The Sunnyvale Sun

Sports

Marshall is tabbed El Camino MVP

By Mike Barnhart

As Major League Baseball conducted its annual free agent amateur draft last week, anybody closely affiliated with Homestead's baseball team likely took a moment to ponder next year's draft. After all, that's when Evan Marshall will be eligible.

Whether he was on the mound or in the middle of the field at shortstop, the 6-foot-3 junior was the Mustangs' best player this season. In fact, combining his batting skills with his pitching prowess, Marshall arguably was one of the best in the entire Central Coast Section, if not Northern California.

Talk to coaches of Santa Clara Valley Athletic League's El Camino Division teams, though, and there will be no argument. Division coaches agreed recently that Marshall was the best in their division, and they honored him as the El Camino's Most Valuable Player.

Marshall, who led the Mustangs to a 21-9 record, the championship and a first-round victory in the CCS playoffs, already has drawn interest from several universities, including Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UC-Irvine, Pepperdine, Long Beach State, San Francisco State and Cal State Fullerton.

Marshall, who has been turning heads for three varsity seasons, batted over .500 this spring, collecting 43 hits and 31 RBIs in 85 at-bats. More than one-half of his hits were of the extra-base variety--seven home runs, 13 doubles and three triples. On the hill, Marshall sported a 10-3 record and a 1.26 earned run average, striking out 112 batters and walking just 30 along the way.

Four other Homestead players joined Marshall on the all-El Camino first team: seniors Alex Jones, Kevin Labadie and Eric Taubman and junior Rex Blodgett. The remainder of the first team included Fremont juniors Tom Lopez, Mike Appio and Kenney Pope, Saratoga standouts Bo Nielsen, Myles Hornberger and Tommy Christian, and James Driskell, Bret Hall and Curtis Camilli of Santa Clara.

Second-team selections included senior Brian Labadie of Homestead, seniors Rob Ramer and Sam Kesten of Fremont, Sean Casserly and Brendan Scolari of Saratoga, sophomores Chad Estes and Justin Rahn of Monta Vista, and Santa Clara's George Netto, Mitch O'Donnell and Morgan Yee.

Honorable mention positions went to senior Andrew Pardo and junior Anthony O'Malley of Homestead and seniors Kevin Knopf and Rob Ramirez of Fremont.

All-PSAL baseball

Seniors Daniel Clarke and Corbett Clarke, who helped The King's Academy finish second in the Private Schools Athletic League and earn a spot in the CCS Division III baseball playoffs, were selected to the All-PSAL first team.

Two other senior Knights received all-league recognition. Evan Cheney was a second-team pick and Daniel Detrinidad earned an honorable mention berth.