Homestead senior Nick Miluso keeps the volleyball alive in last week's 15-7, 15-4, 15-6 win over Fremont. Homestead also knocked off Wilcox last week to improve to 8-1 in league play.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
McKim tosses Homestead to win
Mustangs nail two volleyball wins
By Dick Sparrer
It could be tough to catch Palo Alto in the race for the baseball title in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League (SCVAL) this spring ... but Homestead is giving it a shot.
The Mustangs rolled to a 5-1 win over Los Altos to improve to 7-4 in division play. That's good for second place in the circuit, but still leaves Homestead 3 1/2 games behind Paly (10-0) in the race for the crown.
The El Camino teams are heading down the homestretch in the league campaign, and the Mustangs are running out of time in their effort to catch the Vikings.
Still, the Mustangs pulled out a clutch win over Los Altos last week. Chris McKim went the distance to toss a two-hitter to lead Homestead to the 5-1 win over the Eagles.
Brian Maihack singled and doubled in the Homestead win and Brandon Dougherty and Brad McGee added two hits apiece. Bryan Silverman also doubled for the Mustangs.
Homestead provided McKim all he needed with two runs in the second. The Mustangs added two more runs in the fifth and one in the seventh on the way to the victory.
McKim blanked the Eagles over the first five frames before Los Altos finally scored a single run in the sixth.
Homestead improved to 13-7 for the year with the win.
The same day the Mustangs were beating Los Altos, Palo Alto was pulling out a tight 2-1 win over Monta Vista to improve to 10-0 in the division. The Matadors slipped to 0-10 in El Camino play.
Each team scored in the first, but Paly added a run in the sixth to break the 1-1 tie and pull out the victory.
Palo Alto also won by forfeit over Lynbrook last week.
In the De Anza Division of the SCVAL, Wilcox moved to 10-0 with a pair of wins last week. The Chargers crushed Cupertino 19-2 and whipped Fremont 11-3.
Wilcox appears to be running away from the pack with the 10-0 league record, so the race is on for second. Gunn currently holds the No. 2 spot with a 7-4 league record, and Los Gatos is a half game back at 6-4. Cupertino (5-5), Fremont (4-7), Saratoga (3-6) and Milpitas (0-10) round out the standings.
Andrew Ravadge and Kyle Haberman each doubled, but Cupertino lost the 19-2 decision to the Chargers.
The Pioneers had nailed a big 8-3 win over Gunn earlier in the week. Haberman was the winning pitcher, pushing his record to 5-2, and Ravadge blasted a home run to lead Cupertino past the Titans.
Ravadge finished the day with four hits to knock in four runs for the Pioneers, and Brian Kettner had three hits.
Fremont split a pair of De Anza games last week. The Firebirds lost 11-3 to Wilcox, but came back with a 6-1 win over Milpitas.
The Firebirds actually jumped out in front of the Chargers with two runs in the top of the first, but Wilcox came back with eight in the home half of the first and rolled from there to the 11-3 win.
Fremont had a better day Friday in a 6-1 win over Milpitas.
Junior Tyler Duran blasted a home run and knocked in four runs to lead the Firebirds past the Trojans.
Kyle Severns had two hits for Fremont and Vince Klumper was the winning pitcher, pushing his season mound record to 2-0.
Fremont scored a run in the first and rode that 1-0 lead until the fourth, when the Firebirds broke the game open with a five-run rally.
Fremont, 8-13-1 for the year, takes a break from league play this week, but the Firebirds will visit Menlo School for a non-league game on April 17, 3:30 p.m.
Mustangs win
Seniors Armen Ekmekji and Josh Cavin sparked the Homestead boys volleyball team to back-to-back wins last week in SCVAL play.
Ekmekji hammered down 14 kills to lead the Mustangs to a 15-7, 15-4, 15-6 win over Fremont. Homestead improved to 8-1 in league play and 15-3 for the year with the win.
Earlier in the week, Cavin drilled eight kills in Homestead's 15-2, 15-2, 15-3 win over Wilcox.
Fremont also nailed a win over Wilcox last week. The Firebirds, 7-3 in league play, beat the Chargers 15-7, 9-15, 13-15, 16-14, 15-11. Junior Lance Lesui, who had 13 kills against Homestead, drilled 19 kills in the win over the Chargers.
Ollila is fifth in Great Race
It was the 25th annual Great Race from Saratoga to Los Gatos, and Sunnyvale was well-represented among the division leaders when the local runners competed in the field of nearly 2,000 competitors in the April 7 event.
Eric Ollila covered the 4 miles in 20:12 to finish fifth overall and third in the men's 19-29 age group. Sue Francis ran 27:20 to finish ninth in the women's 49-49 division, Suzie Hayes ran 28:18 to nail 10th in the women's 19-29 class and Holly Summers ran 36:16 to get 10th in the girls 13-and-under division.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
