Menlo, SHP baseball teams keeping busy Menlo, SHP baseball teams keeping busy (April 01, 2005)

Both facing tough competition in tournaments over Spring Break

by Keith Peters

Local high schools may be out for Spring Break, but that isn't keeping the Menlo School and Sacred Heart Prep baseball teams sidelined.

Both have been busy this week in tournaments - Menlo is in Las Vegas at the Bishop Gorman Invitational and Sacred Heart Prep is playing locally in the Peninsula Easter Classic.

While neither team is having a great deal of success, the payoff from playing tough competition now will pay off later in the season when the Knights and Gators are vying for playoff berths.

In the final game of pool play in the Bishop Gorman tournament, Los Alamitos defeated Menlo on Thursday, 6-0.

The Griffins who are ranked among the top 15 teams in Orange County, took advantage of six Menlo errors while playing flawless defense to turn back the Knights.

Menlo, however, got an outstanding pitching performance from sophomore righthander Anthony Bouvier, who was making his varsity pitching debut. Bouvier, the team's regular starting catcher, threw five innings and allowed only five hits and one earned run.

Offensively, the Knights (7-8) were led by Andy Gregg, who had two hits and a stolen base.

On Wednesday, Menlo split a doubleheader. The Knights fell to Canyon, 3-2, but came back to defeat Harrison County (Kentucky), 5-4.

Against Harrison County, the three-time Kentucky state champion, Menlo scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth on a throwing error.

Seniors Colin Umphreys and Ryan Cavan combined on a six-hitter and allowed only one earned run. Junior Sami Morgan had two hits, including an RBI double.

In the day's first game, a throwing error by Menlo allowed Canyon to score the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the seventh that tagged senior Andy Suiter with the loss in relief. Starting John Liu threw six innings, giving up only three hits and one unearned run.

Sacred Heart Prep (2-5) opened the week with a 2-1 win over Milpitas in the third round of the Peninsula Easter Classic. On Wedneday, the Gators dropped a pair of tournament games, 15-3 to Soquel and 2-0 to North Monterey County.

Earlier in the week, Menlo-Atherton (2-7) scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to post a 10-9 nonleague victory over visiting Woodside. The Bears scored the winning run on an errant throw of a grounder by Tyler Finley.

M-A coach Joe Fontana welcomed back pitching ace Grant Stevenson, who went the first three innings and allowed just one unearned run. Senior Dominic Di Ricco led M-A with four hits and four RBI. Sophomore Calvin Johnson doubled home the tying runs in the seventh.

Girls lacrosse

Castilleja (4-1) got six goals from Katie Given in a 13-12 nonleague victory over visiting Robert Louis Stevenson this week.

Menlo-Atherton will be among the field Saturday in the Western States Tournament at Stanford. The Bears play Rancho Bernardo at 8 a.m., followed by matches with Bella Vista at 11:40 a.m. and La Jolla at 2:25 p.m.

Boys tennis

Menlo School (11-3) came away from the sixth annual National High School Tennis All-American Invitational with its first losses of the season, but the Knights came very close being 3-1 instead of 1-3 in two-day event in Newport Beach.

After losing to eventual third-place finisher Corona del Mar, 7-2, and then beating La Jolla Country Day School by the same score, Menlo dropped a 5-4 decision to Christ Church Episcopal School of Greenville, S.C., and lost a 5-4 match against Woodberry Forest School of Virginia.

"We could have been 3-1 on the weekend," Menlo coach Bill Shine said. "We could have very easily won the back draw."

Both losses last Saturday came in tiebreakers. Andrew Diehl lost his No. 2 singles match, 9-8 (7-5), in the seteback to Christ Church Episcopal. Diehl and Daniel Goldstein played the deciding match against Woodberry, falling in No. 2 doubles, 9-8 (8-6).

"The kids were really disappointed, especially when they saw what Los Gatos did," Shine said.

Los Gatos made it to the finals before falling to Santa Barbara High. The Wildcats lost to Menlo, 5-4, only a few days earlier.

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