LJ baseball: Preview

The La Jolla High baseball team not only has a field to play on, but a solid crop of players to move around as chess pieces on that field.

That's the fortune of the baseball program. As of later this spring, the football team won't have a field to play games on or a field to practice on. That's all yet to be arranged with the replacement of the 10-year-old Edwards Stadium surface.

Right up above a few thousand feet, Head Coach Gary Frank's fire eaters are preparing for a scrimmage Tues., March 3, and the annual Alumni Game Sat., March 7.

Timmy Holdgrafer is one of the top dogs coming back. He's committed to play baseball at St. Mary's in the Bay Area. He is a two-time First Team All-Western League selection and a three-year starter. "He'll pitch one day a week," says Frank. "We're not a hundred percent sure (about where he will play on his non-pitching days). He could be at shortstop and third base. He could be in the outfield. He's basically where we need someone to plug a hole."

I asked the coach if he has ever thought of having the versatile Holdgrafer play all nine positions in one game, a la Cesar Tovar of the Minnesota Twins and Campy Campaneris of the Kansas City A's back in the day. "When we weren't very good, we had Robby Ortiz play all nine," says Frank. "It's tougher in high school, because it's only seven innings. We moved Robby around within an inning to different spots in the outfield."

Weston Clark, a lefty to Holdgrater's righty, returns as a Second Team all-leaguer last year and a three-year starter on varsity. "He'll play a lot of rightfield and start the year as our number two starting pitcher," offered the coach.

James Whelan will patrol centerfield and pitch a little. He was Second Team All-Western League in 2014. "He closed a little last year with Brett (Volger, senior who graduated). He might be a starter. He might be relief."

Luke Bucon is s returning starting pitcher who hit .300 last year and was third on the team in RBI's with 19.

Noah Strohl is a strapping first baseman who stood 6'6" last year. We'll see if he has continued to grow and extend his reach at the prime bag. He led the team in RBI's with 23 last year and three home runs. He hit some shots last year.

Sean Hofmann "will lead off. He is real fast," according to his coach. "He's working at shortstop and second base. He'll get time at both." In fact, Frank views the middle infield positions as fairly interchangeable, with others working out at both positions as well.

"We're losing only three seniors from last year," says Frank, "and all three made all-league. But we have excellent players coming back." All the starting position players batted .300 or a fraction within it in 2014.

"We were toward the bottom of Division II last year. Now we're near the top of Division II. Hopefully, if we do well we can get up to Division I and the Open Division in the next year or so."

A transfer from Parker is Zach Sehgal, a sophomore who has already committed to play at Stanford. Sehgal will have to sit out part of the season as a result of his transfer to LJHS.

Trenton Fudge "came back to baseball after a year in tennis," says Frank. "He can play everything. He can play middle infield. He might be a starter. At the beginning he won't start because he has some rust to get rid of, but he is very talented."

Frank said it is his guess that the Edwards Field construction will affect his team next year, when "it will be hard to get on the (baseball) field before the season" because of displaced teams' need for some place to practice.



Copyright 2015 Ed Piper