One thing is for certain for Hollister High when it plays host
to Aptos Wednesday in a first-round Central Coast Section Division
I baseball game – tangling with the Mariners will be no day at the
beach.
One thing is for certain for Hollister High when it plays host to Aptos Wednesday in a first-round Central Coast Section Division I baseball game – tangling with the Mariners will be no day at the beach.
Aptos (19-8), the No. 10 seed, has it 24 home runs this season. The No. 7 Balers (20-7), who play in a home park with relatively the same dimensions as the Mariners, have 10. Every member of the Mariners starting lineup has gone yard this season. Jay Ramsey leads the pack with six homers, while senior right fielder Greg Jones and Garret LaTorre, the Mariners catcher, have four home runs each.
Leading the Balers in home runs this season is junior Anthony Synegal with four. Eric Diaz Jr. is next with three bombs.
Mariners head coach Tom Graham will send his ace – the senior righthander Ramsey – out to the mound. Ramsey has a 0.78 ERA in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League where he went 6-1 for the league champs. Ramsey has been pitching to LaTorre since their days in Little League.
“There is no tomorrow,” said Graham as to why he’s using his No. 1. “Ramsey’s ball has good movement and he hits his spots. We have three good pitchers.”
Other leading hitters for the Mariners are freshman second baseman Tony Strickland, shortstop Andrew Ortega and third baseman Chris Thompson, a former North County player.
The bottom four hitters in the Mariners’ lineup have “blistering speed”, according to Graham, in his first year.
“We’re young,” added Graham. “Some of these guys were on last year’s team which took sixth in league and they felt the heat for losing. We’re getting more fans now because we’re winning.”
Graham, a sales rep who has Hollister as part of his territory, admits to not knowing much about the Balers.
“I had a client in Hollister who kidded me about drawing Hollister in the first round,” said Graham. “They’re league champs. We’re league champs. I expect a good, competitive game.”
Baler head coach Neal Andrade admits to not knowing much about Aptos, either. Andrade has his ace, Diaz, going on Wednesday. Diaz was 4-1 in the Tri-County Athletic League with an ERA of 1.83 in 38.1 innings. He struck out 53 batters.
“With the exception of the first game against Live Oak, Eric has kept us in every game,” said Andrade. “A lot of the guys on this team were on last year’s team which went far in CCS. That experience should help us. We’re more poised this year.”
The Balers haven’t played since May 13, which makes it an eight day layoff between games.
“The rest has done us good,” said Andrade, citing Synegal and shortstop Nick Ramos as two players who have benefitted from the layoff.
During the past few days of practice, Andrade brought in two ex-Balers to work with the club. Nick Bakich played for Gavilan College this past season and made First Team All-Coast Conference. Pitcher Daniel Barone was also a First Team All-Coast Conference selection this past spring and threw some batting practice to the Balers a couple of days ago. Barone is expected to sign with the Chicago White Sox shortly.
“Hollister has a good chance to go all the way,” said Bakich Monday. “They swing the bat well and play good defense.”
“CCS is as big as it gets,” said Diaz. “If we can get hot with the bat, we can take it all.”
Three members of the Baler junior varsity have been called up to get CCS exposure – Geno Fata, Karson Klauer and Seth Hudson. Hudson gives Andrade a backup catcher he can go to if something happened to Synegal, who has caught every inning for the Balers thus far this season.
Players like Synegal, Gordon Ross and Nathan Rowe could play huge roles this postseason. All three are capable of poking the ball over the proverbial fence.
“Everybody is swinging the bat well,” said Ross. “We’re taking it one game at a time. Sure, we all think of the pie in the sky of taking CCS. We’re learned last year not to take anyone lightly.”
The Balers, seeded an unprecedented second last year, engaged No. 15 Homestead in a classic. The game went 12 innings before Ross sent everyone home with a walk-off grand slam for a 12-8 Baler win.
“Homestead may have been the best 15th seed ever in CCS,” deadpanned Ross.
The Balers and Mariners have only one common opponent – Monterey. The Balers split two games with the Toreadores early in the year, while the Mariners lost 13-6 to Monterey on March 15.
And if one wants to read anything into these numbers, each team has scored and yielded almost exactly the same amount of runs. With each club playing 27 games, Aptos has scored 183 runs and given up 105. The Balers have totaled 187 runs and allowed 107 runs.
The game, like every game, will be determined between the foullines. Expect a big crowd on Wednesday. Get there early.
And remember, folks. No beach balls allowed.
Interesting fact: The teams have met in CCS twice. The Mariners won 6-2 in 1980 and 13-5 in 1982.
