LJ baseball: A day in the life

By Ed Piper

Viking Baseball Log
Wed., March 28

1:10 p.m. Arrive at Sage Creek High School, in North County off Cannon Road, for a 3 p.m. opening pitch. The Vikings play their third game in three days during pool play in the Lions Tournament on Spring Break.

It is a beautiful campus, literally in the dry-environment sage in a largely-undeveloped area, a school in only its fifth year of existence. "We just graduated our first Senior Class last June," both the campus supervisor and, later, the receptionist at the front desk in the office proudly informed me.

No Viking players or coaches in sight yet, so not knowing where the main entrance is, I drive around to the west near a residential development and take some beautiful snapshots from a distance across a ravine of both the baseball field and the campus as a whole set at the foot of hills. Quite a view.

1:30 p.m. Viking players, youthful as they are, begin arriving in what turns out to be the front parking lot. A towering Performing Arts Center and other edifices are still under construction, so the location has a "Men/Women Working" kind of look, construction barriers lining one path onto campus.

Alex Monell, star right-hander and one of only four seniors on the 2018 squad, towers over some of his teammates while also mixing in well. They exchange banter, like when one team member pulls up in a shiny new vehicle he drove the distance from La Jolla: "What is that, the second car?" one Viking calls out.

The players bring rolling bat bags (something we never had back in the day), as well as their gloves.

Campus supervisor, finding out I'm media: "You can go on campus at 2:20." I'm thinking, "And miss part of warm-ups, sitting out here in my car? You've got to be kidding."

1:40 p.m. The La Jollans go on campus. Head coach Gary Frank has arrived, as has assistant Bob Allen. 


Seeing the team go in, the campus supervisor, stationed by her golf cart, relents, saying, "You can go in with the team." It requires typing my name into a monitor and snapping a selfie for an I.D. badge in the front office. Being the same height as the lengthy Monell, I have to tilt the camera way down to include my face in the photo.

Monell and fellow captain Blaise Gimber, Frank's first junior team captain in his 15 years at LJHS, lead stretching in right field.

Asked for a comment for a feature story on the team I'm working on for the La Jolla Village News, Alex says, "Well, one thing I always try to remember is, 'Don't open.'" Explain. "When I step in my pitching motion, don't pull my lead (left) shoulder back. Keep it in as I step."

Gimber, snagged at the end of leg swings against the right field fence, then loosening up in lines before further stretching in a team circle, is more loquacious. Asked about the youth on the team, he responds: "I think a big part of this team is the group getting the reps in before the game. We want to get the guys more experience. The tournament losses, like 3-2, are tough, but as the young guys get more experience, it's going to help them."

Ryan Madsen, the only head baseball coach in the five-year history of Sage Creek, turns out to have a "Great White North" accent from Minnesota, and to be a major media-oriented coach. Even though I make clear I'm covering the game from a La Jolla angle, for my blog and indirectly for the Village News, Madsen urges me to write down his cell number for future reference and enthuses, "They were going to do a feature on one of our staff members, who is autistic. It's a great story."

He gives team highlights, including junior pitching ace Stephen Klemske's 4-0 record with a 0.00 ERA. (Klemske will be the designated hitter today.)

The Sagers aren't great, but they did win a CIF title in 2016, for which they recently (finally, Madsen says) posted a championship banner on the fence entering the baseball field.

His Minnesota-isms, which sound like some Canadian accents: "Sure t'ing", "I came oat (for "out") here from Minnesota."

3:00 p.m. sharp. The umpires start the game punctually. It has not been preceded, unlike in previous years, by a "Last Man Standing" competition in which the players lined up on the foul lines for the pregame compete against their opponents to see who can stay on the line the longest. Last year senior Vike Yered Teodosio was the last man standing in a game at Steele Canyon against a Cougar opponent, even while the home team's starters were already on the field throwing warm-up grounders.

Viking players told me at an earlier game that a new CIF rule outlaws the practice.

Gimber, the LJHS starter, has a top of the first inning to forget against Sage Hen hitters. Six runs come across, including two on a dropped pop fly to short centerfield behind second base. In the two innings that follow, the lefty settles in and his finesse offerings work effectively.

But then, with a steady state seeming to settle in with the 6-0 lead, Frank turns to starting catcher Arman Sanchez-Mohit to pitch, then others. There will be another day to play another game.