Los Gatos, Palo Alto squads will team up to take on cancer
When the Los Gatos High School baseball team takes the field today against Palo Alto, it will be for a cause bigger than baseball.
It is a Vs. Cancer game, in which proceeds will be donated to fight childhood cancer and promote health for children. The first pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Los Gatos.
“It is something that is important to everybody,” said Los Gatos coach Justin Oliver. “I think everybody knows someone who is affected by this.”
Oliver, who was contacted by Vs. Cancer about having a game, said that Palo Alto coach Pete Fukuhara was all for the charity game. “Two communities coming together for one cause,” Oliver said.
Half of the proceeds will go to Vs. Cancer, with the other half donated to the Lucile Packard Foundation, Oliver said. He also said last week that yellow socks and wristbands would be sent for the players to wear in the game.
Oliver said two of his four children had health issues at birth, so this cause is personal for his family. His eight-year-old boy was born with an enlarged heart and hemorrhaging brain, and his 13-year-old daughter was born with supraventricular tachycardia, which is an irregularly fast or erratic heartbeat. Both had extended hospital stays after birth before coming home, and are fine now.
Vs. Cancer “was built by athletes for athletes, giving them the platform to raise money for childhood cancer”, according to its website. It also states that “proceeds help fund child life programs in local hospitals and lifesaving pediatric brain tumor research.” The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health website states that its foundation is “the sole fundraising entity for Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford and the child health programs at Stanford University School of Medicine.”
To make a donation, visit team. curethekids.org/team/414942
The Wildcats split their series with Wilcox last week to enter this week with a 6-4 Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division record and an 11-12 overall mark.
On April 20, Los Gatos rallied from a 6-5 deficit with four runs in the top of the seventh inning to defeat Wilcox 9-6.
“They brought in (Jesse) Gutierrez, their main arm, to close the game and we scored four,” Oliver said. Gutierrez, a talented lefthander, has committed to San Jose State according to prepbaseballreport.com.
The Wildcats' Carter Johnstone had a single to left field, and
cleanup hitter Jake Boyd immediately followed with a base hit to score two runs, including the eventual game-winner. Boyd was 2 for 3 with two runs scored and two RBI in the victory. Teammate Nick Temple ripped two doubles and drove in three runs, and Drew Dillehay and Jaden Mena also drove in runs for Los Gatos.
Gutierrez was powerful on the mound on Friday, however, with a complete-game shutout. He allowed only three hits (none in the final three innings) and had four of his seven strikeouts in the final two innings of the 5-0 Wilcox win. Gutierrez also only walked two in the victory. Only three of Wilcox's runs were earned.
Softball
Los Gatos High School held off visiting Wilcox to win 9-7 on April 20 to improve to 17-2 overall and 7-0 in the SCVAL De Anza Division.
Los Gatos scored seven runs in the third inning to take a 9-4 lead, then held on as Wilcox chipped away at the advantage. Alexa Musser was 2 for 4, including a triple, and scored a run for the Wildcats. Teammates Lynsey Chiala and Sara Sharma both had two hits, including a double apiece, with one run scored and one RBI each. Annika Norquist also had two hits and an RBI for Los Gatos.
Track and field
Los Gatos High School athletes had several impressive performances at the Central Coast Section Top 8 meet on April 22 at Los Gatos.
Wil Brennan won the boys 400 meters in 49.51 seconds and the Los Gatos boys 1,600 relay team of Levi Romero, Brady Kamali, Luke Pittock and Brennan also won in 3:23.97. Kamali also tied for third in the boys high jump (6-feet).
In the girls competition, Hannah Slover was first in the high jump (5-6), Nicole Steiner won the shot put (37-2) and Emma Curran was third in the 400 (59.72).