SANTA CRUZ COUNTY — Thin on power, but oozing athleticism, Aptos High has simplified its approach at the plate this season.
Like a lumberjack chopping into a thick chunk of wood, Aptos is going to keep swinging away with one thing in mind.
“Put the ball in play,” said Aptos third-year head coach Jason Biancardi. “In years past, we’ve kind of just tried to go for the long ball, and some guys got a little too flashy. This year, they’re buying in. They’re keeping it simple.”
With 15 seniors from last year’s squad gone, and only five players back, the new “small ball” game plan seems to fit the youthful Mariners well enough.
Seniors Forrest Hays, Will Murphy, Isaac Gonzalez, David Reckers and Curtis McMullen combined for only 14 doubles, one triple and one home run last season — Hays had five of those doubles and the quintet’s lone triple and homer — and the 12 other players on this year’s roster (four seniors, five juniors and three sophomores) don’t quite resemble big league sluggers Mike Trout or Giancarlo Stanton.
They’re thin, rangy and athletic.
Biancardi said he wants to play to his team’s strength.
“These guys know they’re not home run hitters — that’s No. 1,” Biancardi said. “Last season we swung for the fences, and we did OK, but we struggled moving guys over in one-run games.”
Aptos lost five games by one run last season. Three of those one-run losses came against Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League competition, leading to the Mariners’ fifth-place finish in the league with a 5-7 record.
Their fifth one-run loss of 2017 ended their season. They fell 2-1 in extra innings to Alisal High in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.
“That was a tough one,” Hays said. “It was heartbreaking. We had high hopes.”
Hays and Co. have their hopes high once again.
There might not be much pop behind their bats, but the Mariners make up for the lack of power with their team speed and solid pitching.
At 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, Hays, an all-league outfielder last season who can play all over the diamond, is one of few players on the Aptos roster who can rack up the extra base hits. He led the team in batting average (.500), hits (34) and RBIs (23) last season, and is expected to step into the leadership role this season.
Murphy, the team’s starting catcher, is only 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, but uses his wheels around the bags to force teams into mistakes and squeeze out a double from time to time.
Reckers, sophomores Jacob Mendoza, Trey Lee and Jack Bollengier all hit for contact, and have executed Biancardi’s plan nicely.
“We’re not going to have guys that hit the ball to the fence every time,” Reckers said. “We’re going to have guys that steal bases, hit singles, bunt — we’re keeping it simple. That’s our motto: play as a team, hit line drives and play catch. We do that, we’ll win a lot of ball games.”
Reckers, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound right-handed pitcher headed to NCAA Division I Cal State Bakersfield on scholarship, is back as the Mariners’ top tosser after posting a stingy 0.66 earned run average (ERA) in nine appearances last season. He relies on a 93-mile-per-hour fastball and a nasty curve.
Hays, who posted a 2.77 ERA over 11 appearances last season, will also pitch. He’s armed with a two-seam and four-seam fastball, a changeup, a curve and can occasionally mix in a slider. His go-to pitches, however, are the two-seam and changeup.
Junior David Eichhorn, a transfer from Monte Vista Christian and son of former MLB star reliever Mark Eichhorn, will also throw for Aptos when he’s cleared for action in April.
McMullen and fellow seniors Ryan Fischer and Eddie Munoz will come out of the bullpen along with Mendoza, who has stepped in nicely as the Mariners’ closer in the early season.
“They throw strikes and they throw hard,” Biancardi said. “That’s all we want them to do.”
The Mariners’ method might give them their best chance of capturing their first league championship since 2012.
The SCCAL will be loaded with college-level pitching, and hits are expected to be tough to come by this season.
Reckers is just one of several aces that will roam the mounds in Santa Cruz County.
All-league hurlers Chase Watkins, Javier Felix and Trent Walker return for St. Francis High, Santa Cruz High and San Lorenzo Valley High, respectively, while Soquel High has senior Nate Werdmuller back.
After graduating only three from a roster of 21, Santa Cruz, the runner-up behind S.L.V. last season, is the heavy favorite to win the title. But the top five teams from last season all have an ace, meaning…
“On any given day, any team can win,” said St. Francis head coach Kenny Nakagawa. “Don’t get me wrong, Santa Cruz is loaded, but when any one of those guys step on the mound, they can swing it for their team.”
Watkins, a 6-foot-4 lefty headed to NCAA Division I Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on scholarship, burst onto the scene last season by posting a 1.23 ERA and recording 57 strikeouts on the bump, while also batting .423 with six doubles, four homers, 18 scored runs and 22 RBIs at the plate.
He impressively accumulated those stats in just a little more than half a season, as the school’s basketball team advanced to the state championship game and played deep into the spring sports season in 2017.
This year, Watkins will be available for the Sharks’ full league slate, which begins on March 13 at home against Soquel.
Juniors Andrew Seymour, C.J. Gomez and Bobby Rigor will also be making the transition from the basketball court to the baseball diamond during the upcoming week of practice leading up to the start of SCCAL action.
The Sharks are looking to win their third league crown in the last four seasons. They finished fourth last year at 6-6 after sharing the crown in 2016 and ’15.
“We got our guys back and that’s a good thing for us, but I would’ve loved to see them make another deep run in state,” Nakagawa said of the basketball team, which lost in the CCS semifinals in triple overtime on Wednesday night. “It’s heartbreaking, but at the same time it’s gratifying to have our guys for a full season. It’s a catch-22.”
Like Aptos, St. Francis has plenty of athleticism, but the Sharks also have some power in the heart of their lineup.
Senior catcher Derric Estrada-Haro can launch the ball over the fence, pitch a few innings in a pinch and has a cannon behind the plate. Nakagawa said Estrada-Haro, an accomplished competitor in rodeo, is the heart and soul of this year’s experienced squad, which features six other seniors: Josh Kovacs, Felipe Padia-Noriega, Brandon Moakler, Cory Parker, David Talavera and Tanner Putnins.
“These guys have been there before,” Nakagawa said. “We’re a little more mature than we’ve been in the past, and the leadership has been there from the start.”
Moakler, Talavera and junior Blaise Magana are speedsters around the bases who hit for contact, and Putnins, Kovacs and freshman Josiah Diaz will look to make up for the loss of slugger Ruben Ibarra, who is now playing for NCAA Division I San Jose State.
Several players will see time on the mound after Watkins and Estrada-Haro, including Kovacs, Padia-Noriega, Gomez and Rigor.
The Sharks will also get a boost when transfers Julian Mendoza (Monte Vista Christian) and Domenic Cordova (St. Francis-Mountain View), both of whom are juniors, become eligible in April.
“I think what I like most about this year’s team is their chemistry,” Nakagawa said. “I think that’s why we’ve been successful so far.”
