By Ed Piper
With the temperature a sizzling (for La Jolla) 82 degrees at opening pitch (at just after 12 noon), the La Jolla High baseball team faced off with a squad made up of alumni in an annual rite of (pre-)Spring Sat., Feb. 12.
The bright sun and warm temperatures were a direct contrast, symbolically and literally, to the previous 23 months of "dark" COVID restrictions--students kept at home, kept inside, with limitations on their ability to work out with teammates, and on and on.
Righthander Kevin Steel, so adept at rescuing the Viking football team as a back-up quarterback when Jackson Stratton went down with a fractured scapula last fall, stepped up to the rubber in his better-known role: as a starter for Coach Gary Frank's unit.
On the other side, Brett Volger, who set all kinds of records as a four-year starter in the infield for Frank during his playing days, kicked things off on the mound for the alumni. Volger obviously has kept his arm up, showing himself to be limber and willing to challenge the Viking batters.
Steel, in the somewhat informal atmosphere of the event and with one umpire working the game, calling balls and strikes behind home plate, allowed the first two alumni batters to reach base in the top of the first inning.
But then Kevin, a "Big Unit" at 6'5", mowed down the next three non-hitters to stem the threat.
Indicating how scorching the temperatures were, Tim Holdgrafer's dad and brother took up otherwise comfortable positions leaning on the back of the home dugout. It is covered with an artificial substance, with metal underlying. A visitor approached and immediately sensed the sting of the hot metal under the blazing sun. The Holdgrafers, wisely, had placed a towel down to lean on. Smart move.
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