On Thurs. Feb. 28, the Aragon Dons varsity baseball team shut out Mills in a 6-0 win. This win kept the Dons undefeated at 3-0, although all of their games thus far have been non-league.
Junior Chris Davis was the starting pitcher against Mills, and he struck out five batters in just three innings. Davis got into a one out, bases loaded jam in the first inning, but after a mound visit from Head Coach Lenny Souza, Davis struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
Souza says, “I wanted [Davis] to simplify things and make an adjustment. Obviously he’s more than capable of getting it done out there.”
Davis’ three shutout innings were followed by two perfect innings from junior Steven Hughes and two scoreless innings from senior Aldo Severson. Hughes and Severson combined to throw seven strikeouts.
The Dons’ bats were led by junior Brennan Carey’s 2-2 day. He drove in two runs and stole two bases as well. Senior Connor Ching was frequently on base as well, with two walks, a single, and two steals.
Says Ching, “Our pitchers threw a lot of strikes, and our batters were tracking the ball well. We put the stuff we worked on in practice to use, like working on using both sides of the field and taking good approaches at the plate.”
The team stole five bases throughout the game, while Mills stole none. Davis says, “Aggressive base running should be a normal thing going forward.”
Souza agrees saying, “We will [keep pressuring] every game, day in and day out. Unless people stop us, we’ll keep it up.”
In addition to their aggressiveness on the base paths, the Dons are planning on keeping up their good pitching as well. Davis says, “We’ve got great pitching. Our staff is very deep, and that will be an advantage to us as the season goes on.”
The team’s schedule generally becomes much tougher as the season progresses. After going 16-11 (10-4 PAL) in the Ocean Division last year, they have moved up to the Bay Division for this season.
Souza says, “We are the toughest team in the division. Nobody will beat us. If we lose, it’s because we will have beaten ourselves. We are capable of beating any team on our schedule.”
Adds Souza, “Our goal is a league title and to get into the Central Coast Sections (CCS) and do some damage.”
Moving forward, Souza says, “We can get our fielding percentage up. We are a little young. The fact that we don’t have an old, deep senior class might hurt us later on.”
Despite the excellent pitching from the Dons, Davis says, “We still need to work on our pitching because we will be facing better hitting teams later on.”
Ching thinks that the team is making good progress. He says, “We’re getting there. We just got some players back from basketball and soccer, and our pitchers are still getting stronger.”
“We have a 14-15 man junior class, and our roster was not nearly as big last year,” says Souza.
Ching sees the depth as a very positive thing and adds, “We have players that can play many positions, so we can fill any spot.”
But the entire team still has a similar goal. Junior and infielder Victor Elmashni says, “This season, it’s CCS or bust.”
The next home game is on Monday, March 11 against Sacred Heart Cathedral at 3:15 p.m.
