LJ baseball: It's spring time

Viking team members stretch down the left field

line before game at Valhalla.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Gary Frank loves baseball. It has marked the cycle of the end of winter and the start of spring ever since the former La Jolla High second baseman was young.

"It's baseball season. There's not a lot that can be bad right now," was the reply of the 14-year head coach, second in service only to his assistant coach, Bob Allen, when asked his thoughts--even including "philosophy". Allen served as head coach of the Vikings for a single season in 1985, then from 1990 through 2003, when Frank took over for him.

Regarding his Vikings' 4-3 record to this early point in the 2017 season, the diminutive Frank--whose father, Howard, taught him to throw right-handed though he continued to bat from his natural left side--said, "We're just going through the normal early season stuff, trying to figure out who we are and what we have.

"How to be competitive and the best we can be," the long-time campus teacher added.

The two Nicks, both seniors, Hammel and Ferenczy, have been two of his most reliable pitchers so far. The red and black bats haven't woken up yet, still slumbering in the lingering March cold. Defense has been solid.

The team's eight seniors have provided leadership and continuity. "With two freshmen, one sophomore, and a couple of juniors who haven't been on varsity before, it's good to have a deep senior group to show these guys how we do things around here," said Frank, taping up his lineup on the visitors dugout wall and attending to other odds-and-ends before a game at Valhalla.

The traditionalist maintains a dress code that requires his players to wear the stirrup socks that he wore in his playing days at La Jolla and in the minor leagues.

In contrast, Valhalla players, in the other dugout at the Vikings' tournament game Thurs., March 23, sported no stirrups, long pants stretching down nearly to their spiked shoes, and plain socks peeking through.

He has also voiced his preference in the past for traditional rivalries, instead of the present realigning that places priority on recent performance over school enrollment.

"The guys voted (catcher) Garrett (Brown) and (first baseman) Dane (Hansen) as captains," related Frank. He reiterated that the captains had been chosen by their teammates.

"Our pitchers are doing pretty well, and our defense is keeping us in games. Our offense is struggling, but we're ready for that breakout game."

Regarding Hammel, the number-one starter, "He has been doing well. He's transitioning well from basketball. We're working on his stamina, because he hadn't been throwing much during basketball season."

"We're working on his pitches, trying to get them to midseason form."

About the other Nick, Ferenczy, Frank said, "He has been pitching really well. Tuesday (March 21) against Montgomery at home, he threw 6 2/3 innings, though it ended in a tough-luck loss."

Ferenczy's strengths: "He can throw his fastball, curveball, and changeup for strikes. He keeps batters off balance. He's just a competitor."

Hansen started on the mound the first two weeks of the season. "It's a different role for him," analyzed Frank. "He hadn't pitched a lot in his life. I think he tried to do too much. We'll try to give him some work out of the bullpen this week and next week just to get him into the game.

"When he's got it on, he's got a good fastball and curveball."

His hitting has maintained through the new experience of starting on the mound and taking his lumps. "He's doing well," said his coach. "He sets such a high standard for himself."

The bespectacled senior is presently developing a changeup on the mound.

Newbies include Cooper McNally, a freshman who bats left playing right field and second base, Blaise Gimber, a left-handed sophomore playing left field and first base, and pitching, junior Alex Monell, and Sola Hope.

"Sola plays football, too. He has been getting a lot of time in the outfield. He cracked the starting lineup in the third game of the season against Westview," said the coach, who announces football during the fall.

Noah Brown, a freshman infielder, moved up from the junior varsity for his first game on the varsity Thurs., March 23. The starting shortstop on JV's, Frank inserted him at second base, moving Ferenczy from second to third. Brown got a hit in his first at-bat.

Frank is trying to help the batting order generate more offense.

LJ baseball: Kerplunk

The ball Vike shortstop Zach Sehgal

hit for a three-run homer in the

seventh. (Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

A teammate retrieved the baseball that senior Zach Sehgal ripped for a game-tying three-run home run in the top of the seventh inning Thurs., March 23, at Valhalla.

The Vikings went on to win the game in the eighth, so the ball was significant.

Sehgal was moving around the visitors dugout getting ready to go back out on the field when someone presented him with the ball. At first, he hesitated to take it. Then he said, "Yeah, okay, I'll keep it."

