The Leland baseball coach thought his Chargers would hit and play defense, but with the loss of graduated seniors Kyle Woodruff and Anthony Trovato--who ate up most of the innings for the championship club last season--they would be challenged on the mound.

As it turns out, it's been just the opposite in the early stages of the 2005 baseball season.

"One of the areas where we have the least amount of experience is on the mound," said Gillis. "We don't have one pitcher who threw more than three innings last year, and we have a team earned run average under three."

The coach credits a lot of that success to new pitching coach Jim Costello.

"He came out for us at the last minute and has made an unbelievable impact," said Gillis of Costello. "Our pitching staff is easily our strong point."

But despite getting the good pitching, the Chargers lost four straight after opening the season with two victories. The major reasons for that were the 18 errors committed by the defense, combined with a lackluster hitting attack.

That all changed last Monday afternoon.

The Chargers put it all together--good pitching, a nine-hit offensive attack and an errorless defensive game--to crush Oak Grove 10-3 for their first win of the year in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

"It was the first game of the year where we actually played baseball," said the coach. "Our experience is extremely low, and it's taken us four or five games to get into the flow of things."

Junior Matt Slaton helped get the Eagles going, ripping three hits in three trips including a solo homerun.

Junior Kevin Battipede singled and knocked in a couple of runs for the Chargers and senior Andrew Kim drove home a pair. Steve Akerson, Danny Dyer, Lance Gemette, Andy Micko and Damon Ronnsvalle also had hits for Leland.

Ronnsvalle, who scored a pair of runs in the win, stole two bases and Dyer, Gemette and Micko each swiped a sack.

Akerson and Dyer teamed to toss the win for the Chargers. Akerson blanked the Eagles over five innings to get the win and Dyer tossed the final two.

"We have a different sort of staff this season, something I haven't experience in 15 years as a coach," said Gillis. "We're like a Major League staff, but for seven innings--we have starters, holders and closers."

Micko figures to be the holder for the Chargers and Battipede and Slaton are the closers. Dyer, Akerson and senior John Foley are among the Leland starters.

Playing behind the hurlers is a relatively young defense.

"We're an extremely inexperienced team," added Gillis. "We have some returning players, but they're playing positions they're not accustomed to playing."

Senior Gabe Castaneda starts at first base, but that was a position Darren Gemoll owned last year. Battipede is up from the frosh-soph to take over at third with sophomore Gemette at shortstop and junior Dyer at second. Sophomore Alex Todd plays second base when Dyer is on the mound.

"So far, Battipede has been our one bright spot on the infield," said Gillis.

Ronnsvalle, Micko, Akerson and Kyle Jones are roaming the outfield for the Chargers.

Leland opened the year with back-to-back wins over Piedmont Hills (11-2) and Lynbrook (9-3). But then came the losing streak--8-4 to Wilcox, 9-0 to Mitty, 2-1 to Oak Grove in the league opener and 3-2 to Harbor.

The win over the Eagles on Monday broke that losing string, and the Chargers will try to stay on the winning track this week when they face league title favorite Leigh in two games. Leland was to host the Longhorns on March 9 and will visit Leigh on March 11 at 3:30 p.m. Next week Leland faces Santa Teresa in two 3:30 p.m. games--March 16 at Leland and March 18 at Santa Teresa.

Gillis rates Leigh, with its "two returning starting pitchers," as the team to beat in the division and figures Santa Teresa, with "one of the top pitchers in CCS," as a contender.

"After that," he said, "we should be right in the mix."