Sam Schneider
(Photo by Ed Piper)
Lefty Sam Schneider pitched a one-hit gem and nearly every player on the La Jolla roster got a hit as the Vikings bombed Mission Bay, 17-0, May 18 at home on the strength of a 15-hit offensive barrage.
Schneider, who with shortstop Brett Volger and third baseman Alex Eliopulos was recognized during the game as a graduating senior playing his last regular season game at home, added a home run well over the yellow line in straightaway leftfield, more than 321 feet from the plate, in the sixth inning. Sam said it was his first home run since he was 13 years old playing on a travel team.
The Vikings clinched the Western League title outright last week, so their sole motivation in the game besides pride was toward ensuring a first-round CIF playoff game Wednesday, May 28, bypassing the play-in round the day before.
La Jolla (9-2 league, 19-8 overall) is already guaranteed a home game to open the Division II playoffs as a result of its fifth league championship in school history. Coach Gary Frank said that winning both games over Mission Bay, Monday, May 19, and Wednesday, May 21, at Mission Bay, would go a long way toward a seed in the first round May 28. The Vikings are halfway there.
Schneider, displaying a crisp fastball and change-of-speed curveball lower in the zone, retired 17 Buccaneers in a row after giving up the sole hit of the game for Mission Bay to opposing starting pitcher Erick Lopez as the second batter of the game. He upped his record to 7-2.
Centerfielder James Whelan preserved Schneider's one-hitter with a dazzling diving grab of Beto Escoto's drive to right-center after a long run for the second-to-last out of the game. Sam saw his consecutive-batter streak end starting the seventh, giving up his only walk to Lopez. The lefty struck out eight in the complete-game shutout.
Sean Hofmann
(Photo by Ed Piper)
Asked in the middle innings how far he hoped to pitch, Schneider said, "The whole game." Frank said last week that the big difference this year is his senior lefthander's confidence out on the mound.
Junior Allan Ross clubbed a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth inning in a sub role.
Volger upped his school record for games played in a career to 113. He slugged a double that hit the base of the fence just inside the leftfield foul line to start what would become a five-run sixth inning.
By then, Lopez had been chased, yielding 11 runs. He is Mission Bay's ace, holding six of the team's seven wins for the entire season. Buccaneer coach Rick Frink had replaced him with Michael Escoto, who gave up the Vikings' six final runs.
The black-and-gold visitors hurt their cause with five errors in the field. La Jolla didn't commit a one, backing up Schneider with sure-handed defense as he retired batters in order in the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. His pitch count reached 52 by the end of the fifth frame.
La Jolla is ranked third among Division II teams by maxpreps.com. Second baseman Sean Hofmann leads Western League players in stolen bases with 11. Schneider's league-leading ERA before the game was 1.10. His seven wins pace Western League hurlers. Tim Holdgrafer leads pitchers in strikeouts with 43 and has the fifth highest batting average among hitters.
Copyright 2014 Ed Piper
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