Friday, April 21, 2006

A Visit to the Valley

The Sharks (7-7) take on Harvard Westlake (5-9) tomorrow in a doubleheader. The first game begins at 11:00 a.m.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Practice Resumes

Practice resumes this week with voluntary workouts today and tomorrow from 1:30 to 3:30 and mandatory practices on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 1:30 to 4:30.

The Sharks go on the road Saturday for a doubleheader against Harvard Westlake.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Pregame Notes

The Sharks take on the Oaks Christian Lions at home today. Game time is 3:30 p.m. . . . Oaks enters the game with a 5-0 Frontier League record, two games ahead of Malibu at 2-1. . . . Coach Ari Jacobs will manage the varsity team today in Paul Gallo's absence. Gallo was ejected from last Saturday's game against Grace Brethren and, in accordance with CIF rules, must sit out the next game.

Sophomore Jacob Perrin will be on the mound today for Malibu. Perrin pitched four innings in relief against Grace Brethren last Saturday to pick up his second win of the season.

Oaks senior Tim Johnston leads the Frontier League with three homeruns. Brent Keys of Oaks leads the league in stolen bases with 13. Malibu sophomore Stephen Williams leads the Frontier League with 17 RBIs.

Last Tuesday's rainout at Oaks Christian has been rescheduled for Monday, May 8.

The Sharks will make up the rainout on March 11 against St. Monica tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.

[UPDATE: The starting pitcher in today's game was Michael Gwyn, not Jacob Perrin.]

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Eric Buss

On behalf of everyone associated with the baseball program at Malibu High School, we extend our deepest sympathy to Dave Buss and his family on the passing of Eric Buss this morning. Eric--Dave's "kid brother"--battled a rare form of brain tumor (Glioblastoma Multiforme) for almost two years. He died just two days after his thirty-first birthday.

Update: Donations in Eric's honor may be sent to the hospital where he received much of his treatment:

University of Chicago Hospitals
Office of Development
5841 S. Maryland Avenue, MC 1115
Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: (773) 702-6565
Email: development@ mcdmail.uchicago.edu

"Rain"

"If the rain comes, they run and hide their heads . . ."

Name that group.

There must be a million songs about rain.

Both the varsity and JV games against Oaks Christian have been rained out today. No makeup date has been scheduled.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Sharks 7, Grace Brethren 5

In a game that saw the return of senior Brooks Fitch to the pitcher's mound and the departure of Coach Gallo from the third base coach's box, Malibu defeated Grace Brethren, 7-5, on Saturday.

Fitch, making his first varsity start since last May, threw 48 pitches (including 32 strikes) in three innings of work. Although he recorded no strikeouts, only one ball was hit hard off of him. As a measure of his effectiveness, Fitch recorded five assists while on the mound.

Grace Brethren jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a hit batter, an error on a pickoff attempt, a base hit, a balk, and a run-scoring groundout. The Sharks answered quickly, though, with three runs in the bottom of the first.

Greg Kernodle led off with a single up the middle. Jacob Perrin followed with a single through the left side of the infield. Fitch walked to load the bases and Stephen Williams notched his seventeenth RBI of the season when he was hit with a pitch. Michael Gwyn followed with a base hit that scored Perrin and Fitch. Two controversial plays followed that set the tone for the rest of the game.

With Gwyn on first and Williams on second, Jace Dispenza attempted to bunt. After fouling a bunt attempt, Dispenza missed on the second pitch. Gwyn was picked off first, touching off a furor in the Malibu stands. Dispenza was called out on strikes on the next pitch, which was a high fastball. Nate Schoenbrun then flied to center for what appeared to be the thrid out of the inning. The home plate umpire ruled that catcher's interference hahd occurred on the swing, so Schoenbrun was awarded first base. Jake Jesson walked to load the bases, but Dusty Kramer grounded to third to end the inning.

Grace Brethren scored a single run in the top of the third on a single, a sacrifice bunt, an infield groundout, and a wild pitch.

Malibu answered with two runs in the bottom of the third to go up 5-3. Gwyn led off with a double to center. After Dispenza flied to center, Schoenbrun singled Gwyn to third. Gwyn scored when Jesson reached on an error. Kramer's single then drove in Schoenbrun.

More controversy erupted in the bottom of the fourth inning. Williams led off with a single. He moved to second and Gwyn reached first when the Grace Brethren second baseman booted a double play ball. Dispenza singled to load the bases and set up one of the more bizarre plays of the season thus far.

On an 0-1 pitch, Nate Schoenbrun executed a perfect bunt on a ball that bounced five feet in front of home plate. The plate umpire called the ball dead, indicating that the ball could not be struck after hitting the ground. As Gallo argued the call, the ruling became that Schoenbrun was out for contacting the ball with one foot completely out of the batter's box.. After more argument, Gallo was ejected from the game, leaving Coach Bobby Lehmkuhl and Coach Jeff Drobman to manage the rest of the game for Malibu. The inning ended with the bases loaded and no runs in for the Sharks.

