Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Saratoga junior hurler Mike Drew tossed the Falcons to a victory over Monta Vista in the final week of the regular season. Saratoga lost to Los Altos to finish 9-9 in division play.

Drew tosses Falcons to win

Westmont splits, but wins division in Santa Teresa

By Dick Sparrer

The Saratoga baseball team did Monta Vista a bit of a favor a couple of weeks back. The Falcons upset Gunn to help the Mats move into a virtual tie for first place in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

But Saratoga was doing Monta Vista no favors last week. In fact, quite the contrary was true.

The Falcons took apart the Matadors 19-1 just a day before the Mats were to face Gunn for the division championship.

Monta Vista edged Gunn 6-5 in eight innings, then beat Lynbrook 10-2 to clinch the El Camino Division championship. But Saratoga made the Mats look like anything but champs earlier in the week.

Saratoga rallied for eight runs in the first and nine more in the third on the way to a quick five-inning victory over Monta Vista.

Junior right-hander Mike Drew allowed just three hits in the short game to get the mound win. Drew ran his record to 8-4 with the victory.

Saratoga supported Drew with 16 hits in the game. Nick Blue and Brady Moran led the offensive assault with three hits apiece.

Blue singled, doubled and tripled to drive in four runs for the Falcons. Moran doubled and singled twice to knock in a couple of runs.

Andre Sorba singled and doubled to plate a pair of runs, and sophomore slugger Erick Raich also singled and doubled. Robin Gill had two hits and drove home two runs, and Ryan Bernard and Drew each doubled in a pair of runs.

Matt Joyce also doubled for Saratoga for Troy Cardin drove home two runs.

The Falcons wrapped up the season just a couple of days later with a disappointing 10-0 loss to Los Altos. Saratoga could manage just a pair of singles in the five-inning shutout.

Saratoga finished the season with a 9-9 record in the El Camino Division and a 14-13 mark overall--not a bad mark considering the fact that the Falcons have just two seniors on their varsity roster.

Head coach Rich Raich is looking forward to the future of Saratoga baseball. Only Cardin and John Unland graduate from this club which features nine juniors and sophomores E. Raich and Derek Cartmell.

Warriors win title

Westmont, meanwhile, won the championship in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League with a club that featured only three seniors.

And it was senior Ryan Hanson tossing a seven-hitter and clubbing a home run to lead the Warriors to a title-clinching 8-2 win over Independence last week.

Hanson went the distance to fire the seven-hitter, walking just one in the game. The win pushed his mound record to 9-1.

But Hanson also led the club offensively with a home and a single in the game.

Jim Brown doubled and singled twice for the Warriors in the win, and Adam Curtis, another key Westmont senior, had two hits. Tony LaVista added two hits in the win, and Seth Zajac doubled home a pair of runs.

Westmont lost 5-4 to Del Mar a couple of days later, despite a couple of singles by Brown.

The Warriors finished the regular season with a 14-4 record in the division and a 15-9 mark overall.

Panthers lose two

Prospect's season came to a disappointing close last week when the Panthers lost 3-1 to Del Mar and 8-4 to Mt. Pleasant.

Dave Hildreth and Karl Becker slapped two hits apiece, but the Panthers lost to the Dons to open the week. The Panthers could manage just six hits in the loss to the Cardinals.

Prospect ended the year 6-12 in the division.

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