LJ baseball: Game story 4/15

By Ed Piper

The Vikings (2-0 in City League, 8-10 overall) and SDHS played a wild and woolly baseball game on the Cavers' field (144 years of history?) Wed., April 15 (Jackie Robinson Day in the major leagues and Tax Day everywhere else).

It resulted in a 12-4 win for Coach Gary Frank's black-and-red crew, and two-thirds of the way to a series sweep against the Cavers to open league play, atop the City League standings. Presumably, La Jolla has defeated San Diego High's top two hurlers, having taken a big 8-1 win Monday against sophomore number-one Esteban Quintana.

With a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning Wednesday, sprinter (literally) Charlie Martin banged a triple, sliding into third (see photos in previous entry) in a giant cloud of dust (which you'll never see on the Muirlands turf). Centerfielder Landon Black's throw went far past Caver third baseman Jarryd Torres and into the home dugout.

Martin got up, dusted himself off, and trotted home after the umpires declared the ball going out of the field of play. The Vikings led, 3-0.

After that, the wheels started to come off the wagon for Coach Francisco Garcia's home squad. After Ryan Khourajian struck out for the second out, Zach Gergurich smashed a home run over the fence in straightaway right. 4-0. It cleared the fence easily. "He (righthander Henry Siner) threw me an outside-middle pitch (fastball)," said "Snacks".

Viking starter Will Griebe-Arzate, who had been mostly magnificent for four innings, yielding only two hits, then walked two, hit two, and threw two wild pitches to the same batter (Hogan Rohlf)--it all came in twos--in the bottom of the inning as four runs scored. Frank sent senior Andrew Cardenas in to relieve. He got Samuel Cadavid to line out to Harper Lane in center to stem the chaos.

Secondary PE: Discus and javelin introduced

By Ed Piper

Maybe Yoshinobu Yamamato's javelin workouts are having an impact on American culture.

The Dodger pitcher's regimen includes hurling the pointed, imposing piece of metal--which is pretty dangerous, if you think about the average Southern California school campus or park. People get impaled by those things.

I recently viewed disci (what is the plural of "discus"--discuses?) and plastic/rubber sticks with propeller blades set out for a physical education class at a local middle school. I told the instructor who was setting up for the day, "I never saw a discus (or javelin) when I was growing up."

She replied, "It's a new thing."

Andrew Mitchell, an LJHS Class of 2015 graduate and three-time NAIA All-American in the javelin, told me last year how he had never been exposed to javelin-throwing during his high school years, so he had to learn it when he moved to the Pacific Northwest. (He attended and competed for Southern Oregon University in college.)

One factor in the javelin not being a common part of the sports culture in Southern California, Andrew said, was the lack of open space. There are too many people here to be throwing a tipped metal rod safely.

His "PB" (personal best), according to athletic.net, is 67.53 meters, his senior year at Southern Oregon. That was top eight (I think he said he was third) in the javelin, which qualified him for All-American status. At 39.37 inches per meter (a little longer than a yard), that figures out to 2,658 inches, .8561 carried out to four decimals. That converts to 221 feet, 6 inches plus. Imagine an object traveling that far, and how much space you would need to safely hurl it--at high speed! (That would require a lot of open space, like in the Pacific Northwest.)

Anyway, young people's exposure and experimentation with the discus and pseudo-javelin at such an early age could yield good results. How many local proficient javelin throwers (besides Andrew Mitchell) do you know, as opposed to good discus throwers (like our very own Viking, sophomore Janae Stanley-Castillo)? Stay tuned.

LJ baseball 12, SDHS 4 - 4/15

Photos by Ed Piper

Charlie Martin slides into third base with a

triple, as the centerfielder's throw goes into

the SDHS dugout. Martin walked home after

the error, the Vikings leading 4-0

in the top of the fifth inning.

3B Jarryd Torres (12)

of SDHS and LJ coach

Gary Frank (behind) look

toward the home dugout,

where Landon Black's

throw on Martin ended up.

In Will Griebe-Arzate's first four

innings, he gave up no runs

on two hits.

Will Griebe-Arzate (left) and Zoran Shepanski,

out for the season with a broken bone

in his face.

LJ baseball: Photos 4/13

Photos by Ed Piper

Brady Wilson pops a ball up, dropping it into

short right field. Unfortunately, the runner on first,

Oliver Obler, stayed near the bag until it was

safe to go. He got thrown out at second.

This happened in the bottom of the second inning.

Sophomore Charlie Smith threw 98 pitches

in a 7-inning complete game against SDHS.

He walked one, struck out five.

Smith (left), now 4-2, speaks to LJ pitching coach

Koa Scott between innings. Scott said the pitching

rotation this week will be Smith Monday,

Will Griebe-Arzate Wednesday, and Zach

Gergurich Friday against the Cavers.

Catcher Carter Strauss batted leadoff, went

1 for 3, walked, scored a run, and had an RBI

in the win.

