Kenny Hall helped Gavilan College’s baseball program return to relevance last season. Now, the sophomore first baseman from Live Oak High wants more.
“I want to win our conference and do well in the playoffs – at the very minimum,” Hall said.
It wasn’t so long ago that Hall’s lofty goals might have seemed like a far-fetched dream, but the Rams are coming off their best season in more than a decade.
Head coach Neal Andrade has sprinkled a strong recruiting class into a program filled with several former local prep stars, and he relishes the idea of high expectations.
“We had a decent year last year, a chance to come up a little bit in the standings,” Andrade said. “Maybe instead of a middle-of-the-pack team, who knows? Maybe we can get a chance to surprise somebody and sneak into the playoffs. This team has the ability to do that if all the pieces fall into place.”
Gavilan went 17-19 overall and 10-14 in the Coast Conference last season. Those 10 conference victories were more than the program had totaled over the past four years, and made for its highest single-season win count in the past 11 years.
The Rams failed to reach a Northern California Regional, as a five-game losing streak to end the year sunk the team’s chances of a winning record.
But this season, Gavilan is off to a 2-1 start, and sophomore third baseman Connor Sutton said the Rams have reason to be optimistic.
“I like how the young guys and older guys mesh,” said Sutton, a former Live Oak standout. “We’ve been here all fall, and I feel like we already have good chemistry.”
The Rams took two of three games from visiting College of the Siskiyous last weekend, losing 4-2 and winning 26-12 on Feb. 1 before clinching the season-opening series with a 9-6 victory Saturday.
Andrade said a highlight he took from the series was the performance of his three freshmen starting pitchers. Rams right-hander Erik Barron was a tough-luck loser in the opener, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts in seven innings.
Andrade also was pleased with right-handers Taylor Hussey and Gabe Katich, who started the second and third games, respectively.
Barron and Katich were part of a Mt. Pleasant High team in San Jose that went 21-0 in its league last year.
“Erik and Gabe are Mt. Pleasant kids, extremely competitive and wanting the baseball every single game,” Andrade said. “They throw a few pitches for strikes. If anything, our challenge to them is just the fact that they have to slow the game down. They want to do everything super fast.”
The freshmen trio will play a key role as the Rams try to replace ace pitcher Christopher Bradley, a former Sobrato High star who is now a junior at New Mexico State. The left-hander was named Coast Conference Pacific Division Pitcher of the Year after he went 7-3 with a 2.23 ERA last season.
“I believe we’re going to get a lot better, a lot stronger from here on out,” Katich said. “We have a lot of solid pitchers who come out of the bullpen.”
Hall was a second-team all-conference pick last season, and the young Rams will be counting on their No. 3 hitter for leadership in addition to RBIs.
“He’s the one from a player’s perspective who can slow everything down and rally the troops in a calm manner, with that calming influence,” Andrade said of Hall. “He had a great year for us last year, and we’re expecting the same if not better from him this year.”
Several former South Valley area high school players dot Gavilan’s roster, including: pitcher/utility player Ryan Alba from Gilroy High; infielder/outfielder Bryant Cid from Christopher; infielder Alika Bantilan, outfielder/pitcher Jakob Conlan, Hall and Sutton from Live Oak; outfielder Eric Guill-Perez from Sobrato; and pitcher Chad Badger and second baseman Marcus Sabatte from San Benito High.
The Rams host West Hills at 2 p.m. Friday, and have home games against De Anza at 2 p.m. Tuesday, San Mateo at 2 p.m. Feb. 19 and City College of San Francisco at noon Feb. 23. Gavilan opens conference play at Skyline at 2 p.m. Feb. 26.
“We want to win the games, but at the same time, you want to see how everybody fits in once we’re playing games,” Andrade said of the nonconference slate. “That’s kind of what we’re using February for.”
