Baseball Preview: Junior arms fuel Crescenta Valley hopes of Pacific League repeat

While others within the Pacific League will call the Crescenta Valley High baseball team the favorite, Falcons Coach Phil Torres will not. He believes it’s “pretty even” with the likes of Arcadia and Burroughs likely contenders, as well.

Still, for the longtime skipper who’s armed with a talented bunch of returners, the goal of claiming the league title is a constant whether you’re the favorite or not.

“That’s what you want to do is be league champion,” said Torres, whose Falcons shared the title last season with Burroughs. “We just want to improve every day and by the time we get into league, things will take care of themselves.”

While much is to be expected from Crescenta Valley, Flintridge Prep, the area’s most successful program over the last four seasons, is in rebuilding mode, St. Francis, Glendale and Hoover are under new coaches and St. Monica Academy is in another league.

For the Falcons, the list of standout returners is a long one.

“We’re lucky because we bring back all of our innings from last year. And [former All-Area catcher] Kewin [Ledesma] is back,” said Torres, who piloted his team to a 20-8 record, a 12-2 league mark and a first-round exit in the CIF Southern Section Division II playoffs.

Ledesma was injured for the majority of last season, but will be at the center of the Falcons’ offense. Much of the attention and expectation surrounding the Falcons comes with the returns of All-Area junior returning pitchers Trevor Beer (6-2 record, 1.07 earned-run average, 78 strikeouts, 10 walks) and Will Smiley (6-3, 1.45 ERA, 47 strikeouts). Freshman left-hander Will Grimm has also shown promise.

“They’ll be back and we expect a lot out of them,” Torres said of Beer and Smiley. “A lot of it depends on how we play catch behind them.”

In addition to his phenomenal pitching one-two coming back, All-Area picks Jaime Blank (.342 average), a senior outfielder, Scott Vinceri (2.39 ERA, .352 average), a senior third baseman/pitcher and Chuck Weinman (.378 average), a senior outfielder, are returning.

Senior infielder Nico Arredondo, senior pitcher/outfielder Max Meyer and senior outfielder Anthony Russo are also experienced returners.

Coach Guillermo Gonzalez is hoping to maintain Flintridge Prep’s recent expectations of winning despite rebuilding.

“It’s a rebuilding year for us; we lost a lot of kids,” said Gonzalez, who piloted the Rebels to a 19-6 record last season that included an outright Prep League title and the team’s third trip to the CIF semifinals in the past four seasons. “We’re just going to do the best we can with what we have.”

The Rebels bid farewell to All-Area mainstays Robbie Leslie, Cole Pilar and Hamilton Evans, all of them crucial and standout contributors during Flintridge Prep’s greatest seasons in program history, which included a CIF Southern Section Division VI title in 2015. In all, Prep had seven seniors graduate.

On top of dealing with a roster overhaul, the Rebels will make a huge jump from Division VI to Division IV upon CIF realignment. Still, Gonzalez, the reigning All-Area Baseball Coach of the Year, maintains the same lofty goals he’s always had since taking over the program.

“Same thing as always, try to win league and make a run in the playoffs,” said Gonzalez, who believes Pasadena Poly will likely be the stiffest competition in league a season after Flintridge Prep ended the Panthers’ two-decade-long run of winning league titles.

However, Prep will have to change things up in terms of going to a more small-ball approach.

The key to that will be sophomore Max Rosenthal, who will bat lead-off and also take up the No. 3 spot in the pitching rotation.

“He’s gonna have to set the table for us,” Gonzalez said. “We’re putting a lot of pressure on him to lead the team.”

Returning starters Daniel Chiarodit (senior second baseman), Aidan Schraeder (junior outfielder/No. 2 pitcher) and Kendall Kikkawa (senior center fielder) will also be looked upon to play vital roles for the Rebels, who will give junior pitcher Nick Davis the ball as the staff ace.

Aaron Dorlarque will look to bring stability to a St. Francis program as its fourth coach in four seasons.

Dorlarque, who previously coached Dunn for more than a decade, is taking over a St. Francis program on the heels of a tumultuous season in which coach Terry Phillips was replaced by interim coach Joe DePinto ahead of the second game of the campaign.

The Golden Knights went 6-22, lost their last seven games and finished at 2-16 in the always arduous Mission League.

Dolarque realizes league heavyweights such as Chaminade, Loyola and Harvard-Westlake will make turning the program around all the more difficult.

