Whoever said “it’s lonely at the top” must not have had the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division baseball standings in mind.
That’s because after last week five of the division’s six teams were all within a game and a half of each other.
While Mountain View sat atop the group with a 4-2 record, both Monta Vista and Santa Clara, at 3-2, were only a half-game back, and Fremont, at 3-3, was just one game out of first. Even fifth place Gunn, with a 3-4 record, was only a game and a half behind the first place Spartans.
Monta Vista stayed hot on Mountain View’s heels last week with a 3-2, come-from-behind win over Santa Clara.
After spotting the Bruins a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning, the Matadors manufactured single runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings to pull out the victory, evening their overall record for the season at 7-7.
Andrew Ding went 2-for-3, knocked in one run and scored another, and Josh Huang doubled in a run–his team-high 13th RBI–to lead the Mats to their comeback win.
Ryan Granzella also went 2-for-3 and scored a run, and Jarrett James singled and scored.
Huang, a sophomore, leads Monta Vista with a .500 batting average (16-for-32) and five doubles.
With the Matadors trailing 2-1, senior Surya Kumaraguru came on in relief of Dingman and proceeded to shut out the Bruins over the final four innings on just one hit to earn his first win of the year.
Kumaraguru, who had pitched only two innings of relief previously this season, walked only one and struck out four. He has retired 18 of the 21 batters he has faced so far this year.
The Mats, who have won three games in a row since dropping a 7-4 decision to Gunn on March 22, were coming off of an impressive 6-0 non-league win over Independence, behind a dazzling pitching performance by junior Jared Slater.
Making his fourth mound start of the year, Slater silenced the Sixers’ bats on just one hit, walking three and fanning seven, to notch his third win in four decisions while lowering his earned run average to 2.75.
Granzella and Huang both doubled and singled, and drove in a run to spark the Matadors at the plate.
Matt Li, who is hitting .333 on the year, also contributed a pair of hits and scored twice, and Brendan Hughes knocked in a pair of runs with a base hit. Kumaraguru completed the Mats’ eight-hit attack with an RBI single.
The Fremont Firebirds, meanwhile, fell out of a tie for first when they were stunned 12-5 by the last place Lynbrook Vikings in the opener of a two-game series last week.
The Vikes struck for five runs in the top of the first inning and then, after Fremont had closed to within two runs by the end of the third inning, erupted for four more runs in the top of the fourth on the way to scoring a season-high 12 runs.
The Firebirds were betrayed by their defense, which committed four errors, resulting in five unearned runs.
Senior Eddie Fu, who is batting .323 on the season, spearheaded a 12-hit Lynbrook attack, driving in a season-high four runs with a triple and two singles.
Ethan Liu, who was 2-for-4, and Zack Bowyer both knocked in a pair of runs, and Andrew Destin singled twice and scored twice.
Chipping in with one hit each were Martin Thurman, Reece Breuckman, Garrett Riley and Jeff Wallis.
Ryan King, who worked the first four innings, earned his first win of the season with relief help from Uday Tripathi and Kohei Suzuki.
Louis Rodriguez, Karl Heuchert, Nick Tognoli and Alonzo Vergara each had two hits for Fremont, while Robert O’Connor doubled in two runs and Hano Morales singled in one.
Fremont earned a split in the series two days later with a 5-3 win over the Vikes, who fell to 2-5 in league play and 2-8 overall.
Raymond Castillo doubled, singled and drove in three runs to power the Firebirds to their third league win.
Vergara and Morales accounted for Fremont’s other two RBIs.
O’Connor picked up the win, scattering five hits over five innings, to raise his record to 2-1 on the year.
Tommy Guilfoyle registered his first save of the season with two hitless innings of relief.
Antonio Jen went 2-for-4 in the loss for Lynbrook, while King, Bowyer and Fu each collected one hit.
In the De Anza Division, Cupertino continued to struggle last week, dropping a two-game series to first place Los Gatos.
The Pioneers, who tumbled to 1-7 in league and 5-9 overall, managed to score just one run in their series against the unbeaten Wildcats, losing 2-0 and 6-1.
Cupertino was limited to two hits in both games, and were shut out for the third time this season.
Homestead, which remains winless in league with an 0-6 record, notched just its third win of the 2016 campaign when the Mustangs rallied to knock off league rival Saratoga 9-7 in eight innings in the Crown Classic Tournament last week at Valley Christian, ending a nine-game losing streak.
Trailing 7-3, the Mustangs rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game, and then won it with two more in the eighth.
Dylan Remahl keyed the Homestead comeback, driving home three runs with a double and a single, while Bobby Wood went 3-for-4, Michael Healy went 3-for-5, and Brendan Kane doubled in a pair of runs.
Douglas Zolezzi contributed a pair of hits, scored two runs and drove one in, and Anthony Metrulas and Josh Takahara each chipped in with one hit.
Kane, who pitched the final 3 2/3 innings of relief, allowing just two hits and one unearned run while striking out four, picked up the win in relief.
The Mustangs opened the tourney with a tough 3-1 loss to Monterey despite the fact that Metrulas, who tossed the first five innings, and Michael Dixon, who pitched the sixth, combined to allow just one hit and no earned runs.
Unfortunately, the Homestead offense was limited to just two hits itself–singles by Metrulas and Nick Goulet.
Homestead ended its tournament stay with a 4-0 loss to host Valley Christian.
Nathaniel Wipfler lashed a pair of singles, and Max Soria, Wood, Takahara and Zolezzi each rapped one as the Mustangs actually outhit VC 6-4.
With the loss, Homestead fell to 3-12 overall this season.
