Saratoga's Brady Moran trots home behind Erick Raich after blasting a home run in his club's 14-1 league win over Lynbrook last week.

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Westmont wins two straight

Falcons beat Vikes, lose to Bruins

By Dick Sparrer

The season didn't start out great for the Westmont baseball team. The Warriors were blanked 8-0 by Del Mar in the first game of the league campaign in the tough Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

But those Warriors have more than made up for that slow start by recording back-to-back victories that have pushed them hot into the race for first place in the division. Westmont rebounded from the loss to the Dons with an 8-2 victory over Santa Teresa, then the Warriors whitewashed Pioneer 6-0 last Friday.

Del Mar tops the standings with a 3-1 record, but the Warriors are tied for second with Oak Grove and Valley Christian, all three clubs a half game back at 2-1.

And the tight race comes as no surprise to Westmont coach Jason Miller. "Everybody can beat everybody," explained Miller. "It should be a pretty even league this year."

"If our pitching comes through, and if we hit the ball and make the plays, we could be right up there," added Miller.

All of the three came together for Westmont last Friday afternoon at Pioneer. The Warriors whipped the Mustangs to nail their second straight league win.

Freshman Reed Dickert was impressive for five innings on his way to a Friday victory over the Mustangs. Dickert gave up a soft single to left to open the game, but he blanked Pioneer on no more hits until giving way to reliever Tim Wilson in the fifth.

Dickert, Wilson and Blake Barr combined to toss a 2-hit shutout for the win. In the meantime, Mike Cifelli was providing all the offense his club would need.

Tony LaVista singled up the middle to open the second inning, and Kyle Collins followed with a single to center. An out later, Cifelli blasted a long three-run homer over the left-field fence to give his club a lead it would never lose.

Westmont added a couple of insurance runs in the third. Jim Brown walked, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch before Seth Zajac walked. LaVista's fly ball to center fell for a run-scoring double, and Collins knocked in another run with a ground out to second.

The Warriors closed out the scoring in the fifth when Collins walked, took second on a passed ball, went to third on a single by Sean Felder and scored on a ground out by Cifelli.

LaVista had two hits for the Warriors and Cifelli had the homer and knocked in four runs. Felder, Collins and Adam Antolin also had hits in the win.

Saratoga splits

While Westmont was winning over in the BVAL, Saratoga was splitting a couple of decisions in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. The Falcons dropped a 4-3 heartbreaker to Santa Clara to suffer their first league loss, but they battled back to pound Lynbrook 14-1 to improve to 3-1-1 in the division and to 6-5-2 for the year.

The pitching of senior righthander Brian Cavanaugh and the power of senior slugger Brady Moran sparked the Falcons to the 11-1 win over the Vikings last week.

Cavanaugh tossed a 4-hitter for the victory, running his mound record to 3-0.

Moran singled and homered to knock in two runs for the Falcons in the win. Robin Gill had three singles and drove in a couple of runs, and Dan Morse doubled and tripled.

Ryan Bernard and Nick Blue each had a pair of hits and drove home two runs apiece for the Falcons, and Jim Heuther singled and doubled. Erick Raich added a pair of singles, and Mike Drew slapped a double for Saratoga.

The Falcons jumped out a commanding lead in the first three innings, then won the game in five on the 10-run rule. Saratoga scored three in the first, six in the second and five in the third on the way to the easy win.

Things weren't quite as easy earlier in the week. The Falcons seemed to be cruising along to another victory when Santa Clara rallied for three runs in the home half of the seventh to pull out a 4-3 win.

The Bruins went up 1-0 in the first inning, but Saratoga tied it with a run in the fourth, then took a 3-1 lead with two runs in the sixth. The Falcons took that 3-1 cushion into the bottom of the seventh, but the Bruins battled back for the win.

Jason Worden was tagged with the tough mound loss for the Falcons.

Moran singled and doubled for Saratoga in the game, and Raich and Bernard also slapped two-baggers.

Vikes win, lose, draw

It was a strange week for the Lynbrook baseball team. The Vikings beat Santa Clara 9-2, lost 11-1 to Saratoga and fought Mountain View to a 5-5 tie in a game halted by darkness.

The even split left the Vikings 2-3-1 in the El Camino Division and 3-4-1 for the season, a record that doesn't come as a big surprise to Lynbrook head coach Brian Stuckey.

"If we execute, we could be good (this year)," said the coach. "If not, we could struggle."

The Vikings certainly executed against Santa Clara. Lynbrook committed just two errors and belted eight hits on the road to the lopsided win.

But the Vikes made four errors in the tie with Mountain View, and made five errors and could manage just four hits in the loss to Saratoga.

Colby Smith's triple led the four-hit attack against the Falcons.

"We have a good team speed, and we'll rely on good pitching and defense to make us competitive," added Stuckey.

Lynbrook used all of the above to roll to the win over Santa Clara last Saturday.

Kenny Ewbank blasted a home run and Matt Fratus doubled twice to lead the Vikings to the win over the Bruins.

Richard Shen singled and doubled to knock in a pair of runs for the Vikes. Nick Townzen had two hits, and Chris Geren drove in a couple of runs in the win.

Big 6-foot-1 senior Ryan Quadro was the winning pitcher for the Vikings, who allowed just two Santa Clara hits in the game.

The win was the first of the week for the Vikings, who had lost to Saratoga two days earlier and tied Mountain View on Tuesday.

Geren doubled twice, and Ewbank singled and doubled to knock in two runs against the Spartans. Robert Lee also doubled for the Vikings.

Ewbank is a top returner for Lynbrook this spring. The senior three-sport star joins the baseball team after successful football and basketball seasons for the Vikings.

Shen, Lynbrook's junior shortstop, returns to the diamond this spring after winning all-league honors as a sophomore.

Quadro, Townzen, Jim Stamper and Chris Courtney are other varsity returners for the Vikes. Quadro and Courtney are seniors who provide Lynbrook's one-two pitching punch, and Townzen is the club's senior catcher. Stamper is a senior outfielder for the Vikings.

Lee and Fratus are juniors joining the varsity after all-league frosh-soph seasons, and Brian White and Geren are other top prospects moving up the big club this season.

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