The Hollister Junior League All-Stars will begin their inaugural
campaign this weekend in Salinas
Hollister
They may be young men, but manager Dave Slibsager calls them the boys of summer.
After recently completing their inaugural season, All-Stars of the Junior League – which is under the Hollister Little League and made up of 13- and 14-year-olds from the area – will make their debut Saturday at the 2008 District 9 Junior All-Star Tournament in Salinas.
The team will open with Gonzales in Salinas’ Muni Stadium at 1 p.m.
With their regular season wrapping up just last week, though, the Junior All-Stars had a quick turnaround to this weekend’s games.
“But it is what it is,” Slibsager said. “These kids have all played ball. It will come together fine.”
The Junior League played an intradistrict 18-game schedule that pitted four Hollister teams, which was more than any other town in the Junior League, against other squads from Salinas and North County.
Hartnell of Salinas may perhaps be the favorite heading into the District 9 tourney – their lone team was undefeated during the regular season at 18-0 – but Hollister’s All-Stars are just that, a concentration of four teams into one.
“Hartnell’s regular team is pretty much their all-star team, and our team is all different teams, so you really can’t compare,” said Niko Mendoza. “I do think that puts us at an advantage because they haven’t see us all together.”
Hartnell is said to be more or less made up of 14-year-olds, whereas Hollister, being in its first year, has nine 13-year-olds and four 14-year-olds.
“We’ll be very competitive,” Slibsager said. “It’s gonna be difficult. We’re gonna have to play good baseball because we’ll be playing teams that are predominantly (made up of) 14-year-olds, but that’s good.”
Slibsager fully expects to be playing for the district championship on July 7, and notes that Hollister beat Hartnell’s top pitcher two years ago.
“So it’s not gonna be a big surprise for our kids,” he added.
The team expects to excel in hitting and fielding, but is just really good overall, said Jacob Tonascia.
“We’re the first team from Hollister,” Tonascia said. “It’d be nice to win district and possibly set the standard.”
The Junior All-Stars won’t be the only team from the Hollister Little League playing this weekend, however.
Hollister American and National All-Stars from the 8- and 9-year-old division and the 9- and 10-year-old division will open District 9 play this weekend.
Teams from the 11-year-old and the 11- and 12-year-old divisions will begin on July 5.
But it’ll be the Junior All-Stars that will open postseason play for the first time.
“They’re ready to play Saturday and ready to play a good level of baseball,” Slibsager said. “One pitch, one inning, one game at a time, and build this team into a championship team.”
