It
’s still early in the summer but the Morgan Hill Athletics
Palomino baseball team is already off to a bit of a slow start. In
a few different ways.
It’s still early in the summer but the Morgan Hill Athletics Palomino baseball team is already off to a bit of a slow start.
In a few different ways.
First, the team has only played three league games so far and is in the midst of a three-week “graduation break,” according to Manager Roy Jackson. (Many of the players on the 17/18-year-old age group team just graduated high school.)
Second, the A’s won just one of those first two games.
And, third, the A’s have yet to attract a full complement of players to a game (a major reason why they’re 1-2).
But Jackson indicates he has plenty of reason for optimism once he gets his entire team to a game.
“I think we’ve got a real good team if we can get them to show up,” Jackson said.
If the A’s are to be successful this summer, that will have to happen by about next Thursday, when the team begins a streak of 19 games in just over a month with a game against the Santa Cruz Palomino squad at Harvey West Park at 7:30 p.m.
Top players on this year’s squad include Live Oak High standouts Dave Newton, Andrew Cummins and Doug Porras, Morgan Hill products Mike Rauschnot and Ben Lengfeld, who play at Valley Christian in San Jose, and Los Gatos products Kyle Jensen, Russell Laubach and Mark Johnson.
Bay Area Palomino teams are allowed to recruit players from an entire county (in Morgan Hill’s case, Santa Clara County).
The A’s play their home games at West Valley College, and the league’s postseason tournament is scheduled for July 28.
In the team’s first three league games, the A’s split a doubleheader with the Santa Clara Dodgers over Memorial Day weekend, then lost to the North County Cobras on June 7.
Coaches include Ralph Villafuerte and Bob Fink.
A’s alumni include Major Leaguer Brandon Villafuerte, Benji DeQuin, Vince LaCorte and Ryan Muller, among others.
