The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Mustangs rolling through El Camino Division

By Mike Barnhart

Although Homestead's baseball team entered Tuesday's home game against Monta Vista with an 8-0 record and a 2 1/2-game lead in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, coach Chuck Camuso was not taking anything for granted.

"There's a long way to go yet," Camuso said. "Monta Vista has a lot of good young players, and then we have two each with Fremont, Saratoga and Santa Clara, three teams that can knock anybody off."

For example, Fremont scored an Easter tournament win over Gilroy, a team that has thumped Homestead twice this season, including a 15-0 knockout in the championship game of the Cupertino Lions Tournament. Santa Clara shut out Archbishop Mitty and lost a one-run game to a strong Valley Christian squad. And Saratoga?

"That's the team that really worries me," said Camuso, recalling the division opener, when Homestead needed nine innings to beat the Falcons.

Saratoga entered this week in second place with a 6-3 mark. Santa Clara and Fremont shared third place at 4-3, followed by Monta Vista (2-6) and Lynbrook (0-9). Fremont and Homestead play a home-and-home series next week, April 24 and 26, with the Mustangs hosting the first game.

With junior Evan Marshall leading the way, Homestead improved its overall record to 15-5 with a pair of road wins last week.

First, Marshall bashed four hits, including two home runs, drove in four runs and pitched a complete-game 5-hitter in a 7-1 non-league victory at Mountain View.

The Mustangs went ahead, 6-0, with four runs in the top of the fifth. Marshall's second four-bagger of the game, a three-run shot over the screen in right-center, and Andrew Pardo's RBI double were the biggest blows. Marshall struck out five Spartans and walked three, while improving his pitching record to 7-2.

Two days later, Marshall collected four more RBI with four more hits, including another homer, in a 12-4 romp at Monta Vista. Senior Alex Jones also belted round-trippers in each game.

Winning pitcher Kevin Labadie (5-2) and Eric Taubman both had three hits during Homestead's 20-hit barrage, and Brian Labadie delivered two. Monta Vista finished with nine hits against K. Labadie and relief pitchers Brett Hardy and Jones. Billy Guardino and Chad Estes paced the Matadors with two apiece.

Homestead jumped in front of Monta Vista with four runs in the first, then added three in the second and four more in the third for an 11-0 lead. Camuso then emptied his bench.

"It was nice that several reserves were able to get in the game and make contributions," Camuso said.

Senior Ben Lewis and juniors Jeff Arellano, Robert Tellez and Evan Harris each collected their first hits of the season.

The Mustangs were coming off a second-place showing in the Cupertino Lions event at San Jose's PAL Stadium. They beat Prospect 8-4, Mitty 4-3 and Monta Vista 8-5 in eight innings, before bowing in the final to Gilroy.

"We just ran out of pitching," Camuso admitted, noting a CIF rule limiting pitchers to 30 outs in a week.

Hardy earned his first win as a varsity pitcher in the tourney opener against Prospect, working the first six innings. Jones pitched the seventh. K. Labadie belted a home run and Marshall had two doubles and a single.

Marshall pitched the distance against Mitty, allowing just six hits. At the plate, Marshall again had two doubles and a single.

Monta Vista, which lost 15-1 to Mitty and 10-8 to Prospect in its first two Lions games, fell into a 5-0 second-inning hole against Homestead. But the Matadors rallied for two runs in the fifth and three in the last of the seventh to tie the game 5-5.

With two outs in the eighth, K. Labadie delivered a run-scoring single, his second hit and fifth RBI of the game, and Rex Blodgett added a two-run double. In the last of the eighth, Jones was able to hold the Mats scoreless and preserve the win.

Taubman, in a rare pitching assignment, gave the Mustangs 6 2/3 innings, before stepping aside for Jones during Monta Vista's rally. Senior Shawn Voigt led the Matadors with three hits.

If Homestead could have kept the championship game with Gilroy close, Camuso said he could have brought Marshall in for three innings of work.

K. Labadie held the Mustangs scoreless for the first two innings, but they erupted for eight runs in the third and added two in the fourth and five in the fifth. Homestead mustered just one hit, a first-inning single by B. Labadie. The game was called after five innings.

Cupertino wins pair

Cupertino took a break from De Anza Division action to win a pair of games from Alvarez in the Salinas/Palma Easter Tournament. Strong pitching outings by seniors Ryan Matsuoka and Aaron Headrick proved to be too much for the Salinas school to handle.

Matsuoka struck out eight batters and allowed just two hits in a 3-0 decision on April 9. After a 9-1 defeat to Sobrato of Morgan Hill, Headrick (5-2) scattered six hits while posting nine strikeouts during a 5-1 triumph. The wins improved the Pioneers' overall record to 8-13. They are 2-6 in De Anza play.

Headrick, who finished the week with a .403 batting average, paced Cupertino's offense with three hits and two runs in each win over Alvarez.

Nick Scibetta (.435) also had six hits in the tourney, three against Sobrato and three more--including his fifth home run of the season--in the second Alvarez contest.

Vikes 7-0 in softball

Senior pitching sensation Kendra Wood continues to roll over the competition in the De Anza Division, and lately she is especially dominant on Thursdays.

On April 5, Wood pitched a perfect game, 9-0, against Los Gatos, striking out 13 batters and leaving the other eight outs for her teammates to take care of. Sophomore Jamie Wallis supported Wood with four hits, including a home run, and four runs.

Last Thursday, Wood fired a 12-0 no-hitter against Cupertino. She struck out 10 in a game stopped after five innings because of the 10-run mercy rule. Kelsey Wood drove in three runs with a home run and a single.

In between, Kendra Wood tossed a 3-hitter against Mt. Pleasant and a 1-hitter against Carrillo of Santa Rosa in the Mission City Invitational, April 6 in Santa Clara.

Then, back in De Anza play, Wood truck out 15 in a 7-2 victory over Homestead on April 10. She helped herself by slugging a home run. Teammate Shawna Mattison also homered. The Mustangs collected five hits against Wood, including a double and triple by sophomore Molly Gosnell.

Wood's 14-1 record is the same as her team's overall record.

The recent action lifted Lynbrook to 7-0 in De Anza play, just one game ahead of Monta Vista (6-1). The Matadors, who lost 2-0 to Wood and Lynbrook on March 28, remained one game off the pace by claiming a 6-5 verdict at Milpitas last Thursday.

Ashley Vernazza's home run and Anneliese Fetterman's two hits and two RBI paced Monta Vista's offense. Kelley Martino pitched all seven innings for the Matadors, raising her record to 12-4-1 and her team's overall mark to 15-6-1.

Earlier in the week, Martino shared the pitching duties with Meagan Perkins (three innings), and the duo combined on a 3-hit shutout against Cupertino.

Homestead (7-11-1 overall) shared fourth place with Mountain View at 3-4, one game behind Milpitas (4-3) and ahead of Los Gatos (1-5) and Cupertino.

The Pioneers (0-7, 2-11 overall) have struggled this season, after winning the El Camino championship in 2006.