Senne Makes the Most of His Chance to Play in 7-4 Win Over Gulls
Visalia Oaks second baseman Tim Senne has learned to make the most of his opportunities, as he showed in Thursday’s California League game against the Ventura County Gulls.
With the Oaks down by two in the seventh inning and Tom Thomas on first, Senne singled to right field. The ball got by Darryl Landrum for a three-base error, allowing Thomas and Senne to circle the bases and tie the game. The Oaks went on to win, 7-4, in 10 innings at Ventura College.
“I saw it go under his mitt before I got to first and I never broke stride,” Senne said. “It was a horse race to home plate.”
In his next at-bat, Senne bunted for a hit in the ninth. He then broke up a double play with a hard slide into second base to keep the inning going.
It is that type of solid fundamental play that has given Senne, a 1984 graduate of Cal Lutheran, a place in the Oaks’ lineup.
“I have four good middle infielders,” Visalia Manager Dan Schmitz said. “Right now, Timmy’s doing a good job with his playing time.”
Senne lost his starting job to Chris Kroener last month but regained his first-string status last week.
“He works hard,” Schmitz said. “He’s a great guy to have on a team because he hustles, plays hard, things like that. Things that give you a winning team.”
Senne, 23, has always been a player who has had to prove himself. After being passed over in the 1984 June draft, he signed with the Minnesota Twins as a free agent in November of that year. He spent his first season with the Kenosha Twins, the club’s low Class-A team in the Midwest League, where he batted .241. This year, he has raised his average to .288 with the Oaks, the Twins’ high Class-A team.
Senne, from Orange High, expects to impart some of what he has learned to his younger brother, Mike, who was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 14th round of this month’s free-agent draft. Mike Senne recently helped Arizona capture the College World Series, leading all batters with 11 hits in 21 at-bats.
“It’s gratifying,” Senne said of his brother’s career. “We’re living out a dream, and if I can just keep progressing, moving ahead, it’ll be even more gratifying.”
For Ventura County, Thursday’s game was like a nightmare, the team’s fifth loss in the last six games. Three Gulls errors led to three unearned runs, the difference in the game.
With the scored tied at four, Visalia scored three runs in the 10th, when Joey Aragon singled off loser Dave Walsh (3-3), scoring John Eccles from third base. A sacrifice fly and a wild pitch brought in two more runs.
The Gulls were shut down by the Oaks’ Dewayne Coleman (5-4). After giving up four runs in the third inning, Coleman retired 21 of the next 22 batters without allowing a hit. With two outs in the 10th, he walked Santiago Garcia, and Wes Pierorazio came in to get the final out and his fifth save.
Gull Notes
Greg Myers’ sacrifice fly in the third inning gave him 50 runs batted in for the season, fifth in the California League. . . . When Palm Springs won the first half championship in the California League’s Southern Division on Sunday, the Angels became the first team since 1941 to win a title in its first year in the league. The Gulls, who finished three games behind Palm Springs, had a .643 winning percentage. . . . Scott deMarrias, a catcher from St. John’s University, joined the Gulls on Thursday after being signed as a free agent on Tuesday. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound New Jersey native replaces Carlos Diaz, who was sent down to the Medicine Hat Blue Jays in the Pioneer Rookie League on Wednesday.