Had the media not showed up Monday, Morgan Hill’s final practice
before the West Zone Tournament — the de facto World Series of
Mustang-9 Pony baseball — could have lasted well into the night.
The sun had nearly set behind the hills overlooking Morgan Hill’s
private facility off Oak Glen Avenue, but as long as there was
light, players were going to keep chasing down pop flies lobbed by
their coaches until one of them came down with the perfect diving
catch.
”
The kids judge the winner,
”
a parent said.
”
It has to be a good catch, and it can’t be too easy. We might be
here for a while.
”
MORGAN HILL
Had the media not showed up Monday, Morgan Hill’s final practice before the West Zone Tournament — the de facto World Series of Mustang-9 Pony baseball — could have lasted well into the night.
The sun had nearly set behind the hills overlooking Morgan Hill’s private facility off Oak Glen Avenue, but as long as there was light, players were going to keep chasing down pop flies lobbed by their coaches until one of them came down with the perfect diving catch.
“The kids judge the winner,” a parent said. “It has to be a good catch, and it can’t be too easy. We might be here for a while.”
The scene is as much a staple of the city as El Toro Mountain — gloves popping, coaches laughing, children having fun as the calendar turns to August, and another baseball team introduces Morgan Hill to the rest of the world.
This year’s group did so at the 2010 Pinto World Series, placing in the top four among the best programs in California.
Thursday they begin their quest for a bigger prize at Walnut’s Creekside Park.
“I think at this point, getting as far as we have, whatever we do is going to be a bonus for us,” said Morgan Hill manager Vince LaGatta, whose team opens the double-elimination championship tournament for 12 states at 5 p.m. against Corona. “But we’re definitely going down there to capture a zone title.”
Standing in the Central Region champions’ way are six Southern California-based teams — Camarillo, La Canada, Torrance American, Mid Valley, Walnut, Corona — plus West Seattle. That they have advanced this far, with the Southern California teams having to play in Super Regionals, says everything there is to know.
“Everybody’s going to be talented at this level,” LaGatta said. “So we’ve got to have it a little bit more. It comes from the desire to do well, being competitive and having all 12 kids on the same page.
“That’s the big thing; we’re deep. We have 12 guys, and every single guys has done something to help us along the way.”
From their second-place finish in their host sectional to their thrilling region-championship run in Brentwood, Morgan Hill has followed the formula for success at this level in delivering as a team.
It has taken superb pitching by Will Ansbro and Cory Taylor, the wily catching of Jonathan Singleton and the watertight infielding of shortstop Vinnie LaGatta, second baseman Tommy Troy and an outfield that has produced a staggering seven assists, including two putouts at home.
“Our defense is our biggest strength,” first baseman Gio Saso said. “Our pitching, infielding and outfielding. We motivate each other to do good things.”
It has taken big hits by Saso in the cleanup spot and Singleton at No. 3 — he provided the biggest one this season with his walk-off single in the region final against Paso Robles — and clutch at-bats by Zack Gieg, Taylor and Troy in the middle and bottom parts of the order.
“Our baserunning’s important, too,” Vinnie LaGatta said. “We work on that a lot.”
But those are qualities of every team that advances this far, as Vince LaGatta said. What could set Morgan Hill apart is its depth, cohesion and never-say-never attitude, coupled with valuable experience from last year’s run at the Pinto World Series.
“You don’t get this far by yourself,” Saso said. “You have to play well together.”
Morgan Hill is also motivated to have a better showing against Southern California’s elite. A year ago, the locals tore through their host sectional, outscoring opponents 42-3, only to fall flat against the likes of North Valley and champion Corona at Worlds.
“It’s definitely bigger than last year, but we’re going to draw off that,” Vince LaGatta said. “We didn’t know what we were getting into last year. We had two teams from L.A. in the tournament; we didn’t know what to expect.
“This year, we’re going to use the experience that we know what these teams are going to be about. We’re not going to be surprised.”
Morgan Hill has benefited from having a tougher road to the finals than last year. The locals bounced back from a bitter defeat in their section championship round, where they lost twice to Paso Robles on their home field, with an inspired 4-0 showing in Brentwood. That included three wins over reigning section champions — two against Paso Robles.
“I was a little bit nervous for that second game against Paso Robles (at Regionals),” said Vinnie LaGatta, who scored the winning run in the region final. “I didn’t know we were going to beat them again, but then we did, and the feeling was, ‘Wow, we made it this far.’ I knew we could.”
Morgan Hill took the following week off from baseball, so players could go on vacations with their families. All they could think about was Zones.
“I sat inside my house just thinking, ‘I wanna play,'” Singleton said. “It’s been so much fun, more than we expected.”
The only thing better than playing for your city is, of course, winning a championship for it.
“Our motto is,” Vince LaGatta began, “we play — No. 1 — for the guys on this team; No. 2, for the coaches; No. 3, for our families; and No. 4, for Morgan Hill. We want to represent our city well on and off the field and play our best. I think we have the best team to do that.”
2011 MORGAN HILL MUSTANG-9 ALL-STARS
Will Ansbro
Owen Ekstrom
Cooper Callison
Zack Gieg
Vinnie LaGatta
Gio Saso
Jonathan Singleton
Ryan Swing
Cory Taylor
Tommy Troy
Jack Tomlinson
Will Waxman
Coaches
Vince LaGatta
Bill Singleton
Kevin Tomlinson
