BASEBALL: Bishop Amat puts San Marino away early.
Bishop Amat too tough in CIF Division V quarterfinals
San Marino's season comes to an end as Bishop Amat scores 13 runs in the first two innings, including 11 in the second, en route to a 15-1 victory over the Titans.
Above: San Marino had a tough day in a 15-1 loss to Bishop Amat. (Correspondent photo by Larry Goren)
My thoughts: Bishop Amat is, by far, the best team I've seen in person this season. They're like a machine with literally no apparent weaknesses.
I did get a kick out of watching Lancers head coach Andy Nieto at the edge of the dugout and as third-base coach.
He could be called the Billy Martin of high school coaching and he knows how to work the umpires, the crowd and the opposing team. He's always chirping at the umps and even got a couple of calls reversed.
If Amat doesn't win the championship, I'd have to call it a disappointing season. Having said that, I don't see anyone beating the Lancers.
By Scott Galetti, Staff Writer
SAN MARINO - It's hard to find a hole in the Bishop Amat High School baseball team's batting order.
And it didn't take too long for the Lancers to put host San Marino in a hole.
It proved to be a hole the Titans couldn't escape as they suffered a 15-1 loss in the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division V playoffs Friday on a soggy, dreary and chilly afternoon at McNamee Field.
The win sends the defending champion Lancers (25-4) to Tuesday's semifinals, where they will play Del Rey League mate Bishop Montgomery at a site to be determined by a coin flip.
"They're as good as advertised all across the board from every position to the coaching staff," San Marino coach Mack Paciorek said. "If anything, it's a benchmark for other programs to say we want to get there, and I thought we made huge strides in our program this year. As the saying goes, `Rome wasn't built in a day,' so we take it from here."
Bishop Amat needed just two innings to build a lead the size of Rome.
Jordan Fox was 3 for 3 with two home runs, including a grand slam, and five RBIs to lead the Lancers' 11-hit attack.
"Our game plan was to come out and swing the bats because our bats had been silent the first couple of games," Fox said. "This game, we just wanted to come out and hit the ball as hard as we could."
Justin Herrera was 2 for 3 with a homer, a double and two RBIs.
Herrera got Amat going in the first inning with a one-out, homer over the center-field fence, his first of the season.
"It was a great feeling," Herrera said. "I've been consistent most of the year trying to get a hit a game and not really thinking about hitting a home run. And, finally, it just came."
Keith Murakami's sacrifice fly gave the Lancers a 2-0 lead. Murakami collected two RBIs on the afternoon.
Bishop Amat starter Paul Paez (10-0) threw just seven pitches to get San Marino (17-7-1) out in order. The Lancers, who had collected just five hits in a 5-0 victory over La Puente in the second round, then sent 16 men to the plate in an 11-run second inning that lasted nearly an hour.
"Some of our guys were pressing and trying to do too much and, today, it was good to just see us have fun," Bishop Amat coach Andy Nieto said.
Fox got the fun started with a single, followed by a double by Herrera and an infield error on a grounder by Andrew Mistone to make it 5-0.
With his team leading 9-0, Fox returned to the plate and delivered a grand slam over the tall screen in right field to cap the inning.
"We knew we could not make mistakes because they bring their `A' Game every single game and you have to match them with seven innings of `A' baseball, and we didn't give them that," Paciorek said.
Fox hit a solo homer to right-center in the sixth, and pinch hitter Justin Grijalva singled in a run in the seventh to close out Amat's scoring.
"We're used to scoring lots of runs, and having just five hits (against La Puente) just motivated (us) and kept us pumped to come out and hit the ball," Fox said.
Said Herrera: "We struggled a little bit last game, but during practice we just put that behind us and moved forward."
Paez took a perfect game into the fifth, when he gave up an infield single to Chandler Caldwell.
San Marino broke Paez's shutout bid in the sixth on a force out off the bat of Nick Wilson.
Paez allowed a run on two hits in six innings, striking out eight.
"In all honesty, through three it was as ugly as anything, and over the last four it was respectable," Paciorek said. "There were a lot of positives in those last four innings."
Despite the lopsided defeat, Paciorek was encouraged by his team's performance in his first season as head coach.
"We take all the positives out of this season and we look at this game actually as an opportunity to learn what we need to do to become the program that we want to be," Paciorek said.
