The Cupertino Courier
Sports
Pioneers off to 5-0 start in softball
Homestead claims Lions tourney title
By MIKE BARNHART
While Monta Vista, Lynbrook and Homestead have been battling for the top spot in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League's De Anza Division softball race, Cupertino's youthful line-up has grabbed the lead in the El Camino chase. Nearing the midpoint of its El Camino schedule, the Pioneers are unbeaten at 5-0 and enjoy a slim lead over Wilcox (6-1).
Sparked by the play of sophomores Kacie Pool and Amanda Schablaske and freshman Ashley Himan, Cupertino scored a crucial 3-1 win over Wilcox and a 4-3, come-from-behind win over Fremont last week.
Pool went the distance and sparkled offensively in both games. First, on April 10, she scattered five hits and allowed just a fifth-inning run while handing the Chargers their first division defeat. Pool had two of the Pioneers' five hits and scored a run. Schablaske, Himan and senior Amber Stainthorp also delivered hits and factored in the scoring. Schablaske scored a run and drove in another. Himan knocked in a run and Stainthorp tallied one.
Three days later, Pool and the Pioneers trailed visiting Fremont 3-0 after two innings, before rallying in the last three innings for their eighth win overall. Pool had three of her team's eight hits and two runs-batted-in. Schablaske singled home Pool with the game-winner in the last of the seventh.
Meanwhile, Pool raised her pitching record to 8-3-1, including 5-0 in El Camino games. One of Pool's more dominant games was a five-inning no-hitter against Santa Clara, in which she struck out seven batters and walked two. And one of her gutsiest efforts had to be when she pitched the distance in a 6-5, 10-inning triumph over Palo Alto.
Himan, who entered the Fremont game with team highs of a .500 batting average (24-for-48) and 11 RBI, had a four-hit game against Paly. Schabalske (.388, 8 RBI), the team leader in stolen bases and runs scored, drove in a pair of runs with her two hits against Palo Alto. Senior first baseman Heather Stenson had two hits and two runs scored to go with an RBI. Pool and junior Sierra Bohn also drove in runs.
Cupertino is scheduled to oppose Mt. Pleasant on April 22 in the Dons Club Spring Classic at Del Mar, prior to resuming El Camino action the following week against Los Altos, Wilcox (April 25) and Gunn. The Pioneers, coached by James Gilmore and Gary Stainthorp, are much improved over the past few years. Their 8-8-1 overall, includes tough one-run losses to Milpitas, Lynbrook, Santa Teresa and Fremont in a five-inning tournament game, as well as two-run defeats to Mountain View and North Monterey Country.
In the latter, a 5-3 setback at the Steinbeck Tournament in Salinas, Schablaske, sophomore Caitlin Miles and Bohn were the only Pioneers to break through for hits. The only runs were scored by junior Ashley Wakefield, sophomore Jessica Blakely and Schablaske.
Vikes edge Mustangs
Lynbrook junior pitcher Kendra Wood outdueled Homestead senior Melanie Gularte in the Vikings' 1-0 win on April 10. Junior Shawna Mattison scored the lone run in the top of the fifth for the Vikings, who improved their De Anza Division record to 3-1. Homestead dropped to 3-2.
Wood struck out nine and allowed just four hits, including a pair to Mustang Genevieve Fernandez. Meanwhile, Gularte also pitched a complete-game, 4-hitter for Homestead, which was coming off a surprising 7-2 win over Monta Vista on April 5.
Led by junior Lauren Gniadek's hot bat (4 for 4) and the combined pitching of sisters Melanie and Becca Gularte, the Mustangs gave the Matadors their first division loss.
Gniadek, whose four hits included two doubles and a triple, also scored three runs. Senior Courtney Gosnell had two hits and an RBI for Homestead, while Jessica Allemandi and Rachel Nishimoto also drove in runs against Monta Vista pitching ace Jessica Iwasaki. B. Gularte, Gosnell, Nicole Cefalu and Lindsey Chase all scored runs for the Mustangs.
Gniadek had another big day with the bat at the Mission City Invitational April 14. Her three hits, two RBI and two runs scored paced the Mustangs to an 8-3 win over Mt. Pleasant.
Allemandi, B. Gularte and Fernanadez had two hits apiece for Homestead, which improved its overall record to 9-7.
Yoo wins two
Cupertino's David Yoo and Lynbrook's Erik Lee were co-medalists in a non-league match at Deep Cliff Golf Course on April 12. Both players shot 35 on the par-30, nine-hole course, as Lynbrook captured its first match of the year, 193-203.
Two days earlier Yoo had fired 34 as Cupertino registered its first win, 206-212 over Fremont in an El Camino Division match.
Monta Vista, paced by Alex Huang's 37, improved its El Camino record to 4-3 with a 225-239 triumph over Lynbrook.
Mustangs take Lions
Senior Sam Wood and junior Brian Labadie delivered RBI hits in the sixth inning and senior relief pitcher Derek Hargis provided stellar work in the seventh, leading Homestead's baseball team to a 6-5 victory over Gilroy in the championship of the Cupertino Lions Tournament, April 14 at PAL Stadium.
Senior catcher Nacho Bermudez drove in two runs with a pair of hits for the Mustangs, who improved their overall record to 10-4, entering an SCVAL El Camino clash at home on April 17 against Saratoga.
Gilroy scored all of its runs in the first three innings and led 5-2 heading into the fourth.
Homestead pulled to within 5-4 in the fourth, then went ahead with its two-run sixth. Wood doubled home Andrew Pardo to tie the game, then scored the go-ahead run on Labadie's two-out single.
Meanwhile, starting pitcher Evan Marshall recovered from the uneasy start to blank Gilroy from the fourth through the sixth. Marshall struck out eight during his six-inning stint. He allowed seven hits and walked three. Hargis didn't allow a base runner in the seventh, preserving Marshall's unbeaten mound record (6-0) and Homestead's third win in three tourney games.
The Mustangs had followed up their 6-1 tourney opener over Lynbrook with a 3-2 triumph over Archbishop Mitty on April 10. A bases-loaded walk to senior Tony Del Vecchio, with two out in the last of the seventh, plated the winning run.
Homestead pitchers Kyle Dukes (four innings) and Danny Esquivel (two) shut out Mitty over the first six innings, before the Monarchs finally broke through for two runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game.
The Mustangs, who had picked up single runs in the first and fourth, had just four hits in the game, including senior Mike Lawler's RBI double.
Mitty bounced back to take third place, blanking Monta Vista 7-0. The Matadors had opened the tourney with an 8-7 win over Cupertino and a 6-3 defeat to Terra Nova.
Freshman Chad Estes had three hits, including a home run and double, and drove in three runs in the Matadors' win over Cupertino. Senior John Mardesich had two hits and two RBI for the Pioneers. Senior Nick Burrow had two hits for the Mats against Terra Nova.
Lynbrook bounced back from its first-round loss to Homestead with a 6-4 win over Prospect. Sophomores Greg Wallis and Yas Sakurai both had three hits for the Vikings, helping make a winner out of senior pitcher Adam Khan. Lynbrook dropped to 4-9 overall in its next outing, a 5-0 loss to Mitty. Khan had two hits for the Vikes.
