Sierra Vista off to impressive start to season

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

As is his duty as a high school sports coach, Sierra Vista's Nathan Selby would like to remind everyone that his baseball team isn't the greatest thing around.

But the Mountain Lions' 13-3 record would indicate otherwise.

That record includes wins against some of the city's better-regarded programs, such as Basic, Cimarron-Memorial, Silverado, Palo Verde and Centennial.

Tuesday at Rhodes Ranch, it was Foothill joining the ranks of the defeated after a 9-7 loss.

What was unusual about that for the Mountain Lions was that they've thus far been a team that's tough to score against. Prior to Tuesday's game, opponents averaged just over three runs per game against Sierra Vista.

"(Justin) Garcia kept us in it," Selby said Tuesday. "He's been our bread and butter. For the last two years, he's been just about unhittable. Some guys get swings on him, but he keeps us in games."

Good things come in threes lately for the Mountain Lions. Aside from their opponents' low scores, Selby and his team can also look to the three grand slams Sierra Vista hit Monday against Mojave. Then there's Tuesday's game, in which three three-run innings helped Garcia earn his third win of the season.

"We've been winning a lot of low-scoring games," Selby said. "Garcia's been good," even in his one loss, in which Green Valley had five hits and two runs in six innings.

As for giving up six runs in five innings on Tuesday, Garcia, a fastball pitcher when he's not playing first base, knew what his problem was at his wind-blown home park.

"I left the ball up today," he said.

The top-ranked Mountain Lions' next challenge is Thursday, when they host Eldorado.

Once around town

"We lost four kids for ineligibility, and those were prospective starters," coach Jesse Medellin said. "The other kids that are in starting roles, they're in major playing-time roles, and they're getting used to varsity pitching. They're getting their feet wet, and they're just now starting to play better baseball."

The bright spot so far this year at Eldorado has been the play of Anthony Griffith and Josh Creveling. Griffith is 25-for-44 (.568) at the plate this season with 12 RBIs, and Josh Creveling is hitting .455 while earning a 1.40 ERA.

"He's (Creveling) doing a really good job hitting behind Anthony in the four spot," Medellin said. "He's done a great job for us on the mound."

Eldorado plays at Palo Verde this afternoon and travels to Sierra Vista on Thursday.

Mike O'Rourke is in his second year as head coach at Coronado, eight years after graduating from Silverado, his school's rival just up the road.

Derek Stafford is in his first year coaching Bonanza, also eight years removed from his graduation from Silverado.

A match made in heaven, as far as the coaches are concerned. Both have been friends since middle school, both learned from current Silverado coach Brian Whitaker. So, three times this year the Cougars and Bengals will meet on the field.

"The kids know about the Coronado series and know the importance of it," Stafford said. "We had a little bet over the summer in one of the games and we beat them both games. My kids know. It's no secret."

Both credit Whitaker with their success at the high school level so far.

"He's got a lot of former players and people who have coached with him or under him and now coaching at different schools in town," O'Rourke said. "I loved it when I played there, I have the ultimate amount of respect for him. It's the way he runs his program still to this day."

Stafford said that Whitaker emphasized playing with class.

"Whit taught me and O'Rourke a lot of doing things the right way," Stafford said. "Getting good grades, being classy and respectful. It's teaching the way it's meant to be."

The first game of the Disciples of Whitaker series is at Coronado at 3:30 p.m. The other two games between the two teams are at Bonanza in a doubleheader this Saturday.

The Northeast Division should be glad that the Gaels play in the Southwest Division. Off to a 10-2 start, Gorman is looking like yet another strong entry into what figures to be a dogfight come league play. No Northeast team is above .500 -- five of the seven Southwest teams are.

"We knew that all along, that our division's going to be one of the best in the valley," Gorman coach Chris Sheff said. "We like our club, our number-one and number-two have been throwing great."

Jon Berger, for example, has pitched 22 innings and has a 0.32 ERA with 22 strikeouts. Second pitcher Taylor Preston has logged 16 strikeouts in the 17 innings he's pitched, with a 4.53 ERA.

"I'm not really surprised from one and two, but the way a couple of freshmen have thrown a couple games, I didn't think they'd throw as well as they have," Sheff said.

The Gaels play Littlerock (Calif.) tonight at Hadland Park.

At 5-7, the Panthers certainly aren't doing badly, especially, said coach Mike Besser, when the level of Palo Verde's competition is taken into consideration.

"We've had some games where we've had the opportunity to win numerous times and we just haven't finished," Besser said. "We had leads going into the sixth and seventh innings in San Diego and we lost two games we had leads in. But then we also beat the number-six ranked team down there. It was a good trip."

Besser said that catcher Joe Intiso has been doing particularly well this year, leading the team in RBIs. As for improvement, it's late-game leads that Besser is worried about.

"Closing out games at this point," he said. "We need to be playing a little better defensively in the infield."

Palo Verde hosts Eldorado this afternoon and plays at Silverado on Thursday.