The Wilcox baseball team is off to a solid start so far in 2019. Through seven games, the Chargers have won four times, lost twice and had a rare baseball tie.
This season Wilcox is hoping to take another step towards a CCS championship. Last year the Chargers lost a 6-5 heartbreaker in the Division I quarterfinal against Piedmont Hills. Most of the key players from last season are back this year and remember how last season ended. Many of them are also coming off the high of winning a CIF State Championship Game for the football team. One thing is for certain, very few, if any of the Wilcox players will be afraid of the big moment.
“The experiences with football, we know what it takes to get to a championship, we know how hard you have to work in practice,” said Alex Adame, starting quarterback for the football team and starting third baseman on the baseball team. “Every practice has to be like a game. Gotta work hard.”
“I think having some of that championship experience really helps,” added football safety and baseball pitcher Nick Malvini. “We have kids that have played in big games their whole lives and won some championships, so it’s good to have that experience because that is the end goal of our season, to go win a CCS Championship. Good to have kids that have done it before.”
Along with Adame and Malvini, starting shortstop Paul M. Rosa, and pitcher Robert Padilla, among others, are also key figures for both the football and baseball teams.
“I think it’s big that we have a lot of guys returning from last year’s baseball team in terms of experience, but yeah we like having football-baseball players and that football mentality,” remarked Head Coach David Currie. “Our returners really get what we want to do and things are clicking a little more this year. These guys are pretty close. One of the closest-knit teams I can remember, I’m sure the football experience has something to do with that, in addition to a lot of these guys playing baseball together last year.”
The Chargers’ first few games of the season include a 9-2 win over Archbishop Mitty, but also a 10-1 loss to Valley Christian. Their most recent two games were a two-game sweep of league rival Homestead. Wilcox won 6-5 on Mar. 6 and then shut out the Mustangs 8-0 on Mar. 8.
“We had a really good game against Mitty with high energy, but then had to come back the next day, we never quit. Valley Christian is a really good team,” said Rosa on the start to the season. “We had a phenomenal game against Mitty and that was really good to see.”
“We’ve been a little bit up and down,” remarked Currie on the team’s play thus far. “I think we played our most complete game on Friday against Homestead in terms of pitching, defense and base running. Overall, we’re clicking, but not quite where we need to be. It’s early, though, right now I would give us a B-minus.”
The Chargers will look to improve to 3-0 in league play when they take on Cupertino Friday, Mar. 15.