Gators look surprisingly green in 16-5 loss to rival Silverado

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, June 28, 2001 | 11:37 a.m.

The last two high school state champions squared off Wednesday, but a casual baseball fan would have been hard-pressed to identify Green Valley as the team that captured the 4A title just last month.

Playing without eight mainstays from their 2001 prep squad, the Gators' American Legion team fell 16-5 to visiting Silverado in the teams' lone conference meeting this summer.

"We didn't play well today, but it's a learning experience," Green Valley coach Ron Sufana said. "As long as they learn from it and get better, we'll be all right."

For the Gators (7-4, 5-2 in conference), the 2001 Legion season has been similar to Silverado's campaign of a year ago. After winning the 2000 high school championship, the Skyhawks played through the summer without most of their graduated stars, instead counting on younger players to learn on the job.

Gone from Green Valley's title team are outfielders Garrett Guzman and Chris McGovern, infielders Zeke Parraz and Mark Merrifield, pitchers Jake Dittler and Adam Morris and catcher Scott Villamor. Junior-to-be Ryan Tabor, expected to be the squad's top pitcher, is out for the summer, nursing a bruised bone in his elbow.

Sufana routinely fills out a lineup card comprised of players who were not even in the dugout for last month's victory celebration. He counts heavily on holdover starters Eric Durante, Kyle Price and Jordan Parraz, along with graduated senior pitcher Gabe Gordon to anchor an otherwise largely inexperienced roster.

On Wednesday, that inexperience showed, as Silverado pounced on sophomore-to-be Scott Strader for six runs in the first two innings to pave the way for the landside win. Ryan Castellanos and Jered Ferndinand homered to lead the Skyhawk attack.

"We happened to hit the ball well today, but we don't take Green Valley lightly," said Silverado Legion manager Art Besser, whose squad downed the Gators 6-4 in 10 innings in a non-league meeting in Prescott, Ariz., earlier this month.

The Skyhawks (10-10, 3-4) have righted their ship after opening the summer 0-7 overall and 0-4 in league play. Silverado captured last week's Joyce Stoker Memorial Invitational title with back-to-back wins over host Durango and Greelee (Colo.) and has posted three straight conference wins this week.

"We went down to Prescott and started to win, and we finally got the momentum going our way," Besser said. "We want to keep it going."

Silverado will play in the Cowboy Classic in Twin Falls, Idaho, Friday through Sunday...

Basic will host this year's Legion all-star game, July 28 at 7 p.m. The contest will be preceeded by the annual home run contest.