Looking for another way to play baseball beyond San Benito Babe Ruth, Robert Fabing decided to gather a group of 14 players spanning the varsity, junior varsity and freshman levels at San Benito and take them to San Jose for the first time this year.
As a part of the San Jose Police Activities League, Fabing’s team was dominant, going 18-0 in the Colt League baseball program. Playing four to five times a week, the team bonded entering the postseason.
On Friday, the Hollister-filled San Jose PAL baseball team will compete in the Pony League Colt Division West Zone NorCal Central Region 8 tournament – one step away from the Colt World Series in Lafayette, Indiana.
“For these kids, it would be the ultimate,” Fabing said. “They’ve always been knocking on the door to the World Series and we’ve always come up short.”
The team wasn’t necessarily supposed to be created this year, Fabing said. Wanting to give his son a different baseball-playing avenue, Fabing decided to enlist in the San Jose PAL league. Once more people – and San Benito ballplayers – found out, he had a full team.
“They all needed to play somewhere,” Fabing said. “My Connor was going to go play in San Jose with a friend of mine. But I found out more and more kids wanted to play and I had a full roster. And they (San Jose PAL) welcomed us to go play.”
Pony’s Colt Division baseball is strictly for 15 and 16-year-old ballplayers and all of Fabing’s team played for San Benito High in some capacity last year. The familiarity created a team unity that – so far – has prevented from losing.
“They get to play together in the whole amount of games,” Fabing said. “We played 18 games up there so they all get to play up there instead of being spread out all over.”
He continued: “We have 14 really good kids. They all get along. They all play hard.”
Overall, the team has gone 24-0, winning the Moonshot Classic in San Jose last weekend and defeating the Watsonville Aggies in non-league play earlier this summer. The team, like it’s Little League and Babe Ruth opposition, is a showcase for the quality of San Benito baseball, Fabing said.
“Hollister baseball is good all the way down to all the age groups,” Fabing said. “And that’s one reason why I wanted to keep all these kids together instead of playing on different teams. You develop a lot of unity. The same commitment. They all want to win. It’s a good thing.”
The Hollister-based team, which is called San Jose PAL, begins the West Zone NorCal Central Region 8 tournament Friday at San Jose PAL stadium at 7:30 p.m. They open against Columbia Basin from Washington.
