Sobrato baseball rebounds with a 15-5 season

Sobrato’s baseball team is rolling this year, with a 15-5 overall record in a competitive battle for a league title and a playoff berth. 

In the Blossom Valley Athletic League, Santa Teresa Division, the Bulldogs are 12-3, tied with Lincoln for second place, just a game behind Piedmont Hills. Nipping at their heels is Prospect, two games back.
“We didn’t think we would do this well,” senior third baseman/pitcher Vince Pomo said. “We have a small group and we’re close. We have energy. Our hitting and our baserunning have been great this year.”

Sobrato rocketed out to an amazing start in league play. Wins came against Prospect 5-1, Hill 10-0 and 13-1, Del Mar 6-0 and 12-2, Prospect 10-7 in eight innings, Gilroy 7-3 and 7-5 and Oak Grove 11-1 and 3-1. 

The slate toughened and the Bulldogs split with Live Oak, winning 3-2 but losing 4-0. Then came two fierce battles against Piedmont Hills. The Pirates prevailed 2-1 on April 29 and then 8-7 on May 1. On May 6, Sobrato righted the ship with a 5-3 win over Lincoln.

The remainder of the season includes a rematch with Lincoln, a non-league Saturday contest at Cupertino and two league games versus Evergreen Valley.

“It’s been a total team effort this year,” coach James Pozas said. “We usually pitch pretty well. Usually it’s great pitching and great defense. We’ve been hitting well, except for against Live Oak.”

The mound staff is led by senior DJ Vallejo and freshman Liam Bettencourt. Vallejo has an 0.92 ERA and Bettencourt is at 1.60. Sophomore JJ Pina and Pomo are also big contributors on the hill. Dylan Brown is behind the plate and the infield features Pomo, Hunter Rubbo, Braylen Belardes and Austin Pierson. 

Back in the outfield, you will find Jackson Raines, Adam Alciatti and Aidan Flores. Austin Lore provides depth.

Flores sparkles in the leadoff position, hitting .321 with 24 runs scored and 22 stolen bases. Pomo is hitting .328 and the junior Rubbo is having a fantastic year, with 28 hits in 66 at-bats for a .424 mark. Rubbo has scored 22 and knocked in 17 RBIs. Other big bats come from Brown at .327 and Belardes at .312.

Although Sobrato lost two headbangers last week against Piedmont Hills, both were one-run games. Those and the May 6 victory over Lincoln illustrate that the Bulldogs belong in the elite of the league.

The opener against the Pirates on April 29 at home featured six strong innings from Bettencourt and a clean seventh from Pina. PH only had six hits while the Bulldogs had seven but SHS could only push across one tally.

The rematch over in San Jose was a roller coaster game. Sobrato scored four runs in the first, highlighted by a Flores double, a Pomo hit-by-pitch, a Rubbo single to center and a Brown double off the left field fence.
But the feisty Pirates came back with four of their own in the second, three in the third and one in the fourth. Uncharacteristic fielding miscues by Sobrato aided the Pirates.

The resilient Bulldogs fought back. Pomo singled to center and scored in the fifth, Bettencourt doubled and came around on an Alciatti hit in the sixth. In the seventh, Flores and Pomo led off with hits. Unfortunately, a rocket up the middle from Rubbo turned into a 4-3 double play and Sobrato got just one run out of the inning, falling short 8-7.
“It went pretty well,” Pomo said. “Our defense could have been better. We worked hard on keeping our energy up and we got our bats going late.”

In the next contest, Bettencourt threw a complete-game five-hitter to keep the Lincoln Lions at bay. Vallejo, Belardes and Flores each had two hits, with Belardes knocking in two runs.

The last three results leave Sobrato a step back of Piedmont Hills. The top two finishers in league get automatic Central Coast Section playoff berths. The third place squad earns a CCS play-in game against the titlist from the division below, the West Valley loop. Silver Creek currently has a three-game lead in that race.

“It sucks to lose,” said coach Pozas, after the second PH game. “We came back. We have a ton of resilience. We’re never lacking resilience.”

The big winning record comes after two years of struggles. Sobrato was just 11-35-1 the past two seasons, with marks of 0-18 and 5-13 in the ultra-competitive Mt. Hamilton Division.

And the future is very bright. Key roles on the varsity are filled by underclassmen, including Bettencourt, Pina and Belardes, all pulled up from the JV team at the start of the season. And that JV squad, even without that trio, is 18-3 overall and 8-1 in league. 

Coach Julian Toscano’s team is led by hurlers Eesa Tover, with an 0.27 ERA, and Trevor Hagen, at 1.72. The offense is paced by Tover at .511, Jace Asuncion at .375, Ronen Benamou at .375 and Garrett Rubbo at .371.

“What truly makes our team special is our amazing camaraderie, a powerful tool that allows us to consistently lift each other up, offer support to each other, and work very well together,” Sobrato JV catcher Ethan Brown said.

Coach Toscano noted how special the JV group is, beyond the winning record. He referenced the team spirit and positivity.

“Everyone is responsible and coachable,” Toscano said. “The kids love each other and it is a great culture change. We have a dominant defense and that has saved us many times.”

Sobrato is having a landmark season. The influx of young players, on both varsity and JV teams, portends a very bright future. For the older players, it is a great and enjoyable step upward to success and hopefully a CCS playoff run. They are focusing on finishing off the regular season well and then hopefully playoff games to follow.

“We’ve got two hard weeks coming up,” said Pomo, after the second Piedmont Hills game. “We will be hungry for Lincoln and we want to make CCS.”