Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

Nado Natterings
by David Axelson, Chief Executive Officer
The Islander Sports Foundation

11 April 2007 Issue #14

The CHS Baseball and Softball Teams take a somewhat unusual annual approach to their game scheduling through spring break. Unlike their confederates in the other Coronado High School sports programs, most of which don’t practice or play over the break, both baseball and softball play in tournaments over the holiday.

The CHS Baseball Team annually competes in the Lions Club Tournament, now billed as the largest high school baseball tournament in the nation, having just completed its 57^th year of play. The field, now 118 teams deep, is divided into eight divisions, with play spread all over San Diego County. As the CHS baseball program has improved over the years, they have worked their way up the competitive ladder, playing in the 5A Division in 2007.

Entering the tournament, which due to pool play and a double-header playoff format severely tests a team’s pitching staff, Islander Head Coach Sam Ceci thought he had the mound staff depth to compete in the event. He proved to be correct. An added benefit was that due to their superior playing facilities, Coronado hosted all five of their tournament games at Islander Field at Bayside Park.

Monday San Pasqual provided the opposition and Coronado prevailed 2-1. The Islanders received a large boost from junior pitcher Tim Leary, who scattered five hits and allowed one earned run over six innings. Josh Fink pitched a scoreless seventh inning and earned the save.

Not wanting to spoil the suspense, but for the season in five games totalling 15.2 innings pitched, Leary now has a fine earned run average of 2.23 to his credit. Let’s not forget his won-loss record, which is 3-0.

Coronado could only amass four hits in the game, with one each coming from the bats of Leary, Danny Cepin, Benson Lorden and Tucker Johnson. Cepin and Johnson accounted for the two runs scored.

The following day, the Brighton, Utah club arrived at Coronado. The Islanders responded by playing their worst game of the week against their pool’s weakest team. The Islanders fell 11-3 in a contest Ceci would describe as “a bust from start to finish.” Coronado went with a pitching rotation by committee, with a quartet of hurlers yielding nine earned runs. But no single Islander hurler pitched for more than 2.2 innings, which allowed Ceci to save his pitchers’ arms for later in the week. It was a move that would pay dividends two days later.

Perhaps the lone bright spot in the Brighton game was the return to form by previously injured third baseman Jake McMahon. The junior, who was a sparkplug on last season’s CIF Division IV title team, had been nursing an arm injury for the non-conference portion of the season. McMahon showed there was nothing wrong with his bat, collecting two hits and scoring once.

Next up was Sahuaro, Arizona and Coronado prevailed 12-8. The Islanders 13-hit attack outweighed their six error effort in the field. Leary, who often plays first base when he is not pitching, supplied an impressive level of offensive production, including a double and a triple; he drew two walks; scored twice; and drove in six runs.

“He’s something to behold,” said Ceci of the 6-foot, 5-inch 235-pound Leary, who trods the turf in the fall as a lineman for the Islander football team. “He has a beautiful and very powerful swing. Last year on the JV, he led them in hitting and did some decent pitching. He’s a big, strong kid who throws reasonably hard. This season he has been much more of a (pleasant) surprise on the mound than at the plate. He is more consistent (pitching) than anyone else we’ve got.” Reflecting his fine play in the Lions Tournament, Leary was named the 5A Division’s Most Valuable Player.

With the 12-run outburst against Sahuaro, there were several Islander hitting stars in addition to Leary. Kyle Pokorny was 3-4 with two runs scored and two runs driven in; Keith Englehart, now hitting in the leadoff slot for Coronado scored three runs; and Cepin was 2-5 with two RBIs and a run scored. Pokorny, the Islanders’ starting pitcher, earned the victory and Fink again picked up the save.

The Sahuaro game was critically important for the Islanders, as they were able to squeak through pool play with the victory and emerge into the playoff doubleheader that followed Thursday. First on deck was Carlsbad, a team about which Ceci charitably said “They showed up not expecting to see us. We gave up a grand slam in the first inning and went down 4-0. Then they coughed up the ball a couple of times and it worked out real well.” ‘Real well’ can be defined as a 5-4 nine-inning victory by the Islanders, which advanced Coronado into the 5A title game.

