By Vincent Liu

Town Crier Correspondent

As the summer baseball league season swung into action, two teams loaded with local high school standouts met in a non-league contest last Friday at St. Francis High.

At the end, there appeared to be no real losers.

Even though the Palo Alto Post 375, an American Legion team consisting of 16-18-year- olds from mostly Gunn and Palo Alto highs, came out on top 9-6, it received a good fight from the younger and less experienced NorCal Thunder of the American Athletic Union.

A scrappy group of 16-and-under players, the Thunder - previously unbeaten at 9-0 - was looking for a challenge by “playing up.” It more than held its own and got the proper respect from Post 375 which threw Gunn’s ace Greg Matson at the underclassmen.

The game appeared to be a mismatch at the outset as Post 375 bolted to a 7-0 lead after two innings.

Then Eric Davis, the sophomore fireballer from Mountain View High, came in as a reliever for the Thunder in the third inning and shut down the opposition. He struck out the side in each of his first two innings including four in the third inning when the first batter reached first on a strike-three passed ball.

In all, Davis struck out seven of the first eight batters he faced, totaling 10 strikeouts in four innings of relief, mostly with a blazing fast ball. His only blemish was a two-run homer he gave up to Paly’s Durell Williams who lined a change-up over the center field wall.

“He owns me,” said Davis of his nemesis from Paly, whom he faced in three SCVAL El Camino Division games this past season. “I don’t think I got him out yet,” recalled Davis who once struck out 15 batters in a game this past season for the Spartans.

Such is the peculiarity of summer league when old rivalry continues, former rivals become teammates or teammates become rivals. For the graduating seniors on Post 375, it is the last opportunity to hone their skills before moving on to college ball.

The team is anchored by four outstanding senior pitchers from the Palo Alto area, namely Matson, Ray Hunter and Jon Dishotsky of Gunn and Colby Henard of Paly.

Tony Brewer, coach of Post 375, always seeks to add depth to his pitching staff. As the American Legion teams typically play four to six games a week in a two-month season, Brewer figures he needs eight pitchers to contend.

“I’ve told my players: If you can pitch or think you can pitch, be ready,” he said.

Besides the four pitching mainstays mentioned, Jason Kleinhoffer of Paly and Rick Navarro of Gunn will be counted on to pick up some innings as relievers. Brewer is hoping to develop a couple of new pitching prospects from Menlo-Atherton. This season he has access to M-A after Mountain View and Los Altos highs were removed from Post 375’s territorial rights. The local American Legion organization assigns high schools to all the teams in the league as long as the total student bodies of the schools do not exceed 4,000 students.

The AAU has no such restriction. As such, the Thunder has a roster that is heavily stocked with sophomores and freshmen from St. Francis but also includes players from Mountain View, Serra, Soquel, Monta Vista Christian, Half Moon Bay, St. Ignatius, Paly and even Egan Junior High.

NorCal coach Dave Salter has a plethora of pitchers to choose from and he’s particularly familiar with Davis whom he has coached since the latter was 8 years old. Although Davis is trying to add a slider to his pitching repertoire, his coach feels it’s unnecessary.

“Eric already has three great pitches (fastball, curve and a change-up),” Salter said. “He needs to have more focus on the mound and pitch to locations.”

Davis will get plenty of direction from his battery mate catcher Chris Coleman from St. Francis, who possesses a cannon arm and a rapid-fire wit to match. Also a pitcher, Coleman teamed up with Davis to shut out Post 375 the final four innings of the game.

Both teams have impressive credentials.

As the only 15-year-old team to make the national AAU tournament in Florida last year, the Thunder finished seventh out of 72 teams in the B-bracket. Post 375, on the other hand, has finished at or near the top of the American Legion Peninsula League the last four years during which it made the Area 2 tournament.

Brewer’s goal this year is to win the area tournament to be held locally July 23-28 and advance as far as possible up the ladder toward the state, western regional and ultimately the world series finals. He figures his team this year is among the strongest he has fielded in his six years as coach.

Brewer has strong baseball credentials as he was drafted into the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system and played professional baseball in Japan. He’s also a hitting consultant for San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker’s baseball clinic, a summer camp based in Sacramento.

Brewer considers American Legion league the highest level of off-season high school competition and a training ground for college baseball.

“I try to treat these kids like college players, and I don’t need to motivate them, as they’re already motivated,” he said.

He sees himself as a lightning rod igniting the potential of these high school players to go as far as their skill will take them.

“My job is to get these kids ready to advance to the next level,” he said, “and I get a lot of pleasure developing them.”