Cupertino faces season with optimism

Pioneers nail two baseball victories

By DICK SPARRER

Wes Morse figured that his Cupertino golf team might struggle when faced with the long fairways at the Shoreline Golf Course.

After all, Cupertino's home course is Deep Cliff, where par is listed at 30, as opposed to the par-36 on the longer Shoreline links.

"We're still adjusting to the longer courses of Palo Alto Muni, Sunnyvale Muni and Shoreline," said Morse, who co-coaches the Cupertino squad with Bryan Emmert. "Our home course is Deep Cliff, which is a very short course."

So when the Pioneers traveled to Shoreline for a league match with Los Altos and Mountain View last week, the results were rather predictable. The Pioneers lost 162-195 to unbeaten Los Altos and 181-195 to Mountain View.

The two losses left the Pioneers 0-3 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. Cupertino had lost 129-150 to powerhouse Palo Alto earlier in the week in a match at Deep Cliff.

Sophomore Jack Leong fired a 44 and junior David Watkins finished at 49 to lead the Cupertino showing at Shoreline. Junior Koji Mitchell supported with a 50 and soph Jeff Scott carded a 52.

Leon had finished with a low two-over-par 32, but it wasn't enough to lead the Pioneers past Palo Alto to open the week. Watkins finished at 37, with Mitchell at 40 and senior Michael Landers at 41.

Despite the losses to open the league season, Morse and Emmert are optimistic about the coming season.

"We're excited about our young team," said Morse. "We have only two seniors and some returning juniors, but we've added a new class of sophomores to the mix, so we're hopeful that we will improve throughout the year."

Landers is the lone senior in the top six for the Pioneers. He's joined by juniors Watkins and Mitchell and sophomores Leong, Scott and Eugene Kim.

"We have some players who should be able to do well in head-to-head competition," added Morse, "but we need to focus on our depth so that our team scores can give us a better chance of winning matches."

Morse sees Palo Alto as the division favorite this spring, but has high hopes for some Cupertino individuals in the post-season.

"We're hoping that a few of our players will be able to make the jump from the league finals to the Central Coast Section finals by qualifying this year," said Morse. "I don't think Cupertino has had someone qualify for CCS yet."

In other local action, David Krause fired a three-over-par 38 to lead the Homestead golf team to a 160-169 win over Fremont in El Camino Division play last Tuesday at the Sunnyvale Municipal Golf Course.

Eric Domke was close behind Krause with a 39, Mark Mackay shot a 41 and Geoffrey Bazinett fired a 42.

Homestead, now 2-2 in division play, will play three matches this week. The Mustangs face Mountain View on March 19, 1 p.m., at Shoreline; host Cupertino on March 20, 1 p.m., at the Sunnyvale Golf Course; and visit Eagle Ridge on March 21, 12:45 p.m., for a non-league match.

Monta Vista lost a tough 162-163 decision to Los Gatos in El Camino play last week. Steve Cochrane led the Matadors with a three-over par 38 at the Saratoga Country Club and David Kitano fired a 40.

The Matadors, 3-2 in the division and 4-2 for the year, had opened the week with a 166-167 win over Lynbrook at the Saratoga CC. Cochrane was three-over par with a 38 to lead the Mats.

Baseball

Matt Whiteman singled, doubled and homered to drive in three runs and lead the Homestead baseball team to a 10-6 win over Lynbrook last week in El Camino Division play.

Brad McGee was the winning pitcher for the Mustangs and he also tripled in the win. Chris McKim came on in relief to pick up his second save of the season.

Jeff Seip homered and singled twice to knock in a pair of runs for the Vikings in the game. James White singled and doubled and Amir Tahsini had three hits as the Vikes outhit the Mustangs 10-7 in the game.

The Mustangs lost 5-4 to Mountain View two days later to slip to 2-2 in league play and to 4-4 for the year.

Brian Maihack and Steve Hayes had two hits apiece for Homestead in the loss. Hayes singled and doubled.

In other El Camino action, Lynbrook scored twice in the seventh to pull out an 8-7 win over Monta Vista.

Tahsini doubled twice to knock in a pair of runs for the Vikings. Seip and Scott Malone also had two hits each for Lynbrook.

Drew Rogers tripled and drove in two runs in the game for the Matadors. Ryan Katz and Jim Stapleton had two hits apiece.

Earlier in the week, the Vikings had dropped a 13-5 nod to Mountain View. Malone singled and doubled and White had two hits for the Vikes, who are now 2-2 for the year and 1-2 in the division.

Monta Vista opened the week with a tough 7-6 loss in nine innings to Santa Clara. Scott Parisi had two hits to knock in two runs in the win and Stapleton doubled home a pair of runs in a five-run rally in the fifth.

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