He walked over to the aluminum bench, lined with players' gloves, hats, water containers, energy bars, and whatever else the troupe from La Jolla had brought with them to this East County outpost. He placed the ball on the bench.

After the four-bagger, the former Mission Bay player was batting .400. That's why he's hitting in the third spot in the lineup.

In a way, Sehgal's home run ball represented an answer to Head Coach Gary Frank's exhortatory question earlier when La Jolla went down 4-1 on a Valhalla home run: Are we gonna fight? Is anyone going to fight back?

He had discussed before the game the struggles the offense has been experiencing through a ho-hum, 4-3 start to the season. This extra-inning win, though come-from-behind, maintained the Vikings' pattern thus far of winning a game, then losing a game.

"Our defense has been keeping us in games," the coach had said.

This time, some key hits played a role in the final outcome.

LJ baseball: Good sign

Two tiny eggs in a nest at the end of the

visitors dugout at Valhalla.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

There was a discovery when the Vikings walked into the visitors dugout before their game at Valhalla Thurs., March 23.

Someone spotted what seemed to be a bird's nest currently in operation, though the owner was absent. It was located atop the cinder block wall that forms the end of the dugout.

Inside were two tiny eggs, unharmed, sitting in the back of the next.

To the mother bird's credit, though she was AWOL, the nest was built high up where no cat could reach it. One wonders how this nest got built with Valhalla's baseball team practicing on the field.

Anyway, someone said something about the intact nest with eggs being a good sign for the La Jolla baseball team this day.

Head coach Gary Frank recounted last year's encounter at Valhalla, a debacle which started well, then unraveled courtesy of an error. Riley O'Sullivan, latest heir in a professional-baseball-playing family, hit a long home run to bury the Vikings on that fateful day about 365 days before.

O'Sullivan, then only a freshman, came back Thursday to hit another long home run, this one beyond the 361-foot sign in left field. The tall sophomore put the Norsemen up 4-1 in the third, and occasioned some Domesday comments in the birded dugout.

But good things were to come for the visitors, and the eggs remained untouched and apparently healthy through the extra-inning conclusion.

LJ baseball 6, Valhalla 5

Home-run hitter Zach Sehgal

before the game.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

La Jolla senior Nick Ferenczy stroked a two-out single into centerfield in the eighth inning, driving in late-sub Christophe Naviaux as the winning run in a 6-5 come-from-behind win at Valhalla High Thurs., March 23. The game was part of the annual Bill Dickens Tournament that the Vikings participate in.

The big blow that set up Ferenczy's winning hit in the top of the eighth was set up by a three-run homer that shortstop Zach Sehgal hit over the fence in straight-away left field the inning before to tie the game at 5. Sehgal had a one-two count. "(It was) right there, low and inside," said the 6'2" senior, of the pitch from the Norsemen's Cole Howard.

The Vikings had been rolling along on an afternoon that cleared up with a slight breeze behind starter Nick Hammel, who threw 51 pitches during his four innings and seemed to have Valhalla tamed through the first eight outs.

Coach Gary Frank's squad also felt good about touching up Norsemen starter Casey O'Sullivan, an SDSU commit, for a run in the opening frame on Dane Hansen's single bringing in Sehgal.

But then in the bottom of the third, O'Sullivan's younger brother, big Riley O'Sullivan, who hit a long homer off La Jolla last year, bombed his own three-run shot beyond the 361-foot sign in the bottom of the third, and suddenly Coach Gary Frank's squad was looking up from a 4-1 score.

The Vikings added a second run in the top of the fifth, Ferenczy again being the one to drive in sophomore Noah Brown, playing his first varsity game and getting a hit in his first at-bat back in the second.

In the decisive eighth, with the score tied 5-5, Blaise Gimber laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Naviaux to second after he reached base on a grounder bobbled by second baseman Cameron Zamudio. Christophe advanced to third on a passed ball called a strike by the plate umpire, and came home on Ferenczy's single.

LJ b golf: Update and prospectus

Viking varsity golf team members

dissemble before the camera.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

"Tucker (Jacobs), a junior, and Harrison Ahern, a sophomore, have improved a lot from last year," says La Jolla golf coach Aaron Quesnell. "They are the reason we are where we are."

