Baseball concludes difficult season
The Aragon Varsity Baseball Team lost its final game to Hillsdale 4-0 on May 13. It was a tight game until the fourth inning. Hillsdale’s Armando Fajardo drew a walk, advancing to second base after Nick Serrata hit a single. Tyler Kelly then hit a single into right field that rolled toward the fence, allowing Fajardo to score a run, giving Hillsdale the early lead.
Hillsdale’s Scott Cecil was up to bat next, with runners on second and third base. Hillsdale coach Donohoe called for a suicide squeeze, but this failed, giving the Dons an opportunity to tag out Serrata between third and home. However, the catcher’s throw to the bag allowed Kelly, who was walking back to second, an opportunity to run to home base, setting the score to 2-0.
Hillsdale scored one run each in the fifth and sixth innings, bringing the total score to 4-0.
According to the San Mateo Daily Journal, coach Lenny Souza said, “Every game we would take one aspect of the game and just play really poorly.”
Junior Christian Larsen said, “We didn’t hit the opposing pitcher well. He had a good curveball, and we fell behind on the count. We allowed him to throw the curve ball where he wanted to, and it was very effective against us. As a result, we didn’t score any runs.”
The last two games of the season for the Dons were against Hillsdale. The first was played on home soil where the Dons suffered a loss 7-0. The final game, which was described above, took place at Hillsdale.
Overall, the season had not lived up to expectations. The Dons finished the season at 3-11-0 in league play and 9-16-2 overall, a dampening performance compared to last year’s 9-5-0 in league play and 15-11 overall.
Larsen said, “The most disappointing thing was the amount of losses we had. The teams we played were very beatable; none of the teams were so much better than us that they were untouchable. We just achieved less than we wanted.”
Senior Cris Madrigal said, “We had a few less experienced pitchers this year, since some more experienced pitchers left last year. But even though they were less experienced in the beginning of this year, they’ve been improving a lot.”
Senior Alex Venosa said, “We’ve played together before, but this year we just haven’t been as cohesive as a team. We haven’t won a lot of league games due to injuries and not having an established short stop.”
Despite the disappointments in league play, though, Larsen pointed out some highlights of the season. “We beat a number of non-league opponents, like Santa Teresa in San Jose, and Aptos down by Santa Cruz. We had a big win against Burlingame, beating them 8-0, and we also beat Sequoia 17-0.”
He hoped that next year the team could clean up their play a little bit, saying that this year’s team made quite a few small errors.
Coach Lenny Souza concluded by saying, “The whole team really earned my respect this year. They earned my respect through their hard work and dedication.”
