Publication Date: Friday, April 29, 2005
PREP BASEBALL
Gunn is set for shootout
Gunn is set for shootout
(April 29, 2005) Titans will face co-leader SC twice next week
by Keith Peters
Tim Thompson knows his Gunn High baseball team has two chances of qualifying for the Central Coast Section playoffs.
One way is by receiving at at-large berth.
"The way I see the CCS race shaping up," Thompson said, "there are eight teams for five at-large spots."
Winning that game of roulette isn't a good bet.
The other way of qualifying, of course, is to win the SCVAL El Camino Division title. The Titans (9-3, 11-5) are tied for first place with Santa Clara (9-3) and the teams face each other twice next week, the first time on Tuesday at Gunn at 3:30 p.m.
"As far as our race with Santa Clara," Thompson said, "I think they have a great advantage because, in their mind, all they have to do is split (next week with Gunn) because they took the first game. And, they have the league's top pitcher in (Carlos) Hernandez to throw in one of those games.
"They are the favorite to win the league. Because we need to sweep and we are the younger team, we are certainly the underdogs. But, if we can put together a great seven-day stretch of baseball, starting Saturday with Homestead, we could come out of next week with an automatic CCS berth, a ticket to the De Anza Division and a magic number of one to win the league outright."
Gunn's pitching and defense, with some timely offense, has the Titans in position to achieve just that. Thompson also knows the Bruins are beatable. Santa Clara fell to Homestead this week, 2-1, for the second time this season. Gunn beat Homestead a week ago, 7-0.
The Titans are coming off a 5-2 victory at Monta Vista on Tuesday. Brent Gardiner, who nearly pitched a perfect game in his previous start against Homestead, limited the Matadors to four hits. He struck out six.
Gunn scored the winning runs in the fifth. Sam Zipperstein reached base on an error and scored when Colin Felch laced a double down the left-field line that went to the wall. Nate Urbassik singled Felch to third and Tucker Laurence dropped a squeeze bunt up the first-base line to score Felch for 4-1. Alex Zeglin, called up from the frosh-soph squad, then hit a major league popup that got caught in the wind and eventually dropped to allow the inning's third run to score.
In the first inning, Gunn grabbed an early lead when Felch doubled in Zipperstein and then Felch scored when Urbassik's grounder was thrown away.
PAL Ocean Division
After suffering two tough setbacks last week, Menlo looked to senior Andy Suiter to turn things around. Suiter didn't disappoint as he pitched five scoreless innings and struck out a season-high 16 batters to lead the Knights to a 5-3 win over host Aragon on Wednesday.
The victory was crucial for Menlo (5-4, 12-12), which moved into a tie for second place with Aragon in the division race. Capuchino leads the league at 6-2.
Suiter was touched for three runs in the first two innings, but settled down after that. His 16 strikeouts gives him 395 for his career. That's the ongoing school record, which he broke earlier this season when he surpassed Jimmy Noriega's career mark of 309.
Menlo trailed 3-2 until tying the game in the top of the third when Sami Morgan scored on an error. The Knights went up for good in the fifth when Ryan Cavan singled and scored on Anthony Bouvier's two-out single. Calvin Jepson added insurance in the seventh with a run-scoring double.
Aragon loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but Suiter finished off his strong performance with a strikeout.
Menlo returns to PAL action today by hosting Woodside at 3:15 p.m.
PAL Bay Division
Menlo-Atherton (4-5, 8-14) fell a half-game out of third place with an 8-4 loss to host El Camino (5-5) on a rainy Wednesday.
The teams meet again today at Flood Park at 3:15 p.m., with the Bears needing a victory to retake third and move closer to securing an automatic berth for the CCS playoffs.
Menlo-Atherton was held in check Wednesday, sending the minimum of 18 batters to the plate through six innings. The Bears rallied in the seventh for four runs and loaded the bases, before a strikeout ended their hopes.
PSAL
Sacred Heart Prep (5-1, 8-9) maintained its share of first place with a wild 20-3 romp over host Fremont Christian this week.
Sophomore Matt Connor had a triple, double and single and drove in six runs to spark the Gators. Senior Hudson Smythe had four hits and Kevin Dos Remedios slammed a three-run homer. That made it easy for sophomore lefthander Tommy Pierson to record the victory. He scattered seven hits in a complete-game effort.
Sacred Heart Prep will host Palo Alto on Saturday in a nonleague game at 2 p.m. The Vikings (7-4, 11-8) were rained out of their De Anza Division game at Mountain View on Wednesday, but the teams met Thursday at Paly.
E-mail a friend a link to this story. | 