"Where we are" means being in the mix in CIF later this spring, according to the veteran coach, who has seen teams go well into CIF play.

The big change in landscape for the Vikings this season, to describe things in a golf metaphor, came because five seniors graduated from the 2016 squad. Five freshmen have replaced them.

La Jolla, employing older and younger team members, defeated league rival St. Augustine handily Wed., March 22, 193 to 207. That was with senior Kevin Wan, the Vikings' number two, missing.

"Tucker's scoring better, so he's more around the greens. He hits the ball far," says Quesnell, "although (senior) Youssef (Guezzale) probably hits the ball the farthest."

"Tucker had been giving away silly shots, but he has reeled it in."

"Harrison has the biggest improvement we've seen over the year. He has a beautiful swing. When he's focused..."

"He has great potential," says the coach, "when he has focus and doesn't get frazzled."

Aidan Johnson, a freshman, has been playing well.

The roster also includes freshmen Sam MacDorman and Jack Hangartner, as well as junior Will Hartford, who hasn't played yet this year.

LJ b golf: Remley

By Ed Piper, Jr.

James Remley was one of the 30 or so underclassmen who accepted Coach Ryan Lindenblatt's invitation last fall to try wrestling for the first time and benefit from the physical training and the camaraderie that would result.

"I think my favorite part is the exercise," said Remley, a two-sport enthusiast who is playing on the La Jolla High golf team this spring. "Going to practice everyday and giving it my best." He wrestled at 106 pounds.

Remley, shorter than his teammates on Coach Aaron Quesnell's golf squad, said he often plays with the coach in the foursome that follows the six team members playing competitively in that day's match. The golf match Wed., March 22, was against St. Augustine at Riverwalk Friars. The freshman walked the course, but didn't play officially.

But a reporter heard his story about going out for wrestling last fall, and wanted to hear more. "It was really fun," said the amiable young man. "I won two matches (of 20). But it was fun. I had a lot of friends in wrestling, too."

He reserved compliments for Lindenblatt, who he doesn't even have for class. "Coach Lindenblatt talked to me at lunch. I don't know how he knew me. I think my friends who have him in class told him I was interested. He said it would really help the team if I went out.

"He's a really good coach. It was impressive how he handled all that: his classes, coaching duties. He's also in the military reserve."

Remley was part of a swell of young athletes who went out for wrestling for the first time at La Jolla this year, bringing new energy and setting the program up for growth and potential next year. A coach in another school's program heard the story of the 30 new recruits, and at the City Conference Championships hosted by La Jolla in early February talked about the good things that growth means for LJHS wrestling.

LJ b golf: Riverwalk

La Jolla head coach Aaron Quesnell goes over

the day's numbers with his team after a win

over St. Augustine on the Riverwalk Friars course.

(Photo Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Youssef Guezzale, one of La Jolla's captains, was feeling good. He had just medaled, with a 36 against St. Augustine on the Riverwalk Friars golf course.

"Today was good," he said, while his partner for the day, freshman Nolan Ward, lingered nearby. "I hit it pretty well. Iron shots were good. Putting was decent. It could have been a lot better.

"Fixing things with my swing is making things better," the junior added.

In the final result, Coach Aaron Quesnell's squad bettered the Saints, 193 to 207, under skies that stayed rain-free after a deluge the night and morning before.

Senior Kevin Wan, the other captain, was missing, visiting a college in China, where Quesnell says he may attend. That may have made the match a little closer, as the red-headed Ward, wearing braces, moved up for the match to the number two behind Guezzale. Tucker Jacobs, a junior, took the third spot, while Harrison "Larry" Ahern, a sophomore, played number four.

Jacobs also medaled, carding a 36 in tandem with Guezzale.

It's going to take a special run by the Vikings to take the Western League title. The league, unlike the configurations in other sports, which have been realigned according to schools' recent performance, maintains the same teams as in the past.

"We will have to beat Scripps Ranch twice, and Cathedral Catholic once," said Quesnell, in his fifth year as head coach.

Part of setting up La Jolla's predicament was this: "We lost our first match to Coronado. We shouldn't have."

So, "We have a chance, but it will be a tough road," allowed the coach.