The Los Amigos baseball team went from heartbreak to hope to happiness this season.
The heartbreak occurred last month when thieves broke into the baseball program’s storage shed and stole thousands of dollars of gear.
Other schools and local youth organizations donated enough equipment to keep Los Amigos baseball going.
And happiness has come in the standings. The Lobos have clinched the Garden Grove League championship. They are 15-10 overall and 11-2 in the six-team league with one league game remaining, at home against Santiago on Thursday.
Just about all of the team’s equipment was stolen when an on-campus shed was broken into last month.
Help arrived quickly from a variety of sources. Mater Dei baseball coach Richard Mercado and Fountain Valley coach Gerardo Gonzalez were the first to donate gear, Los Amigos coach Romel Guess said. The Fountain Valley and Santa Ana and PONY leagues were among the others to come through for the Lobos.
“We’ve been blessed,” Guess said. “The baseball community has given us so much stuff. We were able to replace bats and gloves right away, and now it’s just some minor stuff.”
Los Amigos was able to pursue the goal the team believed was attainable this season, the league championship. The Lobos will be sole league champions this season after sharing the league title with Loara last season.
“We knew that if things stayed true that we’d be able to dominate our league,” said Guess, who also is the school’s head coach for the varsity football team.
Senior JP Gutierrez is the Lobos’ ace pitcher. Gutierrez, who committed to Knox College in Illinois, has 57 strikeouts. He also plays shortstop and is batting .350 with a team-leading 33 hits.
The Esteves brothers, junior pitcher/third baseman Steven Esteves and sophomore pitcher/infielder Xaiel Esteves, are top contributors, too. Steven Esteves is batting .465 with 28 hits and on the mound he is 6-0 with 49 strikeouts. Xaiel Esteves is 6-1 with 57 strikeouts and a 1.54 ERA.
Senior first baseman Juan Blancas is batting .384 with 28 hits. Junior catcher Carlos Herrera is batting .329 with 25 hits.
“We’ve played some good baseball and some good baseball teams,” Guess said. “It’s worked out according to plan.”
COSTA MESA A LEAGUE CHAMPION
Costa Mesa has earned at least a share of the Orange Coast League championship. The Mustangs are 10-1 in the seven-team league with one league game remaining, at home Thursday against St. Margaret’s.
Estancia is 10-2 and has completed its league schedule.
Costa Mesa and Estancia would be co-champions if Costa Mesa loses to St. Margaret’s; the Mustangs would be outright champions with a win over St. Margaret’s.
The Mustangs, who are No. 1 in the CIF-SS Division 6 poll, are a young team, with only three seniors on the roster.
Junior pitcher Will Clark is 8-1, including 6-0 in league, with a 0.89 ERA and four shutouts. He has 52 strikeouts in 55 innings.
Sophomore shortstop Wyatt Rottschafer is batting .368 with 32 hits. Junior outfielder Aiden Comte has a team-high 24 RBIs. Sophomore pitcher/infielder Grady Jackson is batting .324 with a pitching record of 4-2 and a 1.19 ERA.
Junior infielder Omar Gutierrez is hitting. 338 with 25 hits. Isaiah Mamian, a catcher/outfielder, who is one of the few Costa Mesa seniors, is batting .333 with 22 RBIs.
“I wouldn’t say we’re great at any one thing,” said Costa Mesa coach Jim Kiefer. “But we’re good across the board. We’ve been able to score when we need to.”
CRAZY RACE IN CRESTVIEW LEAGUE
This is the last week of the regular season for high school baseball teams, but the four-team Crestview League is far from settled.
Going into Thursday’s games, Foothill is in first place with a 5-3 league record. El Modena and Villa Park are next at 4-4 with El Dorado at 3-5.
The teams play each other three times in league, so ties will be broken by which teams win the season series.
Thursday’s schedule is Foothill at El Modena, El Dorado at Villa Park.
The top two finishers in the final league standings get guaranteed playoff berths. The other two must hope there is room in their divisions for at-large teams.
CIF-SS PLAYOFFS
CIF-SS playoff brackets will be released Monday at 10 a.m. All eight divisions will have 32-team brackets.
The top two teams in four-team leagues receive guaranteed playoff berths. The top three teams in five- and six-team leagues receive guaranteed playoff berths. The top four teams in seven- and eight-team leagues receive guaranteed playoff berths.
If a division has fewer than 32 automatic qualifiers, then at-large teams will be selected to fill the bracket. Teams must have overall records of .500 or better for at-large berth consideration.
If a division has more than 32 automatic qualifiers then wild card-round games will be played to reduce the field to 32 teams for the first round.
The playoffs begin with wild card-round games in divisions that need them on Tuesday in Divisions 2, 4, 6 and 8. Wild card games would be Wednesday in Divisions 1, 3, 5 and 7.
The first round is May 2 in Divisions 2, 4, 6 and 8 and May 3 in Divisions 1, 3, 5 and 7.
In all divisions the second round is May 7, quarterfinals May 10, the semifinals May 14. All divisional championship games are May 17-18 at Lake Elsinore Diamond.
Teams are placed into divisions before the season begins according to the competitive equity format that uses two seasons’ worth of data to place teams in playoff divisions. Division 1 has 35 teams in it and most of the teams likely will finish high enough in their final standings to be automatic qualifiers. It could be that Division 1 has precisely 32 automatic qualifiers.
NOTES
Mater Dei won the Boras Classic championship with a 7-3 win over Granite Bay in the tournament final Saturday at Santa Clara University. Mater Dei won the Boras Classic South part of the tournament, and Granite Hills won the Boras Classic North part, so those teams met in the Boras Classic final. …
Foothill is the Anaheim Lions Tournament champion. The Knights went 5-0 in the tournament. Summit of Fontana also went 5-0 in the tournament. But because Foothill allowed only six runs in the tournament and Summit allowed 14, Foothill is the tournament champion via that tiebreaker.
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