with 13 games on Saturday, including Long Beach Poly at El Dorado at 11 a.m.

The Ryan Lemmon Spring Tournament will be held March 30-April 3 at Great Park. It has 36 teams in it, including O.C. No. 6 San Juan Hills, No. 10 Los Alamitos, No. 11 Aliso Niguel, No. 13 Foothill, No. 15 El Modena, No. 16 Pacifica, No. 19 Canyon, No. 20 Trabuco Hills, No. 22 Marina and No. 23 San Clemente.

The National Classic is April 1-4 at various sites. County Top 25 teams in it are No. 3 Santa Margarita, No. 7 Cypress, No. 9 Servite and No. 17 El Dorado.

The Boras Classic South is April 2-5 at JSerra and Mater Dei. That one includes the host schools and O.C. No. 4 Huntington Beach and CIF-SS Division 1 No. 2 Corona and No. 6 San Dimas.

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