It’s who they are that got them here Despite what they aren’t, Gauchos usually found a way to win By bill kolb | Contributor Here’s a partial list of things that the members of the El Cerrito High School baseball team aren’t: ■ Very fast ■ Very athletic ■ Especially potent hitters ■ Notably overpowering pitchers ■ Quitters ■ Afraid ■ Intimidated ■ Backing down for anyone Some things that the Gauchos are: resilient, determined, scrappy, efficient. They don’t get all that many opportunities to score runs, but they don’t often waste the opportunities they get. “We don’t have a lot of guys that run well. We don’t have bunch of guys with strong arms. There is not a whole lot of athletic ability on this team,” head coach Brian Nichols said. “What we have are kids who work hard, 18
SportStars™
June 10, 2010
get the most out of their ability and love to play baseball. We have a lot of really intelligent players. We do anything we can to score runs. Bunt, hit and run — to do that, you have to have a bunch of intelligent guys.” Despite that dearth of obvious talent, El Cerrito somehow managed to go 20-6-1 and reach the North Coast Section title game for the first time since 2003, when it dropped an NCS 2A East Bay final 2-1 to top-seeded Las Lomas. And though they ultimately lost a bizarre, extended 3-0 decision to defending NCS Division III champ Miramonte in the 15th inning of a three-day epic, not one of the team’s defining characteristics is altered by the outcome. The championship game at Saint Mary’s College’s Louis Guisto Field was something of a microcosm of the Gauchos’ season. It started off looking pretty good, had some dicey moments in the middle, lingered a
El Cerrito’s Tino Lipson celebrates a fifth inning double play during the North Coast Section Division III Championship game at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga on June 5.
bob larson
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