MODESTO
– Despite bring only nine players, the Silicon Valley Extreme
baseball club qualified for the Baseball Players’ Association
Nation-als in Las Vegas by placing second in the Modesto Tournament
last weekend.
MODESTO – Despite bring only nine players, the Silicon Valley Extreme baseball club qualified for the Baseball Players’ Association Nation-als in Las Vegas by placing second in the Modesto Tournament last weekend.
The 12-under travel baseball team, which is in its second season, finished with a 2-2-1 tournament record, which included a berth in the championship game.
“We were pretty happy. We knew we were pushing it tight. All we needed to do was play good defense,” head coach Warren Gaspar said. “We struggled with our defense in a couple of tournaments. In this tournament, we turned eight double-plays.”
With some players having other obligations, the Extreme headed into their second tournament of the season over the weekend, not expecting too much from themselves.
“Our defense played real well,” Gaspar said. “The pitching did real well. We worked a lot of our pitchers.”
After an opening 8-4 loss to the Clovis Cubs, the Extreme toppled the Reno Blue Devils in their next game, 7-3. Starting pitcher Larry Arriza recorded the win, striking out nine in four innings of work. Reliever Justin Bernard took over from there, striking out four through two frames.
At the plate, shortstop Kaohu Gaspar went 3-for-4 with a double and a run-scored, while centerfielder Ronnie Chapa went 2-for-3 with two runs-batted-in and two runs-scored. In addition, leftfielder Jared Schreckengost as well as Taylor Chris and Arriza went 1-for-3 with an RBI each.
The Extreme finished day-one with a 1-1 record and stayed over night to be fresh for Sunday’s championship rounds.
Opening up against Fremont, Silicon Valley banged out a 9-4 victory with Gaspar and Schreckengost going three innings a piece on the mound. The Extreme got offensive production from Chapa (2-for-4, double, RBI, RS), Gaspar (2-for-4, 2 RBIs), Jonathan Asuncion (2-for-3, double, 4 RBIs) and Schreckengost (1-for-3, double, 2 RBIs).
With one more game ahead to decide the championship qualifier, the Extreme were in a three-way tie with Clovis and Foothill. In tiebreaker rules, the team that gives up the fewest runs throughout the tournament advances. Before their finale, the Extreme knew they could not give up more than two runs with Clovis tallying 18 runs.
Silicon Valley was up against the unbeaten Foothill Rattlers, and the Cubs were watching in the stands, hoping to clinch the championship berth. But the Extreme kept the score down and finished in a 2-2 tie.
“The biggest thing about it was the last four tournaments in Modesto, we’ve always been 3-1 and never made it to the championship game,” Gaspar said. “We always gave up one run too many. This time we squeaked in.”
With the Rattlers ahead 2-0 in the sixth inning, the Extreme put two runners on base.
Due up was Schreckengost, who blasted a shot deep into the outfield that was headed for the fence. The ball fell six inches short of clearing the park, but two runs scored to even things up.
“That put us in the championship game,” Gaspar said.
Schreckenogost pitched one out into the second inning before Chris came in, striking out eight in five innings of work.
The Extreme, however, did not play their best in the championship, falling to the Rattlers, 13-1, to settle for second place.
“We ran out of gas with only nine kids going up there,” Gaspar said. “We hung in there. We did OK.”
