The Palo Alto Varsity baseball team has its eyes set on the 2010 season and a new coach after another tumultuous season in 2009.
Much like in 2008, the Vikings endured difficult conditions but eventually found late-season success, and even qualified for the Central Coast Section playoffs.
“We had a lot of ups and downs in emotions and our success on the field,” senior pitcher Matt Tracy said. “But I thought we managed pretty well given what we’ve been through.”
The baseball team’s unusual situation has been well documented; in the past four years, the team has had five coaches. This season, first-year head coach Donny Kadokawa entered the program and quickly implemented a new style into Paly baseball.
“Last year we would work on pure hitting for the majority of practice,” Tracy said. “This year we didn’t hit on the field for what seemed like the first two weeks. We only worked on the little things.”
Questions arose about the team’s new program after a 0-9 start sent their season into panic.
“The atmosphere was pretty bad after that start,” senior centerfielder Michael Rizza said. “We blamed [the bad start] on a lot of things.”
To the team’s credit, it played some of the best teams in the CCS. Non-league losses came to powerhouses such as Bellarmine, Valley Christian and Archbishop Mitty, whom the Vikings lost to twice.
The sinking ship was soon righted after the league season began. Senior pitcher Steven Burk, who eventually left the team, threw a no-hitter against Wilcox for the team’s first win. After losing to Wilcox later that week, the Vikings went on a tear, and only lost one more league game, to Los Altos. The Vikings (16-16, 10-4) wound up in third place after the league playoffs.
While the seedings for the CCS playoffs have a calculable formula and can be predicted ahead of time, many were shocked when the Vikings received the No. 3 seed with a .500 overall winning percentage.
“It was more a matter of us playing all those hard teams in the beginning than a matter of us having success against them,” Rizza said. “We were expecting a seeding with double digits.”
With the third seed, the Vikings got matched up against No. 14 Willow Glen, a team with a 21-9 overall record.
The Willow Glen pitcher challenged the Viking hitters with fastballs the whole game, and the Vikings could not catch up. Down 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Vikings scored two runs to finish the game, 4-3. With a runner on and one out, they were a hit away from tying the game, but failed to come through.
When the season ended on a less than exemplary note, and coach Kadokawa was released. This makes next season’s coach the sixth coach in five years.
“The coaching is up for grabs, but I think the future classes will do fine,” Tracy said. “They have enough talent that they should be able to manage with whoever they [the athletic administration] chooses.”