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
New York,
Keep your posts to bad mouthing former MHS coaches, it's what you think you do best. Don't try and talk or comment on things you don't know..
The move to separate public/private athletic competition is in the works. This is from the council meeting minutes.
B. SOUTHERN SECTION ACTION ITEMS
2. Proposal from Century League to revise Bylaws Discuss/ SS298
3200.1 and 3200.2 All Playoffs Managed by Recommend
Commissioner – Public-Private Playoff Separation.
The vote to remove the Association Rule eclipsed the Playoff Separation bid, and the Century League representatives withdrew the proposal from the ballot. This reserves the right to resubmit at a later date. So, this chatter could all be a moot point.
Last year Monrovia beat Charter Oak, the Division IV champ. Bishop Amat needs to play Division I if they will consistently field teams comprised of multiple Division I college recruits. Otherwise, Bishop will keep winning lower division titles and not really know how good they are.
Bishop will be in a higher division next year...they will be moving to D IV along with the teams from the Rio Hondo League, so teams like Monrovia, Temple City, and San Marino (who all were eliminated by BA in the past two years) will still have to go through them and many other higher quality teams to get to a championship.
someone need to question the cif office and go directly to the source instead of asking questions on the blog...Scott, go interview the cif director to get the right answer please
New York,
Hopefully if Amat wins again this year. CIF will move them & the entire Del Rey League up another Div or two. This year the Del Rey has 3 teams in the Semi's !!! Again, Amat was not moved down by choice ! Everyone at Amat would rather be in a higher Div !!! but, they are doing what they s/b doing to get moved back up & that is to Dominate & Win.
A few years ago Amat ran the table a few years in a row in Division Four and was nationally ranked. Then Amat moved up to Division One for a couple years but then back to Division Five last year, taking away Monrovia's championship. It does seem odd to go from the top division to the lowest division. Why not then have the Del Rey League play in 2,3 or even 4?
Having Amat play San Marino is like having the West Covina Dukes play against Sunny Slope Little League. What's the point?
Scott:
Amat's Baseball & Wrestling Teams were moved down in Div's due to the football realignment two years ago. Amat use to be is the Old Serra League in Football, Baseball & Wrestling against the same teams. Mater Dae, Servite, St John Bosco, Santa Margarita, & Loyola. When they ( the OC ) created the new Trinity League & new Serra leagues, the Baseball team was put back into the The Del Rey league beacause Amat belongs to the Del Rey Association, which is the Del Rey League, which is in lower CIF Div's in all other sports. The Del Rey teams do not have Wrestling teams thus, reason Amat was put in the Miramonte League for Wrestling which is D5 also. In order to move Amat up ( were we s/b ) CIF would have to move the whole league up or move Amat by itself to other leagues for Baseball & Wrestling. Hope this explains reason why Amat was moved down !!! ( Not by Choice. )
Bishop Amat, St. Paul and Bishop Montgomery, 3 teams from the Del Rey league in the semi finals.
Welcome to our world.
Jcaz, yes, moves up and down are based on the league they are in. And based on the league they're in, they should be now lower than Division III along with the likes of Notre Dame. There are three teams from the Del Rey League in the semifinals, not just Amat, and they're all private schools. Isn't Amat in a different league for football with all the powerhouses and competing in Division I? Don't you think it should be the same in all sports? Why's softball Div IV? Just wondering. At the same time, they're a great team and should roll to the title.
It has been mentioned before on Fred Roblado's blog, by a few others that perhaps Amat should be in a higher division.
Frankly, I agree. However, as mentioned on that blog, there seems to be an issue with how teams are assinged to divisions baised on the league that they are in, as opposed to the individual teams involved. I think that the CIF assings all of that.
When Amat was in D1, they did respectibaly well, but ended up losing in the second round over the previos two years before the move down. Certianly not a CIF championship of course, but still a respecible showing nevertheless.
One more point on the issue of move downs. There was a rumor that Notre Dame high school was trying to move down from D1 to a lower division. Now if that was true, how many championships do you think they could make off with, due to the overwhelming streangth of that program ? Would it be the same thing here as compaired Amat if they did ?
True, they are probably one of the one private school teams in the entire division. They attract talent so it really is unfair to a large degree.
I really think it's unfair for Bishop Amat to be in this division. Last year they ran the table and appear to be doing it again. How were they able to go from Div. I to V? Why not II, III, or IV?