Saratoga News
Sports
Falcons fall to Menlo in CCS semifinals
By Dick Sparrer
A berth in the Central Coast Section tennis semifinals, a trip to the CCS volleyball tournament and a division runner-up finish in baseball--all in all, it wasn't a bad week for the Saratoga Falcons.
The Saratoga boys tennis wrapped up a brilliant 19-3 season with a split last week. The Falcons blanked St. Ignatius 7-0 before losing a tough 5-2 decision to the ultimate CCS champion Menlo squad.
Jeff Gast won 6-4, 6-3 at No. 1 singles and Rohit D'Costa and Abhinav Dev pulled out an 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory at No. 1 doubles, but the Falcons lost to Menlo in the tourney semifinals. Menlo went on to defeat Bellarmine 5-2 to claim the section crown.
The Falcons had swept past SI 7-0 in the quarterfinals. Gast rolled 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1 singles and John Lamble at No. 2, Eric Gast at No. 3 and Andrew Hsieh at No. 4 also nailed singles win for Saratoga.
Dev and D'Costa posted an easy 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 1 doubles with Michael Wu and Emerson Lin at No. 2 and Jason Daniel and Michael Wyatt at No. 3 also claiming victories.
Saratoga, the No. 2 in the tournament, drew a first-round bye, then blanked Archbishop Mitty 7-0 in the second round of the tourney.
Volleyball team falls
The Saratoga boys volleyball team earned a CCS spot after a solid fourth-place showing in the rugged Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, but the Falcons lost 25-11, 25-14, 25-19 to St. Francis in the first round.
Junior Doug Sabella led the locals with eight kills and junior Kent Johnson had three kills, two service aces, two blocks and eight assists. Mike Vetrone, another junior, supported with three kills and a team-high 11 assists.
It was Saratoga's first trip to CCS since 2001, but the Falcons expect to return in a hurry since they lose only senior Ammar Kothari from this year's solid club.
Along with Sabella, Johnson and Vetrone, head coach Brad Frederickson's Saratoga roster features juniors Jason Chun, Andy Coles, Mike Hutchins and Andy Capek and sophomores Kevin Fongson and Shawyon Malek.
Falcons finish strong
Saratoga split with Fremont in the final week of the El Camino Division baseball season to put a lock on a second-place in the circuit.
Homestead won the division title with a 13-2 record and Saratoga finished three games back at 10-5. But the Falcons came up just a few points from clinching a CCS berth with Homestead picked up the division's automatic berth.
Myles Hornberger went the distance to flip a 6-hitter to lead the Falcons to a 4-2 win over Fremont on the final day of the season.
Sean Casserly and Tommy Christian each homered for Saratoga in the win over the Firebirds. Christian also doubled for the Falcons, who improved to 15-9 for the year with the victory.
Saratoga had lost 8-4 to the Firebirds earlier in the week, despite getting a run-scoring double from Bennett Rothenberg.
In hopes of earning enough points to win a playoff spot, the Falcons scheduled a non-league game with St. Thomas More last week, and they beat the Private Schools League champion 9-4 thanks to a big day by Kevin Sieczkarek.
Sieczkarek was the winning pitcher, pushing his record to 2-1, and he also helped his cause at the plate with a single and a double.
Falcons win two
The Saratoga girls softball team finished the regular season in fine fashion with a pair of wins to wrap up a .500 season in league play and a winning record overall.
The Falcons topped Los Altos 8-3 and edged Gunn 5-4 to push their record to 6-6 in the El Camino Division and to 9-7 for the year.
The Falcons scored a single run in the bottom of the fifth to tie Gunn 4-4, then scored again in the sixth to take a 5-4 lead. Hurler Lisa Brenner held the Titans scoreless in the seventh to clinch the win for Saratoga.
Brenner, 9-6 for the year, struck out seven and walked just one as she flipped an 8-hitter for the Falcons. She also helped her cause at the plate with a couple of singles and two stolen bases.
Erica Baba ripped two hits for the Falcons and Cathryn Paolini doubled and knocked in two runs. Victoria Azzi doubled and stole a base. Jacqueline Gragnola singled and drove in a run, Nicole Gragnola and Adriana Pak each singled and Laura Ruddy plated a run with a sacrifice fly.
Brenner fired a 4-hitter and struck out eight in the 8-3 win over Los Altos to open the week.
The Eagles scored two in the first and led 2-0 most of the way, but Saratoga unloaded for six runs in the fifth and cruised from there to the win.
Azzi had a big day with a single, a triple, three runs-batted-in, two runs scored and a stolen base. Brenner had two hits, two steals, two runs scored and an RBI, and Paolini had a couple of hits, a steal and scored a run. Laura Ruddy had two hits and a steal and Lisa Ruddy singled in a run and stole a base. Baba and Stephanie Douglass also had hits for the Falcons.
CCS swimming
Stanford University long has been known for the talented people that go through its various educational programs. And there will be quite a pool of talent assembled on May 18-19 at Stanford University's Avery Aquatics Center--a swimming pool filled with talented high school boys and girls--for the CCS swimming and diving championships.
Swimming preliminaries begin on Friday at 11 a.m. and final races are set for Saturday at 1 p.m. Girls diving competition from the 1-meter board begins Saturday at 8:30 a.m. The boys' event will begin 1 1/2 hours after the conclusion of the girls contest.
Among the contenders from local high schools will be Monta Vista sophomore Megan Fisher-Colbrie and Lynbrook senior Brandt Robinson, both who won gold medals at last year's championships.
Robinson, who won the boys 50-yard freestyle as a junior, enters the weekend with the second best 100 free time (47.80) in the CCS, trailing just Taylor Smith of Bellarmine. Robinson also is a part of Lynbrook's medley relay and 400 free relay units that rank among the top five in the section.
Fisher-Colbrie made a splash last May as a freshman, winning the 100 butterfly. She enters this weekend's competition with the section's best time (57.35) in the event, just ahead of Saratoga junior Hayes Hyde (57.92), and the fourth best in the 200 individual medley.
Other local boys, who rank among the section's best and likely will challenge for medals are Monta Vista junior Arthur Lam in the 200 and 500 free, Saratoga sophomore Ben Hinshaw (200 IM, 500), Homestead sophomore Paul Kim (200 IM, 100 free) and junior teammate Geovid Kali (50 free).
Girls contenders include freshmen Stephanie Nguyen (100 back) of Lynbrook, Jesse Bergman (100 free) of Homestead and Chelsea Fong (50, 100 free) and Audrey Kwong (200, 500) of Monta Vista and sophomore Emma Drysdale (50, 100 free) of Monta Vista.
Mike Barnhart contributed to this story.
