Nathan Rowe and Eric Diaz Jr. had had enough of the rainy week
of delays and postponements in the Cupertino Lions Tournament.
Nathan Rowe and Eric Diaz Jr. had had enough of the rainy week of delays and postponements in the Cupertino Lions Tournament.
Thursday night at about 7 p.m., the boys were napping at Diaz’ house.
“Eric’s taking a power nap,” said Rowe. “I’ve been sleeping for about 20 minutes. We were bummed our game got canceled today.”
Diaz, Rowe and the local nine at Hollister High are tired of two rainouts the past two days which postponed the tourney’s feature game – 15-4 Hollister vs. 11-6 Archbishop Mitty. The original date was on Wednesday, which was called right before game time as a downpour pelted San Jose’s PAL Stadium. Thursday’s makeup game at Mitty was also postponed due to rain.
Believe it or not, Mother Nature is expected to cooperate this afternoon at 1 p.m. when the two teams attempt to take center stage for a third time. This one is at PAL. The Balers come into the fray 12th-ranked in the Central Coast Section, while the Monarchs are 13th-ranked in CCS.
The Balers shouldn’t be fooled by Mitty’s relatively low ranking. The Monarchs were ranked in the state before the season started and own one CCS D-I title (’97) and two runners-up labels (’01, ’73). Mitty plays in the West Catholic Athletic League, which has Serra, ranked seventh in the state, and powers St. Francis, ranked eighth in the state for Division II schools and Valley Christian, ranked No. 1 in the state for Division IV schools. And then there is always tough Bellarmine.
That’s what makes the past two days even more frustrating.
“The kids know what’s going on,” said Baler head coach Neal Andrade. “They’ve been really pumped up because they’re playing a WCAL team, a good, quality opponent. I feel sorry for my kids because they drove all the way to San Jose and then don’t have a game. It’s their Easter Break.”
The Balers took the drive to San Jose Wednesday and had just finished their infield warmup when the rains came.
“We were all warmed up and ready to go,” said Baler first baseman Gordon Ross. “Then the downpour came and we all stood along the fence and looked up at the clouds. Brent Fulgoni is our ‘ag guy’ so we asked him for a forecast. He said, ‘Off and on. Off and on.’ A lot of the guys were upset because were going to play a high quality opponent, a strong team.”
Both Rowe and Diaz, the Balers’ top two hurlers, are well-rested. Diaz is scheduled to take the mound today with Rowe tomorrow, win or lose today. If the Balers win, they’ll play at 7 p.m. in the championship game against either Gilroy or Homestead, who are fighting it out in the other pool. If they lose, they play at 4 p.m.
“I’m confident in Eric to win today and I have confidence in myself to win the championship game,” said Rowe, who will pitch on Saturday no matter. “I’d like tothink it’s a 1-2 punch. I watched Mitty warmup before our game and I wasn’t that impressed with them.”
Thus far in the tournament for the Balers, one of the story lines has been the performance of 6-foot-6 sophomore Jason Sims. Sims clouted a homer last Monday in a 12-8 win over Monta Vista and pitched 6.1 innings of relief in the Balers’ 13-7 win over Hillsdale on Tuesday.
“That’s what is good about this tournament,” said Andrade. “A guy like Sims hadn’t gotten to play too much. Then you get to catch a glimpse of what this underclassman can do. You can see what he means to the future of the program.”
The Hillsdale game was unique in that the Balers were down six runs in the first inning. Sims came into the game in the first inning with the bases loaded and walked the first batter. He limited the Knights to one run the rest of the way.
“I didn’t have any between-inning meetings at all,” said Andrade. “I told the team to find a way to pick up Justin Patton, who didn’t have his good stuff; to find a way to get back into the game. This team has to learn what it takes to win, that if they aren’t ready to play, they’re going to get beat. It doesn’t matter who we play. Every year, it takes time for a team to learn that.”
There’s one player who would love to be out on the field today – three-year varsity performer Nick Ramos. Ramos, the starting shortstop on the Balers, has been battling a badly sprained left ankle and a pulled right hamstring. He has missed a total of nine games. With the rain, Andrade doesn’t want to chance putting Ramos out there with an iffy hammy. There are more imporant fish to fry like a possible showdown for the Tri-County Athletic League title on April 30 vs. Live Oak. Try telling Ramos that.
“I stretched and ran (yesterday),” said Ramos. “It felt really good. I was able to extend on the ankle. And the leg felt 100 per cent. With this rain I’ve been able to rest a lot. I’m going to talk to coach before the game today and see if I can play. This is a big game playing Mitty and I want to help.”
Two years ago in the same tournament, the Balers were nipped in the bud by an outstanding Monarchs team 3-2. Rowe was a sophomore on that team.
“I’m out for revenge for what happened my sophomore year,” said Rowe.
Sims’ homer give the Balers eight home runs on the season. The breakdown: Anthony Synegal 4, Diaz 2, Josh Badillo and Sims 1.
