The Bruins were king of the hill in the BVAL Santa Teresa Division a year ago, sharing the league title with Lincoln. The reward was the privilege of wearing the championship crown for a year. By virtue of that championship, the Bruins move up to the tougher Mt. Hamilton Division this season and therein lies the challenge.

The A league provides consistently more difficult competition game in and game out, and oftentimes teams coming in experience an adjustment period and struggle as they seek to meet that challenge.

Coach Kirk Selfridge believes that his Bruins "will be all right" but also acknowledges that it "will be a tough year."

"Our goal is to be competitive and not an easy mark for everyone," Selfridge said. "We are senior heavy and that should help us reach that goal."

The Bruins have a group of seven seniors and one junior returning from last year's championship varsity team and six of those were starters. Seniors Eric Janssen, Mitch Kanagaki, Nolan Robison, T.J. DeStefano, Kenny Chadwick, Louie Sakoda and Preston Ward and junior Jake Connors should provide the leadership Selfridge will need for his Bruins as they make their way through the transition season.

Junior Duce Ferrante, up from the frosh-soph, and senior Brandon Bittle could see considerable action as well in the infield.

Willie Gemo, Brandon Bush and Manny Araujo are also seniors but were not on the squad last year. They are the corps of pitchers that make up the bullpen and their inexperience could prove to be a challenge for Selfridge.

Branham had two dominant pitchers last year that were lost to graduation and as a result of their reliability and extended innings, not many other pitchers gained much game experience. The Bruins will count on the arms of Kanagaki and Sakoda to get them deep into the games and then hope that the bullpen will learn quickly and come through when needed.

Selfridge anticipates that Leland and Leigh will be in their traditional spots near the top of the league and are the teams to beat. However, he also does not see any "easy marks" in the division and believes the title chase could be "wide open."

Branham had its only scheduled non-league game with Santa Cruz rained out and then had to open league play against Santa Teresa last Wednesday without any previous live game action. The Bruins had a 5-0 lead heading into the top of the seventh and looked like they just might start out on the right foot.

However, the walls came crashing in as Santa Teresa rallied for five in the top of the seventh to send the game to extra innings, and then pushed across two more in the eighth and held on for the win. The Branham bullpen was unable to get the job done and hopefully that is not a sign of things to come.

Selfridge was not all doom and gloom after the loss. "It was our first competition and it's a long season. We will get better as we go along."

Sakoda got the start and went four innings, giving up only one hit. Bush was tagged with the loss. Chadwick had the big bat, ripping two hits including a homerun and drove in four runs. DeStefano, Bittle and Robison also had two hits each.

The Bruins met Santa Teresa again earlier this week and this time the bullpen got it done. Conners came on to work two and two-thirds innings of hitless ball to get the save in a 4-1 win. Kanagaki got the start and did his job as well, giving up only one unearned run in four innings and striking out five to get his first win.

After falling behind 1-0 in the third, the Branham bats woke up and the Bruins rallied for two runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth, which was all Kanagaki and Conners needed to insure the win.

Branham showed some speed on the base paths with Bittle and Janssen legging out a pair of triples. Bittle, Janssen and Chadwick led the offensive attack with two hits each and Bittle picked up an RBI. Mike Swenson made his one hit count, driving in a pair of runs with his single.