Anzar baseball thinking playoffs

Armed with six returning starters along with an influx of promising newcomers, the Anzar High baseball team can think about making an appearance in the Central Coast Section playoffs this season — and not be accused of having unfounded optimism.
“We’re much improved from last year,” second-year Hawks coach Adrian Monroy said. “Last year, errors shot us in the foot, and this season, we look a lot stronger defensively. We’re a lot more confident on defense, which should make a big difference.”
Anzar lost its first nine games in 2013 before finishing 8-18 overall and 6-6 in Coastal Athletic League play, which is the lower division of the Mission Trail League. The Hawks were 4-4-1 entering Wednesday’s game against Alisal, but they’ve already won more non-league games this season than they did all of last year.
Senior catcher Tyler Hendricks, who was last year’s Coastal Athletic League Co-Most Valuable Player, provides strong leadership skills behind the plate. Monroy’s ultimate goal would be to have the program be consistently strong enough to get promoted and stay in the Mission Trail League.
So far this season, Anzar has been involved in a number of slugfests. But instead of relying on power ball, the Hawks manufacture runs by moving runners over, and utilizing their tremendous team speed.
Entering this week’s action, Monroy’s younger brother, Christian, a senior second baseman and shortstop, had a team-high nine stolen bases.
Hendricks had seven thefts, pitcher-shortstop Sam Jimenez seven, and third baseman Izaiah Ornelas six. Jarrett DeAmaral and Victor Flores will share first baseman duties, and pitcher Will Frederickson has been a workhorse.
“Will eats up a lot of innings,” Monroy said. “He’s vital to our success because you need guys who are durable and can go the distance.”
Frederickson, Jimenez and Andrew Huaracha have pitched 90 to 95 percent of the team’s innings this season, so Anzar can ill afford to lose any of those three players for an extended period of time.
Monroy excels at moving guys over, and Ornelas and Frederickson can drive the ball on occasion. Jimenez is a versatile talent, whether he’s on the mound or making nifty plays from the shortstop position.
He’s also the team’s leadoff hitter. Entering the Hawks’ March 20 game against Santa Cruz, Jimenez and Adrian Monroy said they didn’t know how the team would fare against the Cardinals, who at 8-1 have one of the best records in the section.
Even after a 6-1 defeat, Jimenez has never felt better about the team in his four years of playing varsity baseball at the San Juan Bautista school.
“The game went way better than I thought it would,” Jimenez said. “We held our own for three innings, and we just made a silly error in the third or fourth inning that would’ve made the game a lot closer. I saw Santa Cruz play Palma (in a scrimmage) a month or so ago, and they destroyed Palma. So just knowing we were competitive against a top-notch Division I team, I feel a lot more confident about the team and what we’re capable of doing this year.”
Jimenez said DeAmaral and Flores give the team’s infielders plenty of confidence, knowing the two will do whatever it takes to keep the ball in front of them.
“It’s nice to know you have guys who can pick the ball and scoop it up just in case our throws to them aren’t right on the mark,” Jimenez said. “They don’t want the ball to go past them, and that helps our defense a lot.”
Since he was a freshman, Jimenez has thought about playing in the postseason. As one of the senior starters on the team, Jimenez said it would mean everything if the team could make it to the playoffs.
“It would mean the world if we could make it to CCS,” Jimenez said. “Baseball means a lot to us. I could literally go out there (to the ballpark) at 10 in the morning and play until 7 at night and still not be bored. That’s how much the game means to me.”