Trio of ex-Haybalers make it all the way to Ohio for the Babe
Ruth World Series
Playing on the first Watsonville Aggies team to make it to the Babe Ruth World Series (16-18) in more than 20 years, the local contingent of players who made the trip to Newark, Ohio could have been satisfied with just making it to the highly competitive national event.
After all, they’d just helped the Aggies beat its longtime nemesis – San Gabriel Valley – in the West Regionals to earn a World Series berth. And, in between games at the World Series, some of them got the chance to make day trips to places such as the Pro football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio State University in Columbus and the Great America Ballpark in Cincinnati for a Giants-Reds game.
But just being happy to be there was not the Aggies’ style. Led by Gilroy’s Dave Newton and Chris Hernandez, and Hollister’s Eric Diaz Jr., Jason Sims and Justin Patton, the Aggies split four games and finished fourth overall at the Babe Ruth World Series last week.
“It was like a once in a lifetime experience,” said Hollister’s Eric Diaz Jr., a member of the Hartnell college baseball team and a player who is garnering considerable attention from major league scouts these days. “You don’t get the chance to play in those kind of games all the time. We had a great team. A lot of people were saying that we had the talent to win the whole thing, we just couldn’t pull it out.
Longtime Watsonville coach Gary Bertone said the experience is one he believes will stay in his players’ memories for good.
“This is something these kids shouldn’t forget for the rest of their lives,” Bertone said. “It was a great experience. They stayed with host families out there, and the people in Ohio were just unbelievable. There’s not very many teams out of this area that get to go to that level.”
“It was pretty cool to get to go play at the World Series in Ohio like that,” Newton, the West Valley College standout and Live Oak High grad, said. “For the people in Watsonville, it was great because they were really supportive of the team. It was pretty fun.”
Bertone, who also took the Aggies to back-to-back World Series in 1982-83 when the team went just 1-5 in two years, said this year’s team actually could have done a little better.
“We can’t be too disappointed in finishing fourth, it’s our best record so far,” Bertone said. “But we’re a little disappointed because we were probably the second best team in the tournament (behind eventual champion Mobile, Alabama).”
Bertone said the Aggies may have been knocked off stride by being crowned the early favorites to win the World Series title, a prediction based on the fact that the Central Coast squad had knocked off defending champion San Gabriel Valley in the regionals.
Watsonville won its Series opener 9-3 over Denham Springs, La., but dropped a 6-3 decision to host Licking County of Newark in its second game. The Aggies routed Worcester, Mass. 12-4 in its third game but were eliminated by Columbia Basin, Wa. in Game 4.
The Aggies held a 5-0 lead after the first inning in its final game before the Washington state squad rallied for the win.
Newton said the Aggies’ pitching performed well but the hitting didn’t come through.
“In the two games that we lost we didn’t hit very well,” he said. Newton said he struggled at the plate himself before breaking through for three hits in the finale.
Newton, who made the all-tourney defensive team playing left field, and Diaz, who was named to the all-tourney first team, brought home individual accolades for Watsonville, as did all-tourney third baseman Nick Liedel. Diaz is a San Benito High grad who attends Hartnell College, while Liedel is a former North Monterey County standout who plays for Sierra College.
