Montgomery Making A Lot From Little : Without a Slugger in the Lineup, Aztecs Get 7-0 Start

Montgomery High School has a secret it would like to share with the rest of the county:

ITS BASEBALL TEAM IS UNDEFEATED.

That’s not all. The Aztecs(7-0) plan to keep it up.

“Last year we lost our final game to Mira Mesa (for the 3-A championship),” senior Jose Lorenzana said. “So this year when we play, our mentality is to just go out and kill anybody who gets in our way.”

The word “kill” might be a little harsh. Even though Montgomery is 7-0, team totals show only two home runs, and the pitching staff has yet to throw a shutout.

Still, Lorenzana does not back down.

“Hey, we get respect from people who know high school baseball,” he said. “But we don’t get as much as we deserve.”

It’s just that opponents are having trouble taking seriously a team of players who are still growing into their varsity uniforms. So far, only Gulliver has been subdued by smaller insurgents.

The Aztecs have found a rebuttal for this criticism in nature.

Coach Manny Hermosillo, who has managed Montgomery since 1984, points to left field when asked about his team’s power production. A batter looking that way at Montgomery’s field will also get a view of the southern edge of San Diego Bay, and beyond that, the Pacific Ocean, which might be pleasing if it didn’t blow so hard.

“There’s no wind right now,” Hermosillo said after Montgomery opened its Metro Conference schedule by defeating Sweetwater, 3-1, Tuesday. “But it’s after 5 o’clock and we don’t play at 5 o’clock. We play between 3 and 5 and that’s when the wind really picks up.”

All of which means batters can shoot for the fence, but their long fly balls will be pushed back into play. So why fight nature?

“If you have a slugger, you can’t use him on this field,” Hermosillo said. “So we try to work with the environment.”

In Tuesday’s victory, working with the environment meant pecking away at Sweetwater. All of Montgomery’s seven hits were singles.

“The good thing about baseball,” Hermosillo said, “is that size doesn’t come into play. In basketball, you need someone who stands seven feet to compete. In football, you need that 250-pound lineman. But in baseball, big doesn’t matter, and small even helps you with the strike zone.”

Besides, no one’s worrying about the offense--not yet anyway. It seems the pitching is too good.

“We’ve been winning,” Lorenzana said. “And we’ve been getting ahead early, and when we do that we tend to kick back (on offense) and let our pitching and good defense win.”

So far the Aztecs don’t see any reason to get their bats cracking. They feel confident that the pitching is good enough to carry the rest of the team.

“I’d say it’s probably the best in the county,” catcher Carlos Acuna said.

And maybe the youngest in the county. The guy leading the way is a sophomore, Oscar Robles. And another sophomore, Steve Quinteros, also is expected to play a major role.

Robles already has had a hand in four Montgomery victories. He’s 3-0 with one save. Hermosillo and his brother, Ernesto Hermosillo, who coaches the pitchers, have no fear of putting too much pressure on Robles. In the Montgomery yearbook, the two predicted that Robles would be among the best in the county by year’s end.

Tuesday he showed why--taking a one-hitter into the seventh inning despite being erratic.

“When I saw him warming up, I knew he was going to have an off-day,” Ernesto Hermosillo said. “His mechanics were off, but he got by on guts.”

Robles threw 98 pitches (approximately 65% of which were strikes) before tiring in the seventh and being lifted with a run already in, two on and none out.

“He has heart,” Ernesto Hermosillo continued. “Nothing fazes him--he’s for real.”

Added Lorenzana, “I played against him for two years. He’s tough--he throws hard.”

Robles has been clocked at 82 miles an hour, considered quick even by NCAA Division I standards.

The emergence of Robles, Quinteros (1-0) and junior Eduardo Duarte (2-0), has kept two of last season’s regulars away from the mound.

David Silvas, who has a career 13-3 mark, has yet to start a game, and Julio Saldana has been relegated to the bullpen. He’ll play the closer’s role.

On Tuesday he did so effectively, inducing two quick ground balls--the first of which was turned into a double play--to end the game.

“It’s a shame we only play two games a week,” Ernesto Hermosillo said, indicating he has enough pitchers for twice that. “And the games only go seven innings, so you’re hesitant to take out your starter; we haven’t had a bad start yet.”

So far no one’s complaining.