Baseball Roundup : After League Title in ‘87, Christian Now Wonders Where the Wins Are
There comes a time during a long losing streak when a team wonders if it will ever win another game. The Christian High School baseball team has reached that point.
On Thursday, the Patriots lost their second City Central League game this week, 8-4, to San Diego. Christian, the defending City Central champion, is now 0-9 overall and 0-2 in league play.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. April 16, 1988 Teens’ Quotes Misattributed
Los Angeles Times Saturday April 16, 1988 Orange County Edition Orange County Life Part 9 Page 4 Column 6 Life Desk 3 inches; 96 words Type of Material: Correction
Two students from Southern California Christian High School were misquoted in a “Hot Topics” response column March 25 in Orange County Life.
In response to the question “Is alcohol ‘in’ or ‘out’ at your high school and what are your personal feelings about drinking?” senior Nola Ganoe was reported to have said, “It’s ‘in’ because it’s fun to party with.” In reality, that was a quote from another student at the high school.
Ganoe’s quote should have read: “It’s ‘out’ because it’s wrong,” which was reported to have been freshman Michael Johnston’s quote. His quote, however, should have read: “It’s wrong. It’s ‘out’ because many people have been hurt through it and many have died.”
“I wonder (if a win will occur), honestly speaking,” said Christian Coach Tim Meinert. “We’re a young club, but we have the ability. We’re just not playing to win on a regular basis.
“If a player doesn’t want to give 100%, what can you do?”
Christian lost eight seniors, including seven starters, from last year’s team. And, in addition to the new faces on the field, Meinert is in his first year as well.
“Maybe they’re just not used to me and the fact that I demand so much,” Meinert said, searching for answers.
Jim Rost (0-5) was the starter and loser for Christian. In 6 innings, he allowed all 8 runs on 10 hits, walking 7 and striking out 5. Keon Sly (1-1) earned the victory for San Diego.
“Rost walked seven guys, and that’s a great opportunity for a ballclub to go to sleep,” Meinert said.
If Christian was napping, San Diego tried to take advantage of it. The Cavers stole six bases, moving runners into scoring position inning after inning. They scored their runs in the first, third, fourth, sixth and seventh.
San Diego’s biggest inning was the fourth, when three runners scored. Abraham Rodriguez reached base on a fielder’s choice, stole second and third and then scored on a wild pitch. Marlon Morgan walked, stole second and scored when Sean Tucker reached base on an error. Tucker then scored on Brian Baird’s single. Baird was 2 for 2 with 2 sacrifice flies and 3 runs batted in.
Although San Diego never trailed, Coach Tom Lopez used four different pitchers. He closed with Tucker, the ace of his staff, who started San Diego’s league opener on Tuesday. Tucker pitched to the final four batters.
“We didn’t want to give it away,” said Lopez, whose team is now 6-3 and 1-1. “(Claudio) Moreno started the inning off with a walk and then threw a ball to the next batter. It’s too bad we had to use Tucker, but this was more important than the Lions tournament (which starts this weekend).”
Like Christian, San Diego, which finished second last year, is young. Just two players return from last spring.
“We’re making progress,” Lopez said. “We’re not very smart baseball players right now. We have to utilize our brains as coaches.”
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