Admittedly 86 years is a long time to wait, but the delay only heightened the satisfaction as the Coronado High Baseball Team captured the first CIF title in the school’s history on Saturday, defeating Santa Fe Christian 4-2. That time period without a title is equivalent to the average orbit period of Haley’s Comet, plus 10 years.

The victory in the CIF Division IV title game capped an undefeated march for the team through the playoffs and allowed the Islanders to improve their overall record to 20-14 on the season. The SFC Eagles entered the title game with a record of 28-1, but couldn’t mount a sustained offensive attack against Islander ace Kevin Couture, who struck out 10 and scattered seven hits on his way to a complete-game victory.

Couture, who plans to matriculate to the University of Southern California in the fall, threw 94 pitches in the game, 72 for strikes. "It was a great performance by Kevin," said Islander Head Coach Sam Ceci, who just completed his eighth year at the helm of the Coronado program. "Kevin was very workman-like, didn’t labor at all, and didn’t press at all. He looked very comfortable and very confident. He had a great match-up with the home plate umpire. If the umpire hadn’t called the low strike, it would have changed the dynamic of the game."

There were many great stories in the championship victory, perhaps none more compelling than that of shortstop Kyle Pokorny. Three weeks ago the sophomore was dangerously ill in the hospital with an auto immune reaction to ibuprofen called Stevens Johnson’s Syndrome. Saturday Pokorny drew the start at shortstop and had two hits in three trips to the plate. He also made a nice defensive play from deep short to end the Eagles sixth inning.

"We were thrilled to have Kyle in the lineup," said Ceci, who now is 148-104 (.587) as Coronado’s head coach. "When he got ill, it was unlikely that he could contribute the rest of the season. He kept working out and got stronger every day. He had a great outing. He plugged the hole at shortstop with Kevin on the mound. Kyle was a big part of it."

Another important championship contributor was Alex Rowan, who had three singles in four at-bats, including the Islanders’ first two RBIs. Ceci has liked what he has seen from the sophomore leftfielder this season. "Alex has been a very consistent hitter for us. He is an even-keel type of hitter. He has one bad at-bat, but always balances it with one or two good ones. He had done a nice job for us."

But it wasn’t just the underclassmen that helped win the Division IV title game. Senior catcher Blake Spitzer turned in a great playoff run defensively for Coronado and scored two of the Islanders’ four runs against Santa Fe Christian. Spitzer has a fan in Ceci. "Blake does everything we ask of him. He bunts when you need him to and he catches when we need him to."

Spitzer and Couture have formed a pitcher-catcher battery since their days in Coronado Little League. Spitzer called a great game behind the plate, mixing Couture’s pitching repertoire of fastball, curve and straight change to great effect.

Another contributing senior was Michael Baker-Denson, who played a strong third base for Coronado during the playoffs. Baker-Denson made a nice back-handed stab of a line drive down the line in the second inning, which kept Eagle runners at second and third base. Couture then struck out the side and no damage was done.

The championship day dawned in an unusual fashion for the Islanders, with a 7:15 am pre-game breakfast burrito at Coronado High School, followed shortly by a trip to Casa Pokorny and a 5-minute dip in their swimming pool. Then it was on to Tony Gwynn Stadium at San Diego State University for the 10 am game.

There was a considered method to Ceci’s madness. "We wanted them to jump in the pool and get their bodies going. It made them feel better. When we have early morning games in tournaments, we don’t get it going until half way through the game. We couldn’t afford to do that Saturday.

An interesting approach to the game was taken by "The San Diego Union-Tribune," which ran an 87-word preview of the championship tilt in their Saturday editions, devoting an insultingly low total of 11 words (.126 percent) to the Islanders. Santa Fe Christian fielded a good, competitive team, but their 28-2 final record was soft, especially when compared to the Islanders protracted death march through the Western League. Coronado finished 4-8 in league play, but faced two tough opponents on average each week in the conference. Simply put, the Eagles were at a competitive disadvantage compared to the Islanders and it showed in the championship finale.

The Islanders now have a true ‘baseball program’ in the finest sense of the phrase. Their victory in the Division IV final in 2006 followed a Division III finals appearance in 2005. This marks the third consecutive season that Coronado has won at least 20 games.

Ceci knows he has the players to compete at this level for a while. "Although we are losing some of our cornerstones in Kevin Couture, Blake Spitzer and Max Weinfurtner, we have a good group of kids coming back. We’re really excited about Alex Rowan, Kyle Pokorny, Jake McMahon, Chas Marks, and Kyle Couture returning. We can bask in this victory for a little bit. It was a well-played game. It was good baseball all the way around."

What turned out to be the semi-final game was a 2-0 victory over Christian High School Tuesday in an afternoon game played at Strand Field. Highlights of the game included three sparkling defensive plays by Weinfurtner in centerfield, another by Rowan in left, inspired glove work by Baker-Denson at third and an unusual pitching rotation due to a first inning injury to Couture the Younger.

After retiring two hitters to begin the game, Couture suffered stiffness in his back and was replaced on the mound by Ryland Gill, who pitched 3.1 innings to earn the victory.

The Islanders flashed some serious leather in the second inning as Baker-Denson made a fine catch in foul territory, sliding into the screen adjacent to the third base line as he did so. Rowan followed with a great running catch in left, with his back to the infield on a ball that could easily have resulted in a triple. With a Patriot runner on third, Weinfurtner ended the inning by making a diving catch on a sinking liner in center that saved a run. In the fourth inning, Weinfurtner threw a Patriot runner out at the plate to end that inning.

Gill ran into trouble in the fifth inning, and with the bases full of Patriots, Ceci summoned Marks into the game. The first hitter he faced hit a hard line drive to Weinfurtner in center, who made a nice catch and threw his second Christian base runner of the day out at the plate. Marks struck out the final hitter of the fifth inning and then retired the final six consecutive Christian hitters in order to earn the save.

Offensively the Islanders only had four hits, with one of the biggest being a sharp two-out single by Lorden that added an important insurance run, plating Couture who had walked. Spitzer scored the other Coronado run and that was enough for the Islanders to advance to the final game.

"We’ll still play in the Western League and do the same tournaments," said Ceci as he looked ahead to 2007. "If we pick up a Division IV opponent on our schedule, it will likely be in a tournament. It might take us a little while to get started next year, but this title is something to build on."