By Dick Sparrer
Mike Machado isn't predicting a league championship.
But the Saratoga baseball coach likes his club's chances well enough to consider the Falcons a contender in the title race in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this spring.
Machado rates an experienced Homestead club as the division title favorite, but he's looking for a top-four finish for his Falcons.
Homestead coach Chuck Camuso is going that one better. Oh, he thinks his Mustangs will win the title, but he rates Saratoga as the team to beat if Homestead is to get there.
"We're good defensively," Machado admits, "but we're young and inexperienced."
"Our pitching looks pretty good," he added. "Hitting is a question, but we expect to be competitive."
Saratoga has a half-dozen players returning from a solid club that went 16-7 a year ago.
Junior shortstop Kyle Cardin and senior hurler Johnny Taylor each return after earning all-league honorable mention spots last season.
Junior pitcher-first baseman David Goni, senior pitcher-third baseman Steve Oberhauser, junior outfielder Trent Frisina and senior pitcher-outfielder Brian Webster are other top returners for the Falcons.
Freshman catcher Ryan Bernard, sophomore pitcher Dave Schneider and sophomore infielder Mike Black are other top prospects on the Saratoga squad.
The Falcons are off to a hot start in league play with two wins in three outings, the most recent win a 12-6 victory over Gunn.
Goni went six innings, allowing just three hits and striking out 10, to lead the Falcons to the win. He also knocked in a pair of runs for Saratoga.
Cardin doubled twice and singled to drive in three runs, and Bernard doubled and drove in three runs. Oberhauser had two hits and plated a pair of runs and Kota Takamoto added two hits.
Saratoga scored two runs in the top of the first, but Gunn matched the two in the home half of the inning. The Falcons exploded for five runs in the second to take command of the game, and they broke it open with five more in the fourth.
The Falcons had opened league play with a 7-3 win over Lynbrook. Schneider picked up the mound win and Oberhauser came on to get the save. Cardin singled and doubled to knock in a couple of runs and Bernard doubled and drove in three. Takamoto had two hits for the Falcons.
Saratoga lost a tough 8-1 decision to favored Homestead despite a solo homer in the first by Cardin and a triple by Frisina.
Warriors look strong
Like Machado at Saratoga, Westmont head coach Eric Brown believes he has a contender this spring.
"We return six starters from last year's second-place team," Brown said as he looked ahead to the season in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
Westmont lost a few players to graduation, but players from a league championship frosh-soph team should fill the holes nicely. The Warriors were 17-3 on the frosh-soph level a year ago.
"Pitching and hitting should allow us to contend for the league title, along with a solid defense," Brown said.
The Westmont coach looks to Prospect and Mt. Pleasant as top contenders for the title, but with players like Vinny Perez, Andy Brown and Sean Anderson coming back, he expects his Warriors to be right there.
Perez is a pitcher-shortstop who returns for his fourth varsity season. He was the league's junior of the year last season when he posted an 0.71 earned run average and hit .433.
Brown is a senior pitcher-third baseman who hit .471 on his way to all-league honors last year, and Anderson is a senior pitcher-catcher who is back after hitting .456 in an all-league season.
Sophomore pitcher-outfielder Adam Curtis is a transfer expected to play a key role for the Warriors and Brian Skarbeck is top junior catcher up from the frosh-soph.
The Warriors are off to a 2-1 start in league play, sandwiching wins over San Jose and Prospect around a loss to Hill.
Perez struck out 13 and Anderson and Steve Valdez slapped two hits apiece in a tight 3-2 eight-inning win over Prospect last week. Brown doubled home a pair of runs for the Warriors.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 20, 1996.
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