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Photograph by Doug Ryder
Los Gatos first baseman Jayson Furia (23) beats a Saratoga baserunner to the bag in Saturday's 9-2 Gatos victory.
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Rollins tosses Wildcats to victory
Anderson homers in win over Falcons
By Dick Sparrer
A pitcher has to have pretty good stuff for a coach to allow him to go the distance this early in the high school season.
And Alex Rollin earlier brought his good stuff when the Los Gatos baseball team traveled to Saratoga on Saturday to face the Falcons in a make-up game for a rainout earlier in the week.
Rollin threw just 91 pitches, 59 of them for strikes, in tossing a four-hitter for the Wildcats in the 9-2 win over the Falcons. The big junior right-hander struck out nine and walked just two in the win.
The win evened the Wildcats' record at 1-1 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and left them 2-3 for the year. Gatos had lost its league opener 7-3 to Wilcox on Friday.
Rollin's teammates supported his effort by blasting 13 hits, five of them for extra bases, in the win over Saratoga. It was a run-scoring double by Jayson Furia and a three-run homer by Alex Anderson that led a four-run rally in the fifth to really break the game open.
Rollin had actually run into a jam early in the game when Saratoga rallied for two runs in the second to take an early lead.
Marc Muniz opened the second with a line shot down the left field line for a double. Rollin then walked Justin Oliver on four pitches before striking out Todd Ziegler on just three pitches.
But Scott Moran shot a run-scoring double down the left field line and John Finnegan singled home a run to put the Falcons up 2-0.
The Wildcats got Rollin out of the jam by turning a double-play, second sacker Chris Eagen to Anderson to Furia.
Rollin got back on his game and ended up retiring 16 of the last 19 batters he faced, and 11 of the last 12. And the Gatos hitters went to work quickly in the top of the third to grab the lead for good.
Tyler Wilson singled up the middle to open the third and James Gentry reached on an error. An out later, Eagen walked to load the bases, and Steve Sweeney followed with a two-run double off the fence in right-center. Eagen raced home on an infield roller by Travis Howell, and the Cats had a 3-2 lead.
Gatos made it 4-2 in the fourth. Furia singled up the middle to open the frame, then took second on a wild pitch. An out later, Wilson rifled a double to center to knock in the run.
The Wildcats blew the Falcons away with the four runs in the fifth.
The inning started quietly enough when Eagen beat out an infield hit. Howell's infield single put runners on first and second. With two out, Furia doubled off of the top of the fence in right-center to knock in Eagen, then Anderson lifted a long home run over the left-center field fence.
Los Gatos added an insurance run in the seventh. Howell singled and gave way to pinch runner Ryan Daily. Daily took second on an error, moved to third on a single by pinch hitter Matt Lazares and scored on a sacrifice fly by Anderson.
Furia and Wilson each singled and doubled for the Cats in the win, and Eagen and Howell had two hits apiece. Anderson homered and finished with four runs-batted-in, and Chris Willard opened the game with a line shot double down the left-field line. Sweeney also doubled and Lazares and Kyle Schafer each singled.
Los Gatos had lost a 7-3 heartbreaker to Wilcox a day earlier.
The Cats fell behind early after the Chargers scored twice in the top of the first, but Gatos fought back with a run in the third and two more in the fifth to lead 3-2. Wilcox tied it in the top of the seventh to send the game into extra innings, then won it with a four-run rally in the eighth.
Willard and Sweeney had two hits apiece for the Wildcats, and Howell and Rollin each doubled. It was the two-run double by Rollin that gave the Cats the lead in the fifth.
The Chargers improved to 2-0 in league and to 10-0 for the year with the win. Wilcox is one of four clubs Los Gatos coach Don Ardissone figures to be in the title hunt this spring.
"We're definite contenders," said Ardissone of his Cats, who he figures will battle Wilcox, Milpitas and Gunn for the crown.
Los Gatos, coming off a 9-9 finish in the division last year and a 17-13 season overall, is led by three-year starters Eagen, Sweeney, Howell and Rollin.
Eagen, a senior second sacker, and Sweeney, a senior third baseman, are the team co-captains. First baseman Furia and shortstop Anderson round out the all-senior starting infield for the Cats. Furia is returning after being sidelined with an injury in 2001, and Anderson is a comeback starter for Gatos.
Rollin, a junior, is back on the mound for his third varsity campaign, and he's joined on the pitching staff by senior returners Anthony Frangadakis, Matt Cooke, Anderson and Sweeney. All are right-handers.
Lazares is a junior southpaw up from the frosh-soph, and Jason Livingstone is a junior right-hander moving up to the varsity this season.
Howell, another senior, is back for his third campaign as the starting varsity catcher.
Willard is a returning starter in center field with Gentry in left and Wilson in right. All three are seniors. Daily and Schafer are juniors up from the frosh-soph looking for work in the outfield.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
