Sometimes Winning Just Isn’t Enough for Coach of Undefeated Gladstone 9

It was a few minutes after his Gladstone High baseball team’s 4-0 victory over Montview League rival Pomona last week, only Coach Rich Remkus was visibly disappointed.

Remkus was happy about winning but not with the fact that the Gladiators could muster only four runs and four hits.

That probably would have been enough to please a lot of coaches. Only Remkus has come to expect much more from his team this season.

After all, this is a team that is averaging nearly 12 runs a game and has a batting average of .388.

The Gladiators also happen to be ranked No. 1 in the CIF Southern Section 2-A Division and state 2-A Division with an 18-0 record--the only team in the state that is undefeated.

It is not as if Gladstone wasn’t expected to be one of the top teams in the Southern Section 2-A.

Especially after finishing 18-9 and reaching the 2-A quarterfinals last year with a team that consisted mostly of sophomores and juniors. Gladstone graduated only two seniors last year.

But Remkus concedes that even with the most optimistic outlook he couldn’t have envisioned being undefeated with only about two weeks remaining in the regular season.

“I don’t think any coach would say he expects to go an entire season undefeated or with only one or two losses,” he said. “I would have been surprised to be undefeated, and I certainly wouldn’t have expected it after 18 games.”

It does not take a statistical wizard to analyze why Gladstone has been winning. The Gladiators have been hitting, hitting, hitting.

Eight of the nine players in the everyday lineup are batting .341 or higher. There are also 11 players with 10 or more runs batted in.

The hit parade is headed by senior third baseman Louis Gonzales, who is batting an astronomical .739 with 17 hits in 23 at bats. Other leaders are junior outfielder Marco Contreras at .492 with four home runs and a team-leading 23 RBIs; senior shortstop and pitcher Greg Vargas at .489 and senior designated hitter Brian Call at .439 with a team-leading 26 runs scored.

Senior second baseman Abel Garcia is hitting .396; senior outfielder and pitcher Mike Casillas is at .389; senior first baseman Ken Evans is hitting .342 with a team-leading five home runs, and senior catcher Carlos Duarte is at .341. The only starter hitting less than .300 is senior outfielder Vince Arreola at .289 but he has a team-leading 15 stolen bases.

“I think we’ve gotten progressively better at home plate,” Remkus said. “Up to this point it has been our best strength. For the most part we’ve been very consistent.”

The coach added that he doesn’t want his team to get carried away over its offensive accomplishments.

“We’re just hoping that we can have everybody focus on the hitting instead of gloating over our statistics,” he said. “The team you’re playing doesn’t care about what your statistics are.”

But Contreras says the team’s hitting success has given the Gladiators a lot of confidence.

“We’re a pretty good fastball hitting team and we adjust pretty well to the curve ball,” he said. “I feel we can hit most pitchers.”

Remkus said his team hasn’t been quite as dominating in the pitching department.

“We’re not a dominating pitching ballclub,” he said. “On a given day we can come up with a good performance, but to date we haven’t been dominating.”

Maybe so, but you might have difficulty convincing Gladstone’s opponents. That’s because the Gladiators have a team earned-run average of 2.15. Leading the way is Vargas, who has a 6-0 record and 1.11 ERA with 43 strikeouts and only six walks in 38 innings.

“One of the reasons for his success is his strikeout-to-walk ratio,” Remkus said. “He just doesn’t put people on base.”

Other pitching leaders include Mike Casillas at 4-0 with a 2.33 ERA; Gonzales at 3-0 with a 1.70 ERA and Leon Velasquez at 2-0 and a 1.56 ERA.

“We’re not all offense,” Contreras says. “I feel we’re pretty good defensively, and our pitching is good, too.”

In his fifth year as coach of Gladstone, Remkus has seen his measure of success.

In his second year as coach in 1986, the Gladiators won the Southern Section 1-A championship.

Gladstone reached the 1-A semifinals in 1987 and the 2-A quarterfinals last season.

But, even in the championship season, the coach said his school didn’t receive as much notice as it has generated this season.

“It’s a little unusual because it’s brought us our share of attention,” he says. “We’ve always gone about our business in relative obscurity since I’ve been here.”

So far the attention hasn’t appeared to distract the Gladiators. For the most part, Remkus said, his team has managed to stay focused on each game and credits that to the team’s experience.

“They had a decent amount of success on the freshman team together and they were successful on the JV team together,” Remkus said.

“They played together in Little League, too, and that has paid dividends for us. It makes a big difference on the field.”

“It really doesn’t seem to bother us,” Vargas added. “The coach is always reminding us not to worry about it and just to go out and play hard.”

Not that the players don’t notice that their opponents seem to have more incentive these days.

“Everyone’s out to beat you when they come out to play you,” Contreras said. “But everybody’s out to play hard all the time. It doesn’t matter if you’re in first or last place.”

However, the Gladiators are comfortably in first place in the Montview League with a two-game lead and only four games remaining in the regular season.

Despite that fact, Vargas said the team is not pointing for the playoffs.

“We’re really just worried about our league,” he said. “We won’t really worry about CIF until we get there. We’ve got a few more to go until we get there.”

On paper, at least, Remkus said this year’s squad appears stronger than his championship team.

“I would say talent-wise, from top to bottom, we’re better,” he said. “That team was a third-place team and not much was expected of us, and we just came around at playoff time and played five good games.”

With its success this season, the Gladiators will enter the playoffs with higher expectations.

So far they are more than living up to the promises.