Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Prospect's Brandon Gomez dives hard to his left to knock down this liner in nonleague play against Leigh.
The Panthers dropped a tough 7-4 decision to the Longhorns.

Goni tosses Falcons to win

But Saratoga still two back

By Dick Sparrer

Winning the title in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League will be no easy task for the Saratoga baseball team--at least not with the way Homestead is playing this spring.

But Saratoga certainly isn't playing like a team with no shot at a league title. In fact, quite the contrary is true.

The Falcons are rolling through the division, and added their eighth win in 10 decisions with a rousing 9-0 victory over Mountain View last week.

Saratoga's only league losses thus far this season have come at the hands of the unbeaten Mustangs, who top the circuit with a 9-0 record.

The Falcons find themselves two games back in the all-important loss column with eight games to play in the league race. Anything can happen, especially since Saratoga still has one more shot at Homestead on April 23. But time is getting short for the Falcons.

You couldn't tell that by the way Saratoga played against Mountain View, though. The Falcons destroyed the Spartans to improve to 8-2 in the division and to 10-3 for the year.

Senior Brett Vrotsos and junior Trent Frisina had two hits apiece to knock in two runs each in the Saratoga win. Junior Kota Takamoto slapped a pair of hits in the victory and junior Kyle Cardin drove in three runs. Senior Stephen Oberhauser doubled for the Falcons.

Junior pitcher David Goni picked up the win on the mound, pushing his season record to 5-1.

Saratoga returns to league action this week, hosting Gunn on April 18 at 3:30 p.m. The Falcons were to meet Santa Clara in a nonleague game on April 15.

'Toga will tangle with Homestead in a key game April 23 at 3:30 p.m. on the Saratoga diamond.

Vikes win two

Sean McCarthy put solid performances back-to-back to lead the Lynbrook Vikings to consecutive El Camino Division wins.

McCarthy tripled and singled twice to lead Lynbrook to an 8-7 win over Gunn, and he came back with a double and a single to drive in two runs in an 11-3 win over Los Altos.

Steve Winder had three hits to knock in three runs, Greg Cirimele had two hits to drive in a couple of runs and Dennis Horvath singled twice for Lynbrook against the Eagles.

Lynbrook improved to 4-7 in division play and 4-9 for the year.

Warriors top Pioneer

Vinny Perez flipped a four-hit shutout to lead Westmont to a 4-0 win over Pioneer in the Pioneer Classic last week, but the Warriors dropped two to fall short of the tourney finals.

Still, Westmont can claim bragging rights thanks to the 4-0 win over the Mustangs. Perez scattered four hits to nail the win, pushing his season record to an outstanding 8-0.

Sean Anderson led a 14-hit attack for the Warriors with a double and four singles. Perez and Mike Howard drilled two hits apiece in the win.

The Warriors gave Perez all the support he needed with a run in the first. That 1-0 lead stood up until the sixth, when the Warriors pushed across three insurance runs.

Pioneer went on to beat Silver Creek and Overfelt to earn a place in the semifinals, but Westmont lost to Silver Creek and Overfelt.

Westmont snapped a 1-1 tie with three runs in the third. The Warriors held a slim 6-5 lead after four innings, and Overfelt tied it with a run in the fifth. That's how it remained until the end of the eighth, when the Royals scored to break the tie.

Anderson tripled home a couple of runs for Westmont in the win. Perez singled and tripled. Howard ripped a double.

Westmont slipped to 9-7 for the year with the win and two losses in the tournament.

The Warriors will get back to league play this week when they visit Andrew Hill on April 17 and host Prospect on April 19 in a pair of 3:30 p.m. games.

Panthers fall

Prospect enters the game with a 3-3 league record, but the Panthers are coming off of a 7-4 nonleague loss to Leigh in play last week.

Prospect lost, but the Panthers gave the tough Longhorns all they could handle in the game played over spring break.

The Panthers went up 2-0 with a couple of runs in the second, and that's how it remained until Leigh tied it in the fifth. The Longhorns added two more in the sixth to lead 4-2, but Prospect got a run back in the bottom of the inning to trail just 4-3 heading into the seventh.

Leigh rallied for three in the top of the inning, but Prospect fought back in the bottom of the seventh only to come up two runs short.

Brandon Morgan and Matt Medlin each ripped two hits for Prospect in the loss. Bruce Morrow was tagged with a tough pitching loss.