With Perrin on in relief of Fitch, Grace Brethren went down in order in its half of the fourth inning. However, two base hits and two errors led to two runs for Grace Brethren in the fifth inning.

The Sharks went quietly in the fifth. After Perrin got out of a first-and-third jam in the sixth, Malibu scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning.

With one out, Dispenza picked up his second hit of the game, a single to right center. Schoenbrun walked. Sean Conrad traded places with Schoenbrun on a fielder's choice as Dispenza moved to third. With the game in the balance, freshman Tony Gwyn stepped in for his first at bat at the varsity level. After running the count to 2-2, Gwyn fouled off a pitch. He then beat out a slow roller up the third base line that scored Dispenza with the go-ahead run. Kernodle followed with a single that scored Conrad to make the score 7-5.

In the top of the seventh, Perrin surrendered a two-out single. Appropriately, the game ended with additional controversy as a ball hit off the batter's foot rolled to Gwyn at third who threw to first for the final out of the game.

On the day, Kernodle, Gwyn, Dispenza, and Schoenbrun had two hits apiece. Perrin picked up the win with four solid innings of relief.

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Felicitaciones!

Word circulated through the stands at today's game against Grace Brethren that Colbie Bell has been admitted to the Universidad de Colombia. Felicitaciones y buena suerte, Colbie.

Check that. The guy looking over my shoulder says Colbie was accepted to Columbia University.

I'll check my Spanish-English dictionary, but I'm pretty sure Columbia University is the Universidad de Colombia.

Drobman-san

It took some investigative work worthy of Bill James and the folks at SABR, but Sharks Baseball has discovered that Malibu Coach Jeff Drobman spent four seasons playing pro baseball in Japan during the early 1970s. Coach Drobman hit .286 in 374 games with the Hanshin Tigers and the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Central League.

Ask Coach Drobman what it was like to play with the great Sadaharu Oh.

Montclair Prep 3, Sharks 0

Montclair Prep sophomore Enrique Zenon held the Sharks to two hits in a complete-game shutout at Malibu High on Friday. The 3-0 loss dropped Malibu’s record on the season to 5-6 going into today’s game against Grace Brethren.

For four innings, senior Colbie Bell, aided by the outstanding defensive play of Michael Gwyn at third base and Nate Schoenbrun in centerfield, kept the Mounties off the scoreboard. Two walks and a single in the top of the fifth inning gave Montclair Prep a 2-0 lead. An unearned run in the sixth completed the scoring.

Defense was the name of the game for the Sharks on the day. After a one-out single by Ray Palafox in the top of the first, Bell snagged a ball hit hard back up the middle off the bat of Naveed Rezvani to start a 1-6-3 double play. In the top of the second, Matt Hirsch singled and stole second with one out. When Patrick Jameson singled to center, Schoenbrun fired a perfect throw to Stephen Williams at the plate to nail Hirsch trying to score.

Gwyn, meanwhile, made outstanding defensive plays in the second, sixth, and seventh innings to take away base hits.

In the top of the third, Bell hit leadoff hitter Marc Sweet. After Sweet moved up on Ranny Lowe’s bunt, Bell picked Sweet off second. Palafox walked to set up the second double play of the game for Malibu. With Lowe running on the pitch, Rezvani hit a line drive that Greg Kernodle speared near the bag for an easy unassisted double play.

Bell worked out of his own jam in the fourth inning. Two hit batters, a fielder’s choice, and a single loaded the bases for the Mounties with one out in the inning. Bell got Zenon to foul out to Brooks Fitch at first and Sweet to ground out to Kernodle at second to end the inning unscathed.

Meanwhile, the Sharks were unable to put any offense together. Kernodle reached first on an error in the bottom of the first, advanced to second on Jared Weinstock’s groundout, and moved to third on a passed ball, but was unable to score. Fitch walked to bring Williams, the Sharks’ RBI leader, to the plate. Williams fouled out on the first pitch. Gwyn then hit a 1-0 pitch deep to left, but Sweet gathered it in for the third out.

Malibu went in order in the second inning. In the third, Weinstock hit a two-out double to the base of the fence in right. He advanced to third on a passed ball, but was stranded when Fitch grounded to second to end the inning.

The only other hit off Zenon came with two outs in the fourth when Jacob Perrin hit a liner to center. Perrin, however, was caught at second on a delayed steal attempt.

In spite of the absence of hits, the Sharks, down 3-0, had an opportunity to get back in the game in the bottom of the sixth. Kernodle and Weinstock both walked. Fitch hit an 0-2 pitch hard down the third base line. Rezvani fielded it, stepped on third to get Kernodle and threw to second to get Weinstock. Lowe attempted to complete the triple play, but his relay to first was wild, allowing Fitch to move up to second. The inning ended on Williams’ groundout to second.

It was a day of missed opportunities. The Sharks left five runners in scoring position. Montclair, however, had seven runners left in scoring position and two runners thrown out at the plate by Schoenbrun.