Saratoga News

Sports

Photograph by Neil Waters

Saratoga's Brendan Scolari squares to bunt in a recent game against Homestead. But Scolari was swinging away against Fremont last week and ripped a solo homer.

Returners key hopes for volleyball team

By Dick Sparrer

It's not quite the start the Saratoga boys volleyball team was hoping for. But while the Falcons have lost three of their first five matches and are 2-2 in the early stages of the league season, they know all too well--it's the start, it's the finish that's important.

And with seven players back from last year's successful team, the Falcons are looking for a strong finish this season as they battled in the tough De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

Comeback starters senior Ammar Kothari and juniors Mike Vetrone, Kent Johnson, Doug Sabella and Mike Hutchins head up Saratoga's hopes for a strong season in 2007.

Vetrone, a 6-foot-1 opposite for the Falcons, buried nine kills to lead the Falcons in a tough match against title-favorite Los Gatos last week. Saratoga lost to the Wildcats, but stretched them out to four games before falling 25-22, 17-25, 25-20, 25-20.

Saratoga came back later in the week to make short work of Monta Vista, winning three straight 25-12, 25-21, 25-22 to take the match. Sabella, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, was the kill leader for the Falcons with nine.

Senior Nick Valluri, at 6-foot-3, and junior Andy Capek, 6-foot-4, give the Falcons size at middle blocker. Juniors Jason Chun and Andy Cole and sophomores Kevin Fongson and Shawyon Malek provide Saratoga with depth this spring.

The win over Monta Vista evened Saratoga's league mark at 2-2 and left the Falcons 2-3 for the year. The Falcons have just one match this week, visiting Santa Clara on March 20, 6:45 p.m., before facing a Thursday bye.

Baseball team splits

It took a while, but the Saratoga baseball team finally got first-year head coach Ray Burney his first league victory with a 5-3 win over Fremont last week.

The Falcons had opened the El Camino Division season with back-to-back losses to league favorites Homestead and Santa Clara before Myles Hornberger stepped up to stop the Saratoga skid.

Hornberger tossed a complete game, scattering seven hits and striking out 10, to lead the Falcons past the Firebirds. Hornberger ran his season mound record to 3-0 with the win.

Brendan Scolari belted a solo home run and Thomas Christian doubled and singled twice to lead the Saratoga offense in the game.

The Falcons scored three runs in the second and added two more in the third to jump out to a 5-0 lead. Hornberger blanked Fremont over five innings before getting touched for three runs in the sixth. He threw a goose egg at the Firebirds in the seventh to close out the win.

Saratoga, 1-2 in the division and 3-4 for the year, had opened the week with an 8-1 loss to Santa Clara. Bo Nielsen was the hard-luck loser on the hill when the Bruins turned a tight 2-1 game into an 8-1 win with three runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth.

The Falcons will be out to turn their win last week into a streak when they return to El Camino play this week. Saratoga visits Monta Vista on March 20 and hosts Lynbrook on March 22 in a couple of 3:30 p.m. starts.

Netters ace Cats

Abhinav Dev and Rohit D'Costa teamed for a 6-3, 7-5 win at No. 1 doubles to lead the Saratoga boys tennis team to a 6-1 win over Los Gatos last week. The victory helped the Falcons improve to 3-0 in the De Anza Division and to 7-2 for the year.

Saratoga will try to continue its winning ways this week, visiting Homestead on March 20 and hosting Mountain View on March 22 in a couple of 3:30 p.m. matches.

Golfers win opener

Michael Lai and Stephen Hoffman each finished with matching 32s to lead the Saratoga golf team to a 170-194 win over Lynbrook on the par-30 Deep Cliff Golf Course last week. The win came in the season opener for the Falcons.

Track teams win

Alex Lagemann and David Lam were double winners for the boys and Rachel Sabes and Kierston Dolbec were twin winners for the girls as the Saratoga track and field teams two-timed Santa Clara last week.

Lagemann raced to wins in the 100 in 11.3 and the 200 in 23.3 and Lam took the 110 high hurdles in 17.8 and the 300 intermediates in 45.3 to lead the Saratoga boys past the Bruins 77-50.

Michael Marshall raced to a win in the 400 in 52.3, Bradley Jacobs was first in the 3,200 in 9:58.7, Keon Ghafouri took the triple jump at 38-5 and David Pignatelli won the shot put at 39-3.5.

Sabes romped to wins in the 400 in 1:02.2 and the 200 in 27.0 and Dolbec flew to victories in the high jump at 4-8 and the triple jump at 33-7 to pace the Saratoga girls to a 70-47 win over Santa Clara.