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When the weather gets nice (forget this last weekend), out on the diamond is a great place to be!
Whether it’s baseball or softball, the East Bay Athletic League is deep, talented and a lot of fun to watch.
I spent another weekend digesting the scores from both leagues, trying to get a line on what is happening through the first two weeks of EBAL play.
Baseball has somewhat crystalized, but softball … that’s a whole other story.
Let’s look at both leagues and see how things are shaking out. After this week teams will have a week off from EBAL play for spring break, which means it will be tournament time!
Baseball
Earlier this season I made note of how the Granada offense was singing along, pounding out hits and runs like there was no tomorrow.
I also drew reference at that time that if the Matadors could get pitching to match their hitting, they might run and hide from the rest of the EBAL.
Well, we might be staring that right in the face.
Save for the 5-4 win over De La Salle on March 15, the Mats have been touched for all of one run in their other three league games.
This past week it was a 5-0 win over Dougherty Valley and a 2-0 blanking of California that left Granada at 4-0 in league and 10-0 overall.
It’s been a committee of pitchers getting it done, as through their first nine games the Matadors have had 10 different players pitch.
Statistically, Parker Warner has been the leader for Granada, both on the hill and at the plate.
Throughout the first nine games Warner is 3-0 and a 1.68 ERA. He has struck out 26 batters in 25 innings pitched. At the plate he is just as good.
In the same span he leads the team in average at .469. He also leads Granada in RBIs with 15 and is tied for the lead in runs scored with 13.
Jake Sekany has been dealing on the mound with a 2-0 mark and a 2.62 ERA. Sekany has struck out 21 batters in 16 innings pitched. Overall, the Mats have a 1.72 team ERA.
Of course, all of four games into the EBAL season it would be ridiculous to anoint anyone as the league winner, but the Mats have certainly set the tone for the rest of the league to deal with.
De La Salle sits at 3-1 and did not allow a run last week, beating Dublin 7-0, then Livermore 12-0.
Amador could be a factor, but the Dons need to find some consistency as their four EBAL games have gone lose-win-lose-win.
Foothill sits 3-1 in league, with the blemish being a 9-3 loss to San Ramon Valley.
The Wolves are also 3-1, with their loss coming at the hands of Granada to open the league season.
Softball
If anything is for certain in the EBAL softball season, it’s that nothing is for certain.
Foothill tops the Playbook Power Rankings, largely in part because of wins over Granada and Livermore the first week of the season.
This past week, the Falcons fell to Dublin 18-13 in a more football than softball final score.
Foothill has been paced by Paige Bennett in the circle and at the plate by Marissa Anderson and Kaycie Burdick at the plate.
Bennett, who will be moving on to Winthrop to play volleyball, is 7-2 on the season with a 3.11 ERA. Anderson has an amazing .679 batting average and leads the team in hits with 19 and RBIs with 26 (second on the team is nine).
Burdick seems to be the beneficiary of Anderson’s RBI total as she leads the Falcons with 20 runs scored. She is second on the team in hits with 14 and has hammered four home runs this year to lead the team.
After four games I can confidently say that no less than seven teams have a shot to win the league.
San Ramon Valley sits at 3-0 in league, but the Wolves have some heavy lifting right in front of them. There was also a 9-0 non-league loss to Amador Valley for the Wolves.
Amador Valley has lost two straight games, but the Dons can beat anyone.
California is the defending NCS Division I champion and sits 5-2 overall this year. The Grizzlies fell 2-1 to San Ramon Valley in the first week of league.
Dublin is 3-3 and has not won or lost two games in a row. The Gaels showed their offensive capabilities after taking advantage of a pair of early Foothill errors to put three touchdowns on the board.
Livermore is always a factor and the Cowboys have put together three wins since the 10-0 loss to Foothill to open league play. The Cowboys sit 6-1 overall.
Granada is perplexing at 3-5, but I can still see the Matadors influencing the title race with a late season roll.
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.