Yes, the rain wins the honors of being the “biggest story” of the spring. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been many other notable subplots going on in South Valley high school sports. Here’s what I’ve observed from under my umbrella:
Most dominant team: San Benito baseball. The ‘Balers are usually strong. But I don’t think anyone would have predicted San Benito to not just defeat TCAL powerhouse Palma twice but also post a 11-run inning on the Chieftains’ own field. That was just one of the highlights of the 18-3 campaign the crimson crew has put together thus far. The first-place ‘Balers (11-1 TCAL) appear to have the ability to beat every team on their schedule with Breyon Canez on the mound. Especially with the explosiveness of their offense. Karson Klauer and Canez sit No. 1 and 2 atop pretty much every hitting category in the area.
Biggest disappointment: Cobbie Jones’ season-ending injury. Personally, I was pretty bummed when I heard the UCLA-bound senior would be sidelined with stress fractures for what is predicted to be the whole season. I know the Live Oak runner was less than pleased with her cross country season and was looking forward to having a better spring and being able to improve on her sixth-place in state finish in the 800 last year. But for as much of a disappointment this has been to the Live Oak team and local track and field fans like me, surely no one is more disappointed than Jones herself. She’s even been missed by her competitors. At the Avis Kelley Invitational, Live Oak coach Dean Raymond said Lindsey Kirschner of Enterprise High was looking forward to going up against Jones at the Gilroy-hosted meet. The distance standout from Redding ended up cruising to easy wins in the 800 and 1600. I’m also missing the great TCAL competition between Jones and San Benito senior Amanda Boyd. They were the frontrunners in cross country and also added another level of excitement to TCAL dual track meets, pushing each other in the regular season meets. Here’s hoping Jones will heal fully soon and get back to where she wants to be.
Biggest turnaround: Gilroy track and field. All the way around, the Mustangs have a new program. And the progress will be exciting to watch in coming years. A new track, new coaching staff that includes Gilroy grad and ex-West Catholic Athletic League coach Jeff Myers and some ex-Mustang CCS champs and lots of participation can only mean a recipe for growth.
Most exciting sport to watch: Softball. More specifically, TCAL softball. You always hear about the West Catholic Athletic League being a powerhouse in every sport. But how about the TCAL in softball? I’ll let the numbers do the talking: Six of the top 10 softball teams ranked on the Monterey Bay Prep Report are TCAL teams. San Benito, a great team with an overall record of 16-2, sits in the lower-half of league standings in fourth. Defending CCS champ Live Oak is 10-5-2 and tied for fifth at 2-4 in league. Notre Dame is undefeated, but Gilroy topped the Spirits for the first time in seven years at the Steinbeck Classic last weekend. To sum it up, most of the TCAL teams are good enough to be TCAL champs. It’s just about who takes advantage on any given day. And it makes just about every TCAL game a good one.
Worst sportsmanship /most annoying fan that I’ve seen was at the Mustangs/Vikings softball game at Gilroy Tuesday. Irritated that the batters’ box wasn’t very visible in the dirt, the perpetrator, standing not far behind the North Salinas dugout, began loudly and incessantly complaining that the Gilroy batters were being allowed to move too far toward the Vikings pitcher and thus were out of the batters’ box. The situation escalated when he insisted that maintenance be brought out to fix the box and cursed at a Gilroy scorekeeper who asked him to settle down. That prompted the man’s own side – North Salinas – to tell him to be quiet. So here you had the team this man was trying to defend asking him to stop the disruption. That didn’t work, it only caused him to retaliate. Maybe the North Salinas fan’s point was valid. The batters’ box should have been better marked. But neither the Gilroy nor North Salinas teams seemed to have a problem with the situation. And last time I checked, both teams play on the same field so North Salinas also could have taken advantage of the situation. Regardless, officials should have told the man to get off the field so the game could have gone on free of disruption.
Hope that gets you caught up. Bring on the playoffs. They’re just around the corner.
