San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
NOT SULTANS OF SWAT, BUT SANTANA HAD A DARN GOOD BALL CLUB
Rigo Ledezma looks at the statistics and shakes his head. Numbers sometimes do lie.
As a unit, his Santana High baseball team batted .229. They were very much a shadow of the San Diego Padres, in fact.
But it isn’t always that you hit as much as when you hit and even if you don’t hit, you make the most of other opportunities like walks or hit batsmen. It helps to have an ace pitcher like Destin Allen-fox.
The Sultans just got better and better as the season progressed, earning a cogrossmont Hills title before advancing all the way to the Southern California Regional Division II championship, where it took extra innings for them to suffer a 1-0 loss to Calabasas.
No surprise — they had just three hits.
Ledezma pointed out two times, when they won a game coming from behind late, and when it looked like the season might go south, as keys.
“The highlight of the season came when we were playing a really good San Marcos team in the section playoffs and were down 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth,” said Ledezma, who just completed his 10th year guiding the Sultans.
“We loaded the bases with no one out and got a sacrifice fly. Not only did the runner from third score, but all three runners had tagged up and advanced, although it was a close play at third. There were two strikes on Landen Bailey when he hit a line drive over the second baseman, scoring both runs and we went on to win 4-3.” The lowlight? “That had to be in the Lions Tournament,” Ledezma said. “We got slaughtered by La Costa Canyon (10-0), and the next day we were supposed to play at Rancho Bernardo, but there was a mix-up and there were no umpires. The next day we beat Rancho Bernardo, I think they were ranked number-one at the time, 3-1, in extra innings, and we were fired up.
“But we had to play another game that day, against San Marcos, which we lost, 10-2, and then we lost to a good Los Angeles-area team, Narbonne, 3-2. We went from very high to a position where we might have started to have doubts.
“Instead, after spring break, we started league with a pair of wins and regained our momentum.”
They went into the final game of the regular season needing a win over Granite Hills to grab the league title but lost, 4-2. Still, they were seeded No. 1 in Division 1, rolling off four wins, outscoring their opponents 19-5, including blanking Patrick Henry, 8-0, for the title.
Then came Regionals, where they were seeded No. 4 in Division 2. They logged wins over San Bernardino Aquinas, 11-8, and No. 1 seeded Encino Crespi, 5-1, before dropping the title game against Calabasas at home.
“It was so far into the season, I think both teams were tired,” Ledezma said. “We cut our practices to an hour or hour and a quarter. We’d already used Destin but we started Josh Hixon, and he went 6.2 innings, allowing just four hits and zero runs. Jayden Agramont came in for the final 1.1 innings.” About his ace, Allen-fox. The lefty posted an 11-1 record with a 0.60 ERA, fanning 94 batters in 81.2 innings, allowing just seven earned runs. Against No. 1 Crespi, he scattered three hits, and the earned run he allowed actually elevated his season ERA.
Although Ledezma was excited about making his first Socal Championship appearance despite winning six of the last nine Grossmont championships — two in the Valley League — don’t look for him to carry the flag for still another week for a true state championship against Northern California, which is bound to be addressed in the coming seasons.
“The season is long enough,” Ledezma said. “They’d have to start earlier. There are so many distractions this time of year for the seniors — graduation, prom, senior night —that some of the Southern Section teams decided not to play. I think the San Diego Section should be proud that we all wanted to play.
“Usually on something like this, I ask the players if they want to participate but it was so obvious they did, that wasn’t needed. Even our assistant coaches — Aiden Rasmussen, Noah Jackson, Mitchell Miller, Craig Neu and Elden Whisman — were fired up.
“Playing for the section championship is still everyone’s goal but getting to play in the Southern California playoffs is an extra treat.”
Although nine seniors on the 17-man roster walked at graduation, he would love another shot at a Socal title. Those returning eight players are a good place to start.