Baler softball squad faces Watsonville today in championship
game in San Jose
The Central Coast Section baseball and softball playoffs all
come to a close today. And out of all the local teams that made the
postseason this year only one
– the San Benito High softball team – remains.
Baler softball squad faces Watsonville today in championship game in San Jose
The Central Coast Section baseball and softball playoffs all come to a close today. And out of all the local teams that made the postseason this year only one – the San Benito High softball team – remains.
Today the No. 3 seed Balers have a chance to clinch the Division I softball title. The game will take place at PAL Stadium in San Jose when the Balers will face the tournament’s No. 12 seed Watsonville at 11 a.m.
While the Balers cruised through the tournament with key wins over No. 6 Gilroy and No. 2 seed Carlmont, the other local schools weren’t so lucky.
The Mustangs softball team dropped a 7-0 contest to the red-hot Balers in last Saturday’s CCS quarterfinals, which took place in Salinas. The difficult loss was a hard pill to swallow for the Mustangs, which had beaten San Benito early on in the season. Gilroy was also back in the playoffs for the first time in three years. The Mustangs opened their 2006 playoff campaign with a solid 4-0 win over No. 11 seed Mt. Pleasant.
Gilroy’s hopes of going deep into the playoffs all stopped with the Balers. The game between the two league rivals had been a close 1-0 contest before San Benito’s Kristen Archuleta came up with a two-run hit and Lindsey Clay ripped a triple that cleared the bases in the four-run third inning that blew the game open.
“It was still definitely a successful season for us,” said Gilroy’s first-year coach Catherine Hallada. “We hadn’t been to the playoffs in a while. And we not only got there but made it to the next round.”
The Balers followed that clutch win over Gilroy with another 7-0 shutout in the semifinals at PAL Stadium on Tuesday night against Carlmont.
While San Benito fans were riding high on the success of their softball team, the school’s baseball squad didn’t fare as well in the 2006 postseason.
After picking up an 18-1 home win over Oak Grove in the opening round of the playoffs, the No. 3 seed Balers lost 5-1 to No. 6 Santa Teresa last Saturday at PAL Stadium.
“Offensively, we just struggled that whole day,” said Baler baseball coach Mike Luna. “We had the leadoff batter on in the first three innings and didn’t capitalize.”
Normally a strong offensive team, the Balers could only muster two hits the entire game. It was a loss that hurt.
“We went into that game very much on a high. We were confident,” Luna said. “We definitely thought we were going to win.”
Next season the Balers will lose nine seniors – five of them starters on this year’s league champion squad that went 24-5.
The biggest losses will be the loss of left-handed pitcher Breyon Canez, second baseman Karson Klauer and centerfielder Jacob Boyd.
“We’re losing the whole middle of the field,” said Luna. “We have some good JV and freshman guys coming up but they’ll be hard to replace.”
During the season Klauer led the team in every offensive category and Canez posted a record of 8-1 on the mound.
Despite the heartbreaking loss to Santa Teresa, Luna was able to see the silver lining.
“This was a very special season,” he said. “These guys exceeded our expectations. That’s two years in a row now with 20-plus wins. We were definitely overachievers and we had the best team chemistry. Chemistry is really underrated. These guys loved to hang out and play baseball and that is going to be hard to replace.”
Another local team that suffered a heartbreaking loss the past week was the No. 7 seed Gilroy High baseball team, which was fortunate to get an opening round home game but couldn’t cash in against the tournament’s No. 10 seed Archbishop Mitty. Instead, the Mustangs battled hard and saw the lead change a handful of times before dropping the 8-6 contest in 10 innings of play.
“I wish we could have done a few more things in that game. If we had, we may still be playing,” said Gilroy coach Clint Wheeler on Wednesday. “I thought we matched up well against them. It wasn’t the toughest Mitty team I’ve seen but they were in a tough league. I thought we had a good season overall.”
Next year the Mustangs will lose four players to graduation but they should still have an easier go of it since their archrival Live Oak will travel north to compete in the Blossom Valley Athletic League. Sobrato High will also compete in the San Jose-based league.
To make up for the loss Everett Alvarez and Alisal will join the Tri County Athletic League next year.
“It’s definitely going to weaken a bit,” said Wheeler. “Our goals aren’t going to change. We’re still looking to win a league title.”
That’s a feat that Gilroy High hasn’t accomplished since 1991.
“We’re on a 15-year drought,” Wheeler said. “We’ve been second a bunch of times though.”
And the team that they have often finished second to during the stretch is last year’s league champion Live Oak. But just like Gilroy, the No. 8 seed Acorns had a home game in the playoffs and lost it by a score of 3-1 to No. 9 seed Burlingame High in Division II action.