Despite the relatively low score, the Islanders pounded out 14 hits, with Englehart and Cepin both going 3-5; Leary was in the designated hitter role this game and went 2-4; and Chas Marks also went 2-4. After being touched up for the grand slam in the first frame, Islander hurler Benson Lorden pitched 2.2 innings of shutout ball; Johnson yielded only one hit and no runs in 3.1 innings and Bryan Crabb pitched two innings of scoreless relief to earn the victory.

That victory was followed by the 5A title game and featured a visit from the Oceanside Pirates. This contest allowed sophomore hurler Kyle Couture an opportunity to shine. In 5.1 innings pitched, Couture spun a pitching gem, allowing only two hits during his shutout stint. Couture had a no-hitter going through four innings.

Pokorny then took the mound after Couture felt a twinge in his arm in the sixth inning. Pokorny allowed only one base runner over the final 1.2 innings. The combo shutout by Couture and Pokorny powered Coronado to a 4-0 win and the 5A Division title.

Englehart, Leary and Cepin supplied the RBIs, while Englehart, Pokorny, Leary and Alex Rowan scored the runs. Pokorny and Johnson both had two-hit games.

Rowan performed yeoman-like duty for the Islanders during the tournament, catching both ends of the playoff doubleheader. “Alex did well,” said Ceci of the rangy junior, “Fundamentally he is one of our better hitters, but he’s not having any luck with the bat. He’s hitting the ball hard, but right at somebody. We keep hoping he will get hot.”

The return to the lineup by McMahon at third base has allowed Ceci some flexibility with his defensive infield. Mason Mills now plays shortstop, while Pokorny, ‘New York’ Alex Cardello and Johnson, share time at second base. Johnson, Couture and Leary in some combination share first base responsibilities.

For the season, Leary is hitting .488; Englehart .422 and Pokorny .419. Leary is the team leader in RBIs with 17, while Cepin and Mills are tied for second with 10 RBIs each. Cepin has also stolen 16 bases in 18 attempts. On the pitching front, Fink leads the club with a 1.37 ERA, followed by Lorden at 2.19 and Leary at 2.23. Fink also has three saves to his credit and leads the Islanders with 18 strikeouts to 17 for Johnson.

By compiling a 4-1 Lions Club Tournament record last week, the Islanders now stand at 14-2, which Ceci described as “Better than expected, that’s for sure. Actually we stumbled along the way, but we never gave up, which was a credit to the kids. It was a real team effort this whole week. The guys picked each other up. Things seemed to work our way in the tournament. We have never played the likes of Carlsbad and Oceanside before. The fact that we played all of these games at home proved to be a big asset for us. We’re 14-2 and loving every minute of it. We start all over in the Western League this week.”

The amazing depth of talent in the Western League was reflected in the results of the Lions Tournament as all seven teams competed in the event, with six of the seven teams reaching the semi-finals in their division. “The only team that didn’t make it was the best team in the league, which is University City,” said Ceci. “Four of the teams won their respective divisions and one (Point Loma) beat another (La Jolla) to win their title. That’s a credit to the strength of the Western League.”

Mission Bay, a perennial South Bay powerhouse, won the Premier Division of the tournament, defeating Rancho Buena Vista in the final. So, of course the Islanders first Western League outing of the season will be against a hot Mission Bay club.

During the 2007 Western League season, the teams will play each other back-to-back, rather than cycle once through the league before flipping the schedule for the second time through. As an example, Mission Bay travels to Coronado Tuesday for a game, and Coronado will play at Mission Bay Thursday. This scheduling concept is designed to better reflect the overall strength of a squad, especially in the all-important area of pitching depth.

Tuesday’s game is slated for a 3:30 pm start, while Thursday’s game at Mission Bay will have a first pitch of 3 pm.

CHS Softball Squad Performs Well In Busy Week

The Islander Softball Team, under the direction of Head Coach Marti Bonelli, didn’t let any grass grow under their feet over spring break either, competing in the La Jolla Country Day Tournament. “We wanted to play the tournament to gain more experience, have some fun and keep improving our play and understanding of the game of fast pitch softball,” Bonelli said. “We met each and every one of those goals.”

The Islander softball odyssey started with a 4-3 victory over Saddleback High School, which was abbreviated to 5 innings, as the 90-minute game limit had been reached. “We had very evenly-matched teams and very young squads,” said Bonelli. “Freshman Briana Feist gained the win by pitching a very solid game, allowing only three hits, two walks and one earned run.”

