San Benito hopes hot hitting can overcome Leland’s ace pitching
in the first round of CCS
Their season is not over yet. They are in the playoffs, where anything can happen.
The San Benito baseball team will face Leland High in the first round of the Central Coast Section playoffs Wednesday.
After looking like they would just lay the season aside in the first half, the Haybalers, seeded 13th, came out in the second half on fire and bullied their way into the playoffs by winning the last five of six games.
But Leland has also put together a solid second half, winning the last seven of eight games. Both teams are coming off losses.
“You don’t get a No. 4 seed if you are not good,” said San Benito coach Derek Barnes. “We have been playing well down the stretch. You just play your game. You never know what will happen in the playoffs.”
San Benito was originally listed as the 14th seed and was scheduled to face West Catholic Athletic League powerhouse Serra. But Palo Alto tabulated the point totals incorrectly and was dropped from the No. 2 seed to No. 6.
“It put us in a tough spot either way,” Barnes said. “I knew more about Serra than Leland just because I seen more in the papers. No one in our league meeting knew much about Leland because they haven’t played them.”
“The idea of seeding is dictated by points, and points are dictated by your league,” said Leland coach Scott Gillis. “Who you play and when you play them are really in someone else’s hands. You have to be an awfully good baseball team to get to CCS. Once you are there, it comes down to a little luck.”
Leland does have some home run power. Players like third baseman Adam Lara (5 HRs), Stephen Akerson (4 HRs) and Danny Dyer (3 HRs) are all capable of going deep. And Darren Gemell, who has a scholarship to Stanford, and Sean Conners are good gap hitters. Both have 18 RBIs.
“Our big strength is that we have constancy throughout the lineup,” Gillis said. “There is not a big dropoff at the bottom of the lineup. We’ve been fortunate to have some good athletes out.”
The Chargers, who finished first in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mt. Hamilton Division, have used nine different pitchers this season.
“We’ve always done that because in this league there are not many guys who can throw a complete game,” Gillis said. “We’ve become real consistent in our pitching, which wasn’t there first part of the year. And the defense has fed off of it.”
Both coaches plan to start their aces but said they may go just a couple innings.
The probable starter for San Benito is Justin Patton, while Kyle Woodruff is the go-to starter for Leland.
Woodruff has a 1.17 ERA in his 60 innings of work. He likes to throw a lot of hard stuff, and has 60 strikeouts this season. Anthony Trovato is the other workhorse for the Chargers. Both are right-handed pitchers.
“We’re going to do whatever we can to win our first game and not worry about after that,” Barnes said. “They’re in a tough league, and we are in a tough league. We didn’t play a king’s schedule this year. We just have to play solid and hit the ball. If we can keep it close, we’ve shown we can beat some good teams.”