Oliver Obler, starting in left field, singles

in the bottom of the second.

LJ baseball 8, SDHS 1 - City League opener - 4/13

Joseph Crudo (background) leads off first base

after a walk in the bottom of the first inning,

right before Zach Gergurich flies out

to deep center. Crudo then stole second base,

allowing Carter Strauss to score from third

on a fielding error on the steal.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

La Jolla, welcoming the City League schedule after going 6-10 in pre-league games, started out with an offensive explosion to score two runs in the bottom of the first, and five more in the bottom of the third to lead SDHS 7-0 in the league opener at home Mon., April 13.

The Vikes eventually put the Cavers away, 8-1, on a complete game by lefthander Charlie Smith. He scattered six hits and raised his season record to 4-2.

With Smith throwing well, the Vikings went up 2-0 on the scoreboard in the first frame. With Carter Strauss and Joseph Crudo on second and first, Zach Gergurich hit a shot to deep centerfield for the second out. Strauss advanced to third base.

When Crudo subsequently attempted to steal second, the throw was mishandled by Caver second baseman Shun Shirayama, and Strauss scored from third.

Ryan Kourajian, a mid-year transfer from Cathedral Catholic, then drove a pitch off the tarp in distant left field, about 300 feet away. La Jolla wasn't able to capitalize further.

In the bottom of the third, with two outs, Oliver Obler singled to drive in two runs, putting the Vikings up, 4-0.

Luke Cripe then followed with a single through the hole at second, where the Caver baseman would have been had he not gone to cover the bag for an attempted steal. Another run came in.

Finally, sophomore Brady Wilson doubled to drive in two more. The Vikings were feeling good, leading by seven runs.

LJ track: Chiara wins mile at Arcadia

By Ed Piper

This outlet has not made frequent mention of Viking runner Chiara Dailey during her record-breaking four years at LJHS or taken many photos of her, but this time is different.

Dailey, the oldest of several running siblings to grace the Gene Edwards Stadium track, won the mile at the Arcadia Invitational in greater Los Angeles Sat., April 11. Her time was 4:41.12. She has gained more and more prominence on campus and on the cross country and track teams for the Vikings as her profile has increased nationally.

Her performances have led to regular coverage in local legacy media, including the San Diego Union-Tribune, making reporting of her exploits here seem almost superfluous. I/we still give Chiara plaudits for all her successful times.

Her bright red hair makes her easy to spot. Out of the chute three years ago, in her freshman year, Dailey began dominating local races during the Spring track season.

No discredit to them, but Kirra Fisk (now running as a sophomore in college at UC Davis) and Daphne Mayer (running last year as a freshman at Rice)--both two years ahead of Chiara--suddenly had a teammate and classmate who left them in the dust in the middle and long distances. Both graduated two years ago after outstanding four-year Viking careers.

LJ sports: Hauseur wrestled, golfed in the 60's

By Ed Piper

"Gene Edwards dressed as 'The Destroyer'" from professional wrestling, says Tom Hauseur, who wrestled beginning as a 103-pounder in the seventh grade for the legendary La Jolla High coach and namesake of the campus football stadium. Edwards retired in 1990 and soon after died of a heart attack.

The Class of 1966 alumnus, who was part of the last class to go through the junior high grades and senior high on the same campus (sixth grade was not yet part of junior high), is a window into something about Edwards that no one else has mentioned in this writer's pursuit to convey some of what sports and the campus were like in the earlier years at La Jolla.

"(Edwards) coached both the football and wrestling teams, and so if you played football, you were pretty much going to be on the wrestling team as well," says Hauseur, who still lives locally and whose two daughters also graduated from La Jolla High after playing soccer and softball. "He used the other football players kind of as fodder to fill in the weight classes on the wrestling team." Houser never competed in the Holtville Rotary Tournament, which began in 1964.

"Wrestling was not yet in its heyday on campus," the former Viking wrestler/golfer said.

"We (Hauseur and a group with him) built the softball field" that sits on the western edge of campus. Before that, the Vikings "played at La Jolla Elementary" and other locations, lacking a permanent home.

Tom was too small to play football for Edwards, but he did wrestle for a few years, starting in junior high. He also played golf once he got to the high school grades.

Asked if he ever saw a track athlete get hit by a baseball, since both teams shared facilities on the football field until the 1990's, Hauseur couldn't really say.

Hauseur attended the 100th anniversary parade for the school at a football game in 2022. He knows Rick Eveleth, who starred in baseball and basketball in the 1960's and went on to serve as a teacher and coach on campus until his retirement.

At least one of his and his wife's grandchildren attend La Jolla Country Day and play volleyball.

Hauser knows near-namesake Tom House, a former major league pitcher and pitching coach who coaches athletes in biomechanics and has a connection with the LJHS baseball program. "A Tom House story is, he told my daughters whatever softball equipment they needed, he would get," he says. House delivered on his promise at no charge.