Saratoga News
Sports
Central Coast lumbers to 3rd in wood bat tourney
By Kevin Sparrer
Some people think that baseball is baseball, but even a simple change can make a difference--a simple change, like a wooden bat.
The Central Coast Baseball 15/16-year-old team recently took part in the Academy Wood Bat Championship Tournament in San Diego and came home with a third-place finish.
In its last game of the tournament on July 22, CCB fell to the ABD Bulldogs 8-1 with Kyle Johnson of Los Gatos knocking a single, Jason Shepardson of Los Gatos driving in the only run and Zach Settles of Santa Cruz striking out three in his four innings on the mound.
On July 21, CCB defeated the ABD Boxers 10-2. The game went only five innings before it was called. CCB's big inning came in the bottom of the fourth when Travis Bonner of Los Gatos led off with a single. Joey Avery of Saratoga followed with a walk, and Devon Coen from Los Gatos singled to drive in one. Josh Yun, from Los Gatos, was hit by a pitch to load the bases before Johnson hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the second run of the inning.
Shepardson walked to load the bases again before Kevin Hatch, from Santa Cruz, belted a bases clearing triple. Patrick Moniz from Campbell was struck by a pitch before Mikey Denevi drew a walk. Settles then knocked a double, driving in another run before the inning ended.
In the bottom of the third, Denevi drove in a run with a single, and in the bottom of the second Settles singled, Bonner smacked a double to put two runners in scoring position and Coen delivered a base hit that scored one.
In the bottom of the first, Johnson singled and scored when Hatch grounded out. Moniz singled, but was left on base.
Shepardson threw five innings, allowed no hits and struck out four.
On July 20 CCB downed the Boxers 10-9 with the big inning coming again in the bottom of the fourth. Coen singled, Darius McClelland drew a walk and Yun was hit by a pitch. Alex Silva, from Los Gatos, hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Coen. Shepardson drew a walk with the bases loaded to score another run before Yun stole home for the third run of the inning.
Johnson was the big hitter of the day, knocking a triple, a double and a single, and driving in four runs. Moniz and Coen each had a pair of singles. McClelland singled, drove in a run and threw three innings, striking out one. Sean Harrington of Los Gatos spent one inning on the mound and struck out one. Settles singled and drove in one, Bonner and Hatch each singled and both Silva and Shepardson drove in runs.
CCB fell to ABD Bulldogs 12-2 on July 19 with Shepardson knocking a hit and driving in both runs. Moniz, Bonner and Avery each singled.
Earlier in the day, CCB also dropped a game 10-3 to the San Diego Wildcats with Settles knocking a hit and driving in a run. Denevi and Moniz both singled. Avery also had a hit and spent three innings on the mound, striking out one. Harrington also struck out one in two innings.
The first win of the tournament came over IBAC 6-2 on July 18. Shepardson was on the mound for five innings, striking out six. He also helped himself with a double and an RBI. Moniz had the rest of the duty on the mound for two innings, striking out four. Moniz had a single in the win. Johnson smacked a pair of hits and drove in one, Hatch had two hits and drove in two and Avery, Yun and Silva each had two hits in the win. Denevi also drove in a run.