“In league, I’m anticipating that it’s gonna be tough,” said Dorlarque, who takes over a program that has had five consecutive losing seasons since they last went to the playoffs with a .500 record in 2011. “I want to put us in a position over the next two or three years to be up there at the top. To do that, the first thing is changing the culture. The second thing is being able to play at that higher level.”

To begin that change, Dorlarque is as concentrated on matters off the field as on with his immediate priorities being bringing “stability to the program” and “character development.”

On the field, the new skipper expects senior center fielder Brandon Lewis to be a catalyst.

“As he goes, we’ll go on offense and, on defense, he’s pretty spectacular in center field,” Dorlarque said of Lewis, a returning All-Area selection who hit .341 with 16 runs batted in and 13 runs.

Other Golden Knights expected to be valuable contributors are junior shortstop Christian Muro and senior left-handed pitcher Evan Tontini. Dorlarque is also excited about the prospects of freshman pitcher Tanner Tomko.

The biggest quandary for Dorlarque will be on the mound, however, as the rotation is one of question.

“That’s going to be the question mark for the team,” Dorlarque said. “I think we’ll hit a little bit and play good defense, but we need to see about our pitching.”

At St. Monica Academy, coach Phil Gleason is plenty happy with the talent he has. However, the schedule ahead is an uncertain one as last season’s International League champions are moving into the Liberty League and, after advancing to the second round of the Division VII tournament, were moved into Division VI where they’re the last team ranked via the CIF’s realignment competitive equity formula.

“It’s gonna be interesting to see how we do,” said Gleason, whose team posted a 12-5 record last season. “It’s a new league, so my goal is to make CIF and try to get a least a win.”

The Crusaders will be in the International Conference of the Liberty League (which is split into two conferences) with Southwestern Academy, Yeshiva University of Los Angeles and Oakwood.

Leading the charge is likely to be senior Jack Golbranson, who was the International League Most Valuable Player and an All-Area selection last year after hitting .548 with 28 RBI.

“He should have a big year,” Gleason said.

Junior Beau Barry will return as the team’s No. 1 starter and will hit second in the lineup, just behind sophomore infielder Mark Golbranson. Riley Gosnell, a senior pitcher/third baseman, is also part of a core group looking for St. Monica success.

Brand-new Hoover Coach Don DiPetta is likewise looking for success, but the Tornadoes are also seeking to shake off a tumultuous offseason as DiPetta took over in January after Anthony Martinez left. Martinez never coached an official game as he took over in the offseason once Mickey Moreno departed.

“I think the biggest challenge with me stepping in is, and rightfully so, the kids felt abandoned,” said DiPetta, who is taking on his first high school head-coaching job and has a background that includes playing college and independent pro ball along with being an actor with multiple credits. “The biggest challenge I’ve had the last few weeks is getting the kids’ trust.”

One familiar face back for the Tornadoes is senior JP Gallegos, who will pitch in relief and play third base after an All-Area season in which he hit .375 with 14 RBI and 16 runs.

Other key players will be senior pitcher Jared Levine, senior catcher Dustin Wilson, senior outfielder/pitcher Fredy Sanchez and junior first baseman Nathan Rivera.

They’ll all look to improve upon a 6-18 season in which they went 4-10 in the Pacific League for sixth place.

“My outlook for the season is Hoover’s gonna surprise some people. The work they’ve put in and really bought into, you’re gonna see a change and they’re gonna leave their mark,” DiPetta said. “I think everybody’s going to be pleasantly surprised.”

Glendale has surprised plenty of teams over the last few seasons, but consistency hasn’t come with the surprises, which included a win against Arcadia last season, against Crescenta Valley and Burbank the year prior and against Burroughs in 2014.

“I’m very hopeful that we will surprise some people,” said first-year Nitros Coach Kevin Chan, who assisted former coach Alan Eberhart the past two seasons. “We’ve beat every team in league the last few seasons, so hopefully we can still surprise some people.”

Glendale went 4-20, 3-11 in the Pacific League last season.

The Nitros have seven seniors on a 16-player roster, but are relatively inexperienced.

“We’ve got quite a young squad,” Chan said.

Senior first baseman Andrew Tinoco will have plenty on his shoulders as he hits in the heart of the order.

“He’s a huge part of our lineup,” Chan said.

Senior catcher Armando Alvarez is back and junior second baseman/pitcher Daven Eidem has shown promise, but Chan is still looking for a No. 1 pitcher.

“I’m hoping to develop one,” he said.