While the freshmen team ran its record to 19-4 on the season,
the JVs finished Tri-County Athletic League play at 18-0 and
compiled a 26-1 overall record on the year, winning its last 24
games, including four straight to claim the Midseason Classic
tournament crown at Wilcox High.
HOLLISTER
In the third game of the season, the San Benito High junior varsity baseball team led Christopher High 2-1 in the seventh inning, with two outs and two strikes on the last batter.
Who would have thought that was going to be the Balers’ one and only loss of the season?
“We lost to Christopher the third game of the season,” San Benito JV manager Karson Klauer said. “Then we strung off 24 in a row.”
Aside from the multi-error sequence of events that ensued that game, which eventually led to a surprising 3-2 victory for Christopher, the San Benito High JV team played otherwise flawlessly for the remainder of its 2011 campaign, at least when it came to the win column.
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While the freshmen team ran its record to 19-4 on the season, the JVs finished Tri-County Athletic League play at 18-0 and compiled a 26-1 overall record on the year, winning its last 24 games, including four straight to claim the Midseason Classic tournament crown at Wilcox High.
Not bad for the first-year manager Klauer, along with first-year assistant coaches Breyon Canez and Kolten Klauer, each of whom previously played for both the Balers and San Jose State.
“It’s going to be tough to duplicate a season like that,” Klauer said.
Following his team’s early season loss to Christopher, Klauer and the coaching staff reiterated their expectations to the players.
Running the JV program as if it were a varsity team, even a college team, Klauer said he and the staff simply took a more serious approach to what they expected of their players.
Saying it in the offseason was one thing, but enforcing it in-season took a different stance.
“Once we lost that first game, we just bared down on the guys and made sure they knew what we wanted,” Klauer said. “The guys just fell in line and gave us everything they had for the rest of the season.”
Led on the mound by pitchers Greg Steinbeck and Jordan Lopes, who combined accounted for 60 percent of the innings pitched, Klauer said, the Balers were led offensively by shortstop Cody Freitas and C/DH Marcos Perez.
Other members of the team included Brandon Adamson, Cody Asp, Russell Tobias, Brian Tobias, Tony Ruiz, Cody Cameron, Eric Tomasetti, Justin Goodwin, Ray Rueda, Dalan Hoskins, Dylan Ito, Conner Menez and Sean Corral.
Unfortunately for the Balers, a chance to avenge their loss against Christopher never came.
“That would have been nice,” Klauer said. “We were still young at that point in the season. But we learned from it. It was probably for the better.”
As for the freshmen team, it managed to avenge three of its four losses during the regular season.
An 8-3 loss to Carmel preceded an 18-2 win. Falling 11-1 to Aptos wasn’t as hard to swallow after the Balers rebounded with an 11-3 victory one game later, while a 6-4 loss to Palma was later trumped by a 14-1 win over those same Chieftains.
The one that got away was the season opener to Valley Christian — a 9-0 loss.
“We had just cut the team that morning and we had to go right into the game,” San Benito manager Derek Barnes said. “We hadn’t practiced as a team before that game.
“A lot of our kids wanted to play them again. I think if we played them again later in the year, it would have been better. They were really starting to gel.”
While the four losses were a result of the Balers not being able to connect on the key hit, the team’s 19 wins proved otherwise. The freshman program finished its 2011 season at 19-4 overall, 12-1 in the TCAL, and outscored its 23 opponents by a 205-67 margin.
“After Valley Christian, we just hit the ball,” Barnes said.
In fact, San Benito connected on 10 or more hits in 14 of its 23 games.
“It was pretty good, as far as hitting wise,” Barnes added. “We hit the ball pretty well.”
Dylan Yamasaki led the team with a .600 batting average (39 of 65), while Enrique Rodriguez finished second at .433 (29 of 67). Matt Hawk batted .417 (10 of 29) for the Balers and Andrew Breen was .408 (29 of 71).
On the bump, Hunter Haworth tossed 35 innings and gave up 13 earned runs on 24 hits, for an earned-run average of 2.58. Jacob Trujillo threw 25 innings and finished with a 0.83 ERA.
Other members of the team included Tony Amaral, Alex Garcia, Brandon Granger, Conner Starke, Patrick Frusetta, Cam Brann, Troy Ocampo, Dominic Zamora and Edgar Arriola.
“It was a good year. It was a joy to coach,” said Barnes, who previously coached the varsity program at San Benito High. Barnes managed the team this year along with assistants Adam Breen and Mike Martinez.
“If they can continue on that level, I think the program is gonna be set for at least three years,” Barnes added. “They’ll be competitive.”
