Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Prospect southpaw Brent Maselli was the winning pitcher in last week's 12-6 nonleague win over Homestead.
Haynes tosses Westmont to win
Prospect fights back with win over Mustangs
By Dick Sparrer
It didn't help either club in their league races, but both the Westmont and Prospect baseball teams took advantage of spring break to bring home victories in nonleague games last week.
Westmont actually won its game at the expense of Prospect. The Warriors pulled out a 4-1 win over the Panthers early in the week before getting a Friday game against Saratoga washed away by April showers.
Prospect battled back from that Tuesday loss to Westmont to pound Homestead 12-6 on Wednesday.
Westmont and Prospect will return to their league schedules this week, but with very different goals.
Westmont heads into the final leg of the year with a shot at the championship in the Mount Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. The Warriors are 8-5 in league play and trail division co-leaders Valley Christian (10-3) and Leigh (9-3) by just two games in the loss column with five games left to play.
Westmont remains a game up on Santa Teresa (6-6) and two games up on Oak Grove (5-7) in the race for a Central Coast Section playoff berth.
Over in the Santa Teresa Division, Prospect enters the final round of league play with an outside shot at second place and a place in the CCS playoffs.
Willow Glen is 11-1 and running away with the division championship. Pioneer is second at 8-5, just a half game up on Piedmont Hills (7-5). And sitting a couple of games back are the Panthers, who at 6-7 need a few wins and some help from the other clubs in the division to wind up in second place.
Westmont pushed its season record to a solid 13-8 with the 4-1 win over Prospect during spring break.
Junior right-hander Mike Haynes went the distance to toss a four-hitter in the win over the Panthers. Haynes was touched for just an unearned run in the fifth and had superb control, walking no one in the game. The hurler pushed his season record to 5-4 with the win.
Senior slugger Bill Stouffer and sophomore Mike Gorski each singled twice, and senior Chris Snyder drove in two runs to lead the Warriors to the win.
Curtis Wills singled and doubled to account for half of Prospect's hits, and he was stung with the tough pitching loss.
Westmont took the lead with a run in the third, then took control of the game with a three-run rally in the top of the fifth.
The Warriors get back into league action this week with two big games. They host Valley Christian on April 25, 3:30 p.m., then visit Leigh on April 27, 3:30 p.m.
Panthers win
Prospect came charging back a day after the loss to Westmont with a 12-6 win over Homestead.
The Panthers, now 8-11 for the year, found themselves in a slugfest in the early innings, but they blanked the Mustangs over the final four frames while picking up four runs to clinch the win.
Lefty Brent Maselli was the winning pitcher for the Panthers. He evened his season record at 1-1 with the win. Andrew Meade came on in relief to pick up his second save of the year.
Kyle Bonvechio doubled twice and singled to knock in four runs for the Panthers, and Wills singled and doubled to drive in four more.
Meade and Nick O'Hara supported with two hits apiece, Kevin McPeck clubbed a triple and Ivan McVay doubled in the win.
Prospect scored a run in the first to take the lead, but the Mustangs picked up three in the bottom of the first to go up 3-1.
The Panthers added a run in the second, then unloaded for six in the third to lead 8-3.
But Homestead was determined to make a game of it. The Mustangs responded with three in the home half of the third to cut the gap to 8-6. The Panthers took over from there, though, adding three runs in the fifth and one in the sixth while blanking Homestead the rest of the way.
Saratoga's Todd Ziegler sprints through the bag at first in action against Los Gatos earlier this year. The Falcons lost this one to the Wildcats, and lost a cliffhanger to Gunn last week.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Falcons fall
Saratoga, meanwhile, slipped to 4-8 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League after a tough 5-4 loss to second-place Gunn.
The Falcons gave the Titans all they could handle before dropping the disappointing one-run decision.
Gunn blanked Saratoga through six innings, and the Titans rallied for three in the fourth to take a 3-0 lead. But the Falcons unloaded for four runs in the top of the seventh to go in front 4-3 heading into bottom of the frame.
Gunn scored two in the last of the seventh, though, to pull out the 5-4 win and push its record to 9-2 in league.
Sophomore Brett Behnke was tagged with the tough pitching loss.
The loss left the Falcons 4-8 and two 2 1/2 games behind Los Gatos and Cupertino in the fight for a top-three finish in the division and an automatic CCS playoff berth.
Wilcox is running away in the division at 12-0 and Gunn is second at 9-2. Gatos and Cupertino share third with 5-6 records, and Saratoga and Milpitas are tied for fifth with matching 4-8 records.
The Falcons are 7-13 overall this year. They knocked off Independence 4-2 in a nonleague game over spring break.
Junior Andy Swanson singled and doubled, and junior Scott Moran ripped a two-bagger to lead a five-hit attack for Saratoga. Justin Oliver, another junior, tossed a four-hitter for the win, giving up just a couple of single runs in the fourth and fifth. Oliver evened his record at 3-3 with the win.
Saratoga took the early lead with a run in the first, then took command with a three-run rally in the third.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
