The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Stege stars in CCS singles tennis finals

By Mike Barnhart

As Major League Baseball conducted its annual free agent amateur draft last week, anybody closely affiliated with Homestead's baseball team likely took a moment to ponder next year's draft. After all, that's when Evan Marshall will be eligible.

Whether he was on the mound or in the middle of the field at shortstop, the 6-foot-3 junior was the Mustangs' best player this season. In fact, combining his batting skills with his pitching prowess, Marshall arguably was one of the best in the entire Central Coast Section, if not Northern California.

Talk to coaches of Santa Clara Valley Athletic League's El Camino Division teams, though, and there will be no argument. Division coaches agreed recently that Marshall was the best in their division, and they honored him as the El Camino's Most Valuable Player.

Marshall, who led the Mustangs to a 21-9 record, the championship and a first-round victory in the CCS playoffs, already has drawn interest from several universities, including Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UC-Irvine, Pepperdine, Long Beach State, San Francisco State and Cal State Fullerton.

Marshall, who has been turning heads for three varsity seasons, batted over .500 this spring, collecting 43 hits and 31 RBIs in 85 at-bats. More than one-half of his hits were of the extra-base variety--seven home runs, 13 doubles and three triples. On the hill, Marshall sported a 10-3 record and a 1.26 earned run average, striking out 112 batters and walking just 30 along the way.

Four other Homestead players joined Marshall on the all-El Camino first team: seniors Alex Jones, Kevin Labadie and Eric Taubman and junior Rex Blodgett. The remainder of the first team included Fremont juniors Tom Lopez, Mike Appio and Kenney Pope, Saratoga standouts Bo Nielsen, Myles Hornberger and Tommy Christian, and James Driskell, Bret Hall and Curtis Camilli of Santa Clara.

Second-team selections included senior Brian Labadie of Homestead, seniors Rob Ramer and Sam Kesten of Fremont, Sean Casserly and Brendan Scolari of Saratoga, sophomores Chad Estes and Justin Rahn of Monta Vista, and Santa Clara's George Netto, Mitch O'Donnell and Morgan Yee.

Honorable mention positions went to senior Andrew Pardo and junior Anthony O'Malley of Homestead, seniors Kevin Knopf and Rob Ramirez of Fremont, junior Billy Guardino and sophomore Jason Kearns of Monta Vista, senior Amuro Yamamura and junior Adam Reid of Lynbrook, Saratoga's Bennett Rothenberg and Kevin Sciezkarek, and Santa Clara's Michael Berner and Tyler Levine.

Headrick on Þrst team

Cupertino senior Aaron Headrick, who will play at Santa Clara University next fall, was among 18 players selected to the all-De Anza Division first team. Headrick was the team's top pitcher (6-3, 1.63 ERA) and ranked second in hitting for the Pioneers with a .368 batting average in 28 games.

Senior pitcher Kyle Blair of division champion Los Gatos was named MVP. Three other Wildcats joined Blair on the all-De Anza first team: seniors Aaron Miller and Tim Sweeney and junior Paul Politi.

A trio of Wilcox players made the first team: senior Steven Thompson, junior Kyle Barraclough and sophomore Ruben Zendejas.

Second-team picks included junior Nick Scibetta of Cupertino, seniors Matt Ellis, Joey Donofrio and David Martini of Los Gatos, and Wally Galos, David Estrella, Jacob Johanson and Ruben Gutierrez of Wilcox.

Cupertino seniors Ryan Matsuoka and Chase Hill earned honorable mention spots, along with Los Gatos junior K.C. Silva and Ivan Rodriguez of Wilcox.