Like a well-oiled machine, Christopher High baseball manager
Ryan Dequin shifted his players from one drill to the next at
practice last week.
Like a well-oiled machine, Christopher High baseball manager Ryan Dequin shifted his players from one drill to the next at practice last week.
The Cougars, after starting the season 0-4, had just defeated a short-handed Anzar club 17-7 the day before. There certainly wasn’t any time for celebration.
As the infielders finished up taking endless ground balls, others hustled to set up the field for batting practice.
“Work, work, work, work,” Dequin barked out as the Cougars shuffled to their groups.
“Whenever there is an opportunity to get something done, you have to take advantage of it,” said Dequin, who enters his second season as Cougars manager, the first, however at the varsity level.
“We have to take a step back and critically look at what we did wrong and fix those things,” Dequin said. “I drill into them that they are good, they just have to dig in and work harder to get better.”
A successful junior varsity program last season, the step up to the varsity level hasn’t been the simplest of transitions, which started with back-to-back losses to crosstown rival Gilroy.
“These guys are realizing this isn’t JV baseball,” Dequin said. “They might be older than us, but baseball is a game where we can compete if we do the fundamentals correctly.”
Perhaps the practice field is where the Cougars’ season is defined this year.
The Cougars will assuredly get their wins, but it’s the practice field where Dequin wants his players to not only learn to hold themselves accountable but also fine-tune the basics to where each situation becomes second nature.
The Anzar triumph was followed by a deceiving 12-3 hiccup against Soquel last Thursday. The Cougars trailed just 4-2 in the fourth before Soquel exploded for 10 unanswered runs to blow the game open.
“One of my coaches once told me you can’t go into a practice expecting that the players know what to do,” Dequin said. “I treat it like it’s their first time doing to make sure that it is taught correctly and they know exactly what I want out of it.
“I think they are finally realizing that they can compete with (varsity).”
It’s that realization that Dequin says is the key to the Cougars’ success as they begin Monterey Bay League play this week.
“Our leaders have internalized that they have to work harder to make it happen,” Dequin said. “Everybody now has to get on the same page.”
Among those leaders is junior Bryant Cid, whose seven hits through the first seven games is a team high. The Cougars have a two players who can step in behind the plate in Ryan Fredricks and Brandon Irby and both are also providing some pop in the Cougars’ lineup, along with 6-foot-1 third baseman Matt Davis, Nader Elaskary and Patrick Valdez, who are all among the Cougars’ (1-5) offensive leaders early in the season.
Brian Ransom and Mario Talamante have seen most of the work on the mound, however, the Cougars have some depth in the bullpen with Travis Hill, Robert Driscoll Jordan Rios’ Jimenez and Irby all available in relief and spot-start duty.
After a league-bye last week, CHS kicks off league action at Watsonville tonight. Watsonville will then visit CHS on Thursday.
The Wildcatz dropped both league tilts to Monte Vista Christian last week. Monterey took a pair from Seaside while North County and Pajaro split their two-game series.
