Balers could face Division I defending champion Bellarmine in
second round baseball action
In all sports except baseball the Central Coast Section uses
school enrollment numbers to determine what division a particular
high school will compete in when and if it qualifies for the
playoffs.
Balers could face Division I defending champion Bellarmine in second round baseball action
In all sports except baseball the Central Coast Section uses school enrollment numbers to determine what division a particular high school will compete in when and if it qualifies for the playoffs.
In baseball schools can chose, or at least apply to compete, in whatever division it wants to when the playoffs roll around, which is why winning a Central Coast Section Division I baseball title is the hardest CCS championship to win, according to San Benito High School coach Michael Luna.
“To a point it is frustrating because you know you’ll face a school from the West Catholic League at some point,” he said. “This year, they have five teams from that league alone in the tournament.”
In the last decade only two public schools have managed to capture a CCS Division I title. One of them was the 2000 Leigh High School baseball team – a team that Luna coached. The other was Wilcox High School, which won in 2002 and 2004.
On Wednesday afternoon after press time the No. 3 seeded Balers played host to No. 14 seed Santa Clara High.
A win against Santa Clara would most likely pit them against No. 6 seed Bellarmine, which squared off against No. 11 Menlo-Atherton in the opening round of the playoffs on Wednesday.
Since both the Bells and Balers were favored to win their first-round games, it paved way for the Balers to face the defending CCS champion Bells tomorrow at PAL Stadium in San Jose.
And while it may be frustrating for Luna and company to know that a match up against a West Catholic school on Saturday would likely come with a win over Santa Clara on Wednesday, Luna did have confidence in knowing that the Bells are a team that the Balers were able to beat 12-11 the one time they faced each other in a tournament last month.
That wild showdown was won in the bottom of the seventh inning when Brian Haggett hit a walk-off homerun to start the inning.
But this time, if they should face each other, the stakes will be much higher.
“They are a good team. They have some injuries but the private schools are always stacked with talent,” Luna said. “They have four guys in the starting lineup that will play Division I ball in college.”
In Wednesday’s home playoff game against Santa Clara, Luna was planning on starting his No. 1 pitcher down the stretch, Zach Canez, who entered the playoffs with a string of pitching 18 innings of shutout baseball.
Under CCS rules, high school pitchers are only allowed to throw 30 outs a week, which equates to 10 innings of work on the mound.
Depending on how long Canez lasted on the hill on Wednesday will determine how much, if any, action he will see against the Bells, should the meeting take place.
If Canez went deep in the playoff opener Luna was expected to start either junior Ronnie Fhurong or senior Michael Garcia against the Bells.
Although both of those pitchers can get the job done, no one has been hotter than Canez down the stretch.
Canez finished the regular season with a 2.81 ERA overall and was nearly un-hittable in league, posting a 1.34 ERA in the Tri County Athletic League.
In addition to the solid pitching from those three starters, the Balers posted a .333 overall team batting average this season, which helped them to earn the title of co-league champions this year with Gilroy High School.
Leading the way in the hitting department was Justin Andrade, who wound up the season with a .384 batting average. Haggett, who led the team in homeruns, RBIs and doubles, was second on the team with a .365 average.
“In the playoffs, we won’t change much,” Luna said. “We’ll just keep trying to do what we did all year, which is to get some good pitching and be sound defensively. That’s how champions are won.”
And Luna should know…
