Three teams vie for TCAL baseball title
There’s a three-way tie for first place in the Tri County
Athletic League with just a handful of games left in the season.
One of those teams is the defending league champion San Benito High
School baseball team.
Three teams vie for TCAL baseball title
There’s a three-way tie for first place in the Tri County Athletic League with just a handful of games left in the season. One of those teams is the defending league champion San Benito High School baseball team.
On Saturday, the Balers hope to break away from the pack by picking up a crucial road win at Salinas High – another first-place team that is vying for the coveted league title in the home stretch of the regular season.
“It’s really going to be a must-win game for us, if we are going to have any chance to win the league title,” Baler coach Michael Luna said. “They are a really experienced team and they have good pitching, too. They have a number of returnees from last year and a good transfer student who came over from Palma High.”
The last time the Balers played the Cowboys was March 21 at home in a 12-10 contest that went in favor of the visiting Cowboys. A season sweep by the Cowboys over the Balers would also guarantee Salinas a higher seed in the upcoming playoffs, which would most likely force the Balers to play one of the explosive private school teams in the opening round of the Central Coast Section playoffs.
On Saturday, Luna is expected to start either junior Zach Canez or senior Michael Garcia on the mound. Then again, both pitchers struggled in their last two outings, which has made the decision for Luna a challenging one.
Another frustrating thing for Luna is that his team is surging on offense but struggling in the field and on the hill, which has nullified the team’s explosive bats at times.
“We have scored double-digits runs in every league game so far this year,” Luna said. “With that kind of offense you would think that we would be undefeated and in first place alone but we’re not.”
On Saturday, the Balers are expected to face the Cowboy’s ace lefthand pitcher James Coon, who has not lost a game all season or Corey Carma, a 4-2 pitcher, who has shown flashes of brilliance this season.
“The big question for me is who do I start?” Luna said. “We’re also going to have to do much better at playing catch out there because our defense has been suspect and we’ve made some mental mistakes. We’re going to need a flawless game on defense to beat them. That’s really been the thing: Our defense has let us down and our pitching has been inconsistent.”
It’s something Luna hopes to correct before the playoffs get under way next month. The one thing he won’t want to see changed is the team’s explosive offense. Currently, there are four players in the Baler lineup who are batting more than .500 in league play this season.
Leading the way is senior Kevin Medeiros, who is batting an eye-popping .571. Senior Kolton Klauer is batting .545. Junior Brian Haggett is batting .526 and sophomore Kyle Zozaya is hovering right at .500.
“With the numbers that we are putting up, we should be undefeated in league,” Luna said. “If we can get our pitching and defense going we should be okay down the stretch.”
The other teams that are still alive in the league title race are Palma and Gilroy High. Those two teams squared off on Wednesday after press time, which broke the four-way tie for first place. The Balers split their season series with Palma and beat the Mustangs 13-4 in their first meeting with them, which took place in Hollister. On Tuesday, the Balers will travel to Gilroy High to face the Mustangs for the final time in the regular season this season.
