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Now that the winter season has been put to sleep, it’s time to jump into spring, as league play will be fully underway this week in East Bay Athletic League baseball and softball.
It’s a unique situation for the EBAL this year, as the defending champions for the CIF State Northern California champions in both sports are from the Tri-Valley.
The Granada baseball and Amador Valley softball teams ended the year on top of the mountain in the CIF NorCal playoffs.
Let’s look at both leagues and see how things are shaping up as we begin the EBAL grind.
Baseball
It appears that Granada (4-1, 1-0), despite losing a lot to graduation, has picked up right where the Mats left off. Their first game of the season was a 2-0 loss to St. Ignatius but since then, four straight wins. The last was a 6-2 win at De La Salle in an early start to the EBAL season.
According to the Granada stats, through five games Peyton Richards and Estevan Duarte are hitting .357 to pace the offense.
Jake Sekany is 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA and has struck out 10 batters in 10 innings pitched. Alex Piscotty is 1-0 in three appearances, striking out 14 batters in just 8.2 innings pitched.
De La Salle (0-2, 1-2) played two, and lost two, but the losses came to the two NorCal finalists last year. In addition to the loss to Granada, the Spartans also fell 4-1 in extra innings to St. Mary’s.
Amador Valley (4-0) has plenty of talent and has been getting it done at bat, with 41 runs in four games.
Through the first four games, Aaron Soloman is hitting .538, with Gavin Whalley at .500 and Vince Maiorana is hitting .467. The early leader in pitching has been Brennan Baptist at 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA, and 12 strikeouts in 14 innings pitched.
I don’t think Dublin (8-0, 1-0) has played the toughest schedule, but you can’t do more than beat the team occupying the other dugout and the Gaels have been perfect so far.
Brendan Moddelmog has been on fire at the plate through eight games, hitting .522. Matthew Phelps, just a sophomore, is at .423 and Evan Salvador is hitting .444.
On the bump, Andrew Zorinich is 4-0 in four starts with a 0.34 ERA. He has struck out 19 batters in 20 innings pitched.
Foothill (6-1, 0-0) is No. 5 in our Power Rankings thus far. The Falcons have their fair share of players from the Tri-Valley Babe Ruth World Champions from a few years back (Amador has a chunk as well).
Ryan Wescott (.529) and George Schmitt (.455) are leading the way at the plate. Take Sato-Kreis (3-0, 1.24 ERA) and Charlie Stearns (3-0, 0.88 ERA) are the top pitchers for the Falcons.
California (3-1) will be a team with a chance in every game the Grizzlies take the field, with their one loss at this point coming 8-2 against a strong Liberty team.
In their first two wins the Grizzlies scored 33 runs so the offense is there.
Dougherty Valley (1-4) has struggled thus far, but the Wildcats will make some noise in league and pull off some surprises.
Livermore (4-4, 0-1) has been up and down with the Cowboys suffering a 4-2 loss to Dublin in an early EBAL game. Following a 1-0 win over San Marin, the Cowboys dropped a 7-6 game to Tracy and a 4-3 game to Washington.
Monte Vista (2-5) has seen some tough non-league games and should come into league ready to play. The Mustangs wins have come over Skyline and Washington.
San Ramon Valley (2-4) is far better than the Wolves record indicates. They have tough losses to College Park and Serra but a big win over Mitty (11-3).
Softball
Early on if there is one thing for certain when it comes to EBAL softball, it is that the league appears to be wide open with maybe five or six teams making a run at the title.
Amador Valley (3-2, 0-0) caught on fire at the end of the season last year, going on the road to win the NCS and CIF titles, pulling off upset after upset.
The Dons have dropped a pair of one-run losses, falling 5-4 to Tracy and 4-3 in nine innings to a strong Clayton Valley team. So far it has been the M&M sisters getting it done at the plate.
McKenna Charbonneau and Mia Falcone are both hitting .500 at this point in the season, with Charbonneau blasting four home runs already.
Kaylee Davis has been tough in the circle with a 3-1 mark and a 1.98 ERA.
Foothill (4-2-1, 0-0) returns the marquee player for not just the EBAL, but all of Northern California in outfielder Kaycie Burdick. The University of Washington-bound senior was the Offensive MVP for all of Northern California last year, hitting .535 for the season with eight home runs.
This year Ellie Novitske is hitting .600 for Foothill, with Kaycie’s sister and San Jose State-bound Sophia Burdick hitting .435. Kaycie is at .381 with a pair of home runs.
Myra Galzie is 2-0 pitching with a 2.73 ERA in 33.1 innings pitched.
Carondelet (3-3, 2-0) started 1-3, then swept Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley in early EBAL games to make a statement to the rest of the league.
Angela Gates is leading the Cougars’ regulars in hitting at .471, with the pitching falling in the hands of Maia Scholtens (3-0, 2.39 ERA).
The San Ramon Valley (4-1-1, 0-0) 3-0 loss to Carondelet was a bit of a head scratcher as the Wolves were 4-0-1, with wins over Alameda and Liberty to their credit at the time of the game.
Through the first four games of the year, Addie Layous was hitting .611 to lead the Wolves at the plate. Lila McLeod was 4-0 in the circle, posting a .93 ERA.
The early surprise this year has been Dougherty Valley (4-1). The Wildcats lone loss came to Newark by a 6-4 final. The other four games have been offensive explosions with the offense accounting for 66 runs.
Marisa Rhee is putting up video game numbers at this point with a .714 average and has scored 11 runs. Kaitlyn Lohn is hitting .600.
The run producers have been Laura Osborn with 12 RBI and Sydney Henry with 14.
If the past few years have shown anything it is that California (2-1) will be tough when the playoffs roll around. The Grizzlies have only played three games so it will take some time to hit their stride.
Granada (2-2) and Livermore (2-2) have been the standard bearers for EBAL softball for some time now, and I fully expect to see the Mats and the Cowboys right in the hunt come the end of the season.
The Cowboys will be playing on their own field at Livermore High this year instead of playing off-site.
Monte Vista (3-2, 0-1) fell 11-7 to Carondelet in an early EBAL game. The Mustangs other loss came 3-1 to Castro Valley.
Dublin (1-3) lost a lot of talent to graduation with their last two games a big contradiction. The Gaels dropped a 10-2 final to Vacaville two back, then came back with a 18-0 win over Miramonte.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
