LJ baseball: The season never meant to be

By Ed Piper

At 12:52 p.m. Saturday afternoon, June 12, at the conclusion of the 2021 season, Rick Eveleth, the P.A. announcer for La Jolla High's final baseball game against San Dieguito Academy, before wishing the crowd "safe travel", began to recite the accomplishments of the 2021 Viking baseball team:

--Tied with the 2015 team for the most wins ever, 24.

--Second highest team batting average in the school's history.

--The most runs scored in a season.

--The most hits in a season.

And so forth:

--The third most stolen bases.

--The third most doubles.

--The fifth lowest team ERA.

--A school record for strikeouts by Viking pitchers--214 before the playoffs.

--The 6th highest team fielding percentage.

2021 was the season that was never supposed to happen. Back in mid-February, when COVID numbers were peaking, different entities reflected the malaise and general view that high school sports in the area were done--yet a second straight year in which the Spring sports season would be cancelled, only this time without any games played at all.

And look what we got: A full schedule of games, league titles achieved and full San Diego Section playoffs played out. It was a wonderful, maybe even exhilarating time of being outside again (at the end without masks!) and fielding ground balls.

Pedro Carranza, the head baseball coach at Brawley, turned my attitude around Tues., June 10, when I interviewed him as the coach of a team in the Division 3 playoffs that La Jolla might play Wednesday in the first round of the CIF postseason.

Brawley lost the ace of their pitching staff before the season even started in late March because his father's cancer was getting worse, and the dad had to avoid being exposed to the COVID virus.

Whoa. This was beyond what La Jolla had to face, with Luke Brunette being injured for the season, and Spence Carswell hurting his arm so that he couldn't play until the playoffs. Gavin Graff, the team's pitching ace and hitting star, broke his right thumb three weeks ago and was sidelined for the rest of the season.

Our thoughts can linger on how La Jolla might have fared had Graff taken his turn on the mound during the playoffs, and how his hitting would have lent even more power to the Viking lineup against Olympian and San Dieguito.

Maybe I'm being Polyanna-ish, but in another universe we might never had had a 2021 season, much less the full slate of games that were played. We would have missed the chance to finish a dismal COVID-restricted school year on such a high note.

Here's to the eight Viking seniors who led the team. They gave us so much joy and entertainment, and our hats are off to salute them.

I was told by La Jolla locals that they had watched the seniors grow up together and play in youth baseball together. Quite a feat. Quite a story. They finished well.