Page 9 - Sanger Herald 5-2-19 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2019
Mike Nemeth, editor
nemethfeatures@gmail.com
Baseball team faces final test after a bang-up season
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Right before the game with Madera South, Apache assistant coach Sam Bejeckian went to each player, and even the score keeper, touching each one lightly on the hat or uncovered head.
“Before every game,” one of the players said.
For luck. One of those baseball superstitions. Meant to ward off horrors like Boston’s Curse of the Bambino, broken by the World Series win in 2004, and the Cub’s Curse of the Billy Goat, which was tied to tavern owner William Sianis for officials turning away his goat at the gate in 1945. The Cubs broke it in 2016.
Sanger hardly needs bad luck like that.
Especially not when the team is playing like it has been. The Apaches knocked off Madera South on April 26byascoreof10-0at Eddie Chapa Field.
Maybe it was Bejeckian and his routine. He does have 40 some years
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Nathan Padilla dives back toward first to avoid getting an out against Madera South on April 26 at Eddie Chapa Field. The Apaches face Bullard twice this week.
else.”
Nope, Berra delivered
some pretty funny, and insightful, lines. Bejeckian’s come from a lifetime in baseball. They’re cultivated from his own coaching career and, as head coach David Cuellar said, gleaned from conversations and people over the years.
But it’s these observations, like just after Jake Herrell crossed home in the first inning for the first score of the game, that have helped make this batch of Apaches so consistent. “Come on guys, let’s put up a crooked number,” Bejeckian said after that first run.
And then in the bottom of the second inning, outfielder Javier Garcia asked Bejeckian, “What’re you thinking coach?”
“That we need more runs,” he said. “Seems like we’re a little off balance.” The score was 2-0.
Stallion Jalen Gray, who appeared to be one of Madera South’s best hitters that night, had come up in the batting rotation, facing
Apache pitcher Alec Flores. Bejeckian paced a bit. And then Mendez hit the ball deep into right field, just a few feet past Alex Rodriguez’s extended mitt. Mendez raced for a triple.
But A-Rod recovered the ball quickly and hurled it to second baseman Mason Lopez. Gray had just rounded second and looked certain to reach his destination. Lopez caught the ball and sent it to third baseman Nathan Padilla rocket fast. Muscle memory. Like the trio had practiced this play so many times they could do it blindfolded.
Padilla leaped, caught the ball and tagged Gray, who walked slump-shouldered back to his dugout. That Padilla landed somewhat unceremoniously in the dust was all but forgotten until a short time later when the Apaches returned from the field. Flores fanned the next two Stallions for three outs.
“We got a brotherhood going on,” Lopez said. “It’s
See Baseball, Page 2B
coaching. He knows a little about the game.
“It’s a funny game, isn’t it?” he asked just before the Stallions and Apaches took the field. “We’ve beaten them twice. We should be alright. If you’re a championship team, you should beat the team you
beat. Are we going to do it? I don’t know.”
Then to me, he added, “You cover enough sports to know it’s not an exact science.”
If winning was an exact science, bookies would be unnecessary and sports betting wouldn’t be the
industry it is.
Bejeckian is no Yogi
Berra, the New York Yankees legend, whose real name was Lawrence. Berra spouted pearls of wisdom like “It ain’t over till it’s over” and “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace
Tough schedule pays off in the end
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Adrian Mercado slammed the volleyball on the other side of the net.
The opposing players had no answer. None. His kill in the second-to-the- last regular season game against visiting Madera South ended the set 25-19 in the Apaches’ favor. Sanger won the two previous sets 25-17 and 25-21 against a Stallions team that played hard but ultimately lost the battle.
Mercado and his teammates couldn’t have been happier with the outcome April 23.
“It was a good feeling,” Mercado said. “This time we came back and sent them a message. Tonight. Senior night.”
Mercado was one of those seniors. He and teammates John Her, the team’s setter, Aidyn Jalao, Jesus Gomez and Jose Duran celebrated their final season with family, big posters with their names and at least one bouquet that went to a little sister.
Mercado said the win was actually a comeback, a bit of vindication from an away game against Madera South on March 28 in which Sanger lost in five sets 3-2.
“Their coach said you were more disciplined,” said Sanger coach Scott Okada to the team after the game. “I told him they (the Stallions) were more disciplined (on their home court).”
Okada was pleased. “It was fun to watch,” he said of the April 23 match. “(And) that was the biggest crowd of we’ve had this year.”
And those filling one side of the Coach Dean Nicholson Gym were loud. Louder even than the Apaches varsity volleyball team. The crowd reacted especially vocally when Mercado slammed the ball to end the game. But the Sanger fans also reacted to previous kills by Jalao and Gomez that resulted in
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Aidyn Jalao delivers the ball to the Madera South side of the net April 23 in a game the Apaches won 3-0. Sanger, the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, faces the winner of Morro Bay and Arroyo Grande on Thursday at home. Ethan Ly, No. 13, Jesus Gomez, No. 10, and Grant Harrison defend, right.
set points 23 and 24 for the Apaches. In fact, in those final minutes, the crowd, with the exception of the Madera South fans, got to its feet after the Gomez kill, sensing the win.Then Mercado delivered.
The Apaches played Bullard on April 25 to determine County Metro Athletic Conference standings that would calculate their seeding in the playoffs. Bullard, Madera South and Sanger topped the league
standings, and a Bullard win would have resulted in a three-way tie.
Bullard didn’t go easy. The Knights won the first set 27-25. Sanger took the second 25-20 but lost the third 26-24. The Apaches came back and won the last two 25-13 and 15-9 to take the match in five games.
“Now we just have to focus,” Mercado said of the playoffs. “We’re feeling ready. We’re ready for whatever comes our way. The tournaments really helped.”
The Apaches had a 26-10 record after the Madera South game, with many of those coming from playing some of the best teams in the state and region. The team most recently participated in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions in the second week of April, facing some pretty high-caliber competition.
Jalao said that practice helped. “Our confidence is very high going into the playoffs,” he said. “We feel we can compete with any team any time.”
Jalao got his right knee iced after the game. “We were just more composed this game, letting the game come to us,” he said.
Gomez got an ice pack between his shoulder blades, and the trainer strapped it with criss- crossed nonadhesive plastic tape like Pancho Villa’s bandoliers. Gomez then hurried over to greet his teammates in a classroom across from the gym. “Let’s go. Let’s go,” somebody shouted as he entered. Maybe it was him.
“Great win,” said Grant Harrison, a junior. “We’re lookingataNo.2orNo.3 seed. It was great. A great statement to make after we lost in five. We know we’re the better team, but we have to show it every day.”
Brennan Taylor, a sophomore, acknowledged Sanger’s reputation for being a loud team. And he
See Volleyball, Page 2B