By Special to the Town Crier

A team of Los Altos High alumni beat the school’s varsity squad 15-4 on May 13 in the seventh annual Bob Baird Memorial baseball game.

The game is played each year in memory of former Eagles coach Baird, who died of Leukemia in 1988.

Baird coached at Los Altos for 24 years, winning several titles in varsity baseball, football and golf.

“There were two key factors in this year’s game,” said alumni player Bill Dolby, class of 1972. “We had mostly younger guys playing on our team this year, and the varsity held back their two best pitchers in preparation for the (Central Coast Section) tournament. It would have been a different story if we had to face their ace Wes Battle.”

In a pre-game ceremony, Battle received the Bob Baird Scholarship Award, given each year to the most deserving senior player.

The alumni team was led by Dan Jimenez (’72), who doubled twice, and Marty Nielson (’70), who hit his first baseball homer in nearly 30 years. Mark Rodriguez (’87) and Dolby also had two hits each. Jim Rosa (’87) pitched three innings of one-hit ball to keep the varsity off the scoreboard early on.

In the pre-game home run derby, the varsity pounded six homers, including two each by Cam Matthews and Raul Ontiveros. Thomas Roux and Battle also homered. The alumni got homers from Mark Rodriguez (two), Rosa, and Doug Sanders.

During the game it was announced that the varsity had made the CCS playoffs for only the second time in the last 19 years.

“Varsity coach Sandy Wihtol has done an outstanding job rebuilding the program,” Dolby said. “He deserves all the credit for rallying the community to support the team, remodeling the baseball field and restoring pride in Los Altos High School baseball. Coach Baird would be proud.”