A successful softball team relies on a succession of slap hits and singles, as opposed to the power game often found in baseball. Bonelli described how the Islanders generated their runs. “The offense for Coronado was classic fast pitch as we struck for two runs in the third inning with four consecutive singles by Christy Mebust, Feist, Sandra Cepin and Nora Kaminski. The tying run was scored in the fourth inning when the Islanders displayed their new-found talent for the short game. Rosie Harris led off with a solid double just inside the third base line. Lauren Zeleniak placed a solid sacrifice bunt moving Harris to third. Mebust then delivered a game-tying single up the middle.”

Cepin’s third single of the game in the fifth inning led to the eventual winning run. The run scored on a chopped hit by Kelly McCray to the right side of the infield, which plated a sliding Cepin. Feist finished off the game by striking out the third and fourth hitters in the Saddleback lineup and induced a come backer from the fifth place hitter for the final out.

Game 2 was a 1-0 loss to Mountain Empire, with a fine pitching effort from Islander hurler Alexis Wright, who struck out seven Redhawk hitters and allowed only four hits. Coronado could account for only three hits of their own, all singles from Shannon Julian, Harris and Mebust. Bonelli summarized the effort saying, “The girls are starting to understand the importance of each and every pitch, each and every play, and each and every run. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t score, but it was still a game where we competed very hard, and just came up a bit short.”

The third tourney game was a Coronado blowout, as the Islanders defeated Julian 13-1. Highlights for Coronado included 16 hits, with Mebust, Feist, and Cepin having three each, with Harris and Julius adding two base knocks each. Cepin pitched the entire game and gave up one hit, while striking out eight.

“The game was fun for the parents and fans who enjoyed offense,” Bonelli added. “But it did not prepare the Islanders for the next game. It is very difficult to go from a weak team to a very, very good team.”

With that bit of foreshadowing, you can tell that Coronado fell in their tournament finale to Horizon by the score of 9-1. The Islanders gave up six unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth. Feist took the loss, but according to Bonelli, she pitched well. “While it is painful to absorb a loss like that, it was important for us to play a quality team to end our spring break tournament. Seeing good plays by opposing players is useful in that we learn much more quickly. Feeling the sting from making poor plays provides valuable motivation to work harder.”

This week the Islanders play Tuesday at Cathedral Catholic at 3 pm and Thursday the Islanders host Mission Bay at Coronado at 3:30pm.

Track and Field News

In an abbreviated schedule last week, Track and Field Head Coach George Green took two of his star athletes Sarah Player and Kyle Brown to compete in the Arcadia Invitational. By competing in the event, Player now holds the county-best time in the 300-meter hurdles so far this year, with an early-season effort of 45.43. That time is only .06 seconds off of her CHS school record time of 45.37 set last year in the CIF finals. Player also was named one of “The San Diego Union-Tribune’s” Athletes of the Week last week for her performance in the Runge Invitational Meet held at Patrick Henry High School.

According to Green, Brown’s timing was off a tad in both the long jump and triple jump events, but was still able to post a long jump of 21 feet and a triple jump of 43-feet, 11-inches. Brown has established a friendly rivalry with Hoover’s Gary Lee, a state-level competitor in both jump events. “They see each other at every meet and there’s a lot of good-natured heckling,” said Green. Lee, like Brown, is also a standout football player.

Natterings

The best sports-related television show no one is apparently viewing is “Friday Night Lights.” Set in a small Texas town, it is about high school football and much more. The season finale is Wednesday night, so tune in if you can… For those of you who don’t think there is any defense played in the National Basketball Association, I would direct you to the April 10, 2007 issue of “Sports Illustrated.” Starting on page 51, there is a learned discussion of the extensive defensive preparations taken by the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns prior to their recent game… From the Department of Redundancy Department, an article in the April 6, 2007 edition of “The Los Angeles Times,” addresses the out-of-control ego of San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds. No new ground was covered, but a lot of history was re-hashed… As a former talent-challenged age group swimmer, the recent aquatics achievements by Michael Phelps in the World Championships were greatly appreciated. Phelps won seven gold medals and set five world records during the meet. But perhaps the most result was his three-second victory in the 200-meter butterfly, roughly equivalent to winning a professional soccer game by the score of 15-0. Here’s hoping Phelps stays injury-free and motivated through the 2008 Olympic Games.