Pirates Baseball Powers Through Tough Season

SYHS softball team gets first league win of the year

By Mike Chaldu michael@santaynezvalleystar.com

The Santa Ynez High baseball team has had a tough time of it in the 2023 baseball season, one year after making the CIF Southern Section Division 6 semifinals, but there have been positives.

The Pirates, 6-12-1 overall after a 4-3 loss to Bishop Montgomery on April 12, have seen bright spots in the lineup like Caleb Cassidy (.487) and Nick Crandall (.409) hitting over .400 for the year, while Ryan Henrey (.377) and Dallas DeForest (.364) have also been hitting well. Henrey (12), Cassidy (12), and Crandall (11) have also been doing well in the RBI department.

On the pitching side, Tate Minus has led the team in starts (10) and wins (3), while has been able to fashion a 2.82 ERA in seven appearances.

The Pirates were able to pick up a couple win at the Nipomo Tournament last week. The first was against Santa Maria on April 11, with Adam Stephens going 2-for-2 with 2 runs scored and Crandall and Henrey had 3 RBI apiece.

The day before that, they beat host Nipomo 7-3 as Cassidy took the mound and pitched a complete-game six-hitter, while also going 3-for-4 at the plate with 3 RBI.

Santa Ynez will be back in action on Saturday, April 22, playing a doubleheader at Lompoc.

Softball

The Lady Pirates picked up their first Ocean League win of the year on April 5, beating Santa Maria 12-8.

Kylie LaPointe pitched 7 innings with 7 strikeouts to get the win, and also had 2 stolen bases. Kalianne Lawver hit a huge two-run homer in the seventh inning.

Sierra (Bear) Vannasap (two singles), and Cierra Cloud (2 doubles, 1 stolen base) also excelled.

On April 7, SYHS suffered a 14-8 loss to San Luis Obispo, but Brooke Phelan (4- for-4 with an RBI), Cierra Cloud (3-for4 with three RBI), Lawver (2 RBI), and Abby Hemming (3 hits) all did well at the plate.

Santa Ynez returns to action Wednesday, April 19, with an Ocean League game at Nipomo.

Girls Beach Volleyball

On April 3, the Pirates suffered its first Mountain League loss, falling to San Luis Obispo 2-1.

Sadie Lishman and Hannah Allen got the lone win for SYHS, beating Ana Shalhoob and Lyla Merk 22-10, 21-10.

“SLO played excellent wind ball today," Pirates coach Melissa Rogers said. "Unfortunately, we struggled with limiting our errors and in the extreme wind, the team that makes the least number of errors wins.”

The Pirates came back the next day to beat Mission Prep and now stand at 6-1 in league and 10-5 overall pending the Thursday, April 13, non-league match against Laguna Blanca, and a Monday, April 17, league match at Arroyo Grande. The team will then close out the regular season with a match at San Luis Obispo on Wednesday, April 19.

Track and field

The Pirates traveled to the Arcadia Invitational on Easter Weekend and Chase Sylvia had a successful day, breaking his own school record in the invitational triple jump — his leap of 45'08.25" was 7.25" better than the previous mark.

Sylvia also entered the invitational long jump and finished ninth with a jump of 31'01.5".

Boys golf

The Santa Ynez High team played in the sixth Mountain League tournament on April 4 at Hunter Ranch in Paso Robles.

The Pirates finished sixth with a team score of 437 and were led by senior Rye Winans, with a score of 79. Host Templeton won the tournament with a team score of 404. Cooper Groshart of San Luis Obispo was the medalist of the tournament shooting an even par-72.

The rest of the SYHS golfers were Brayden Mlodzik (83), Owen Hirth (86), Cody Armenta (91), and Marcelo Andrade (98).

Boys tennis

The Pirates tennis team suffered losses against San Luis Obispo (9-0) and Orcutt Academy (6-3) last week, but they did edge Paso Robles 5-4 in a league match on April 4. Bryce Wilczak (6-1, 6-1), Lucas Doman (6-1, 6-0) and Cooper Haws (7-5, 2-6, 10-6) got the singles wins, while Wilczak and Haws (6-4, 6-4), and Doman and William Small (6-1, 6-2) took the doubles points.