LAHS baseball team playing well below coach's expectations

By Pete Borello, Town Crier Staff Writer

JOE HU/TOWN CRIER Los Altos High infielder Donnie Ecker throws to first base in an attempt to get a double play in last week’s game at Palo Alto. The Eagles went on to lose for the 10th time in 12 games.

Those wondering what’s wrong with this year’s Los Altos High baseball team need only look at last week’s 4-3 loss at Palo Alto for answers.

The Eagles continued their trend of leaving runners on base and making costly errors. Los Altos stranded 11 runners, twice leaving the bases loaded and marooning men at second and third two other times. Los Altos also made two errors that led to runs.

“(The April 21) game was a perfect example of things not going our way,” said Los Altos senior Donnie Ecker, who relieved starter Matt Nippes (1-3) in the seventh inning.

Ecker pointed out that Paly had three passed balls, all of which bounced right to the Vikings’ catcher. Los Altos threw one wild pitch - by Ecker - and it resulted in the winning run.

This marked the Eagles’ 10th loss in 12 games, sinking their record to 7-15 overall and 4-8 in the SCVAL De Anza Division.

Neither Ecker nor head coach Sandy Wihtol expected Los Altos to perform this poorly - not with almost the entire roster returning from last year, when the squad captured the SCVAL El Camino Division championship.

“In my opinion, I thought this was the most talented team I’ve had here in terms of physical ability,” the eighth-year coach said. “But when it comes to execution, we’re not getting the job done. It’s frustrating.”

Wihtol knew moving up to the De Anza Division would pose a bigger challenge, yet he entered the season confident his team could contend for the league title and make the Central Coast Section playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

Ecker said the jump has proven more difficult than the Eagles imagined.

“Last year we could make a few mistakes and still win,” he said. “You really have to execute (in the De Anza). You can’t make three or four errors, because you’ll lose.”

Defense and hitting were the two areas Wihtol was counting on this year, especially with an unsettled pitching staff that has been without top starter Greg LaLonde (offseason rotator cuff surgery).

“The lack of timely hitting, without a doubt, is the No. 1 thing,” Wihtol said when asked about the Eagles’ problem areas, “but we also have to step up the defense and pitching.”

In the hitting department, Wihtol said “easily seven” of his players aren’t swinging the bat as well as he expected. Even more worrisome to the coach, however, is the lack of leadership.

“The leadership I expected from certain players hasn’t been there,” said Wihtol, a former major league pitcher with the Cleveland Indians. “Some of the guys who’ve been around didn’t come through.”

One of the low points of the season for both Wihtol and Ecker was the team’s performance in the recent North Monterey High School Easter Classic. The Eagles lost their first three games of the tournament and finished 1-4.

“We were the best team in the tournament,” said Ecker, who homered in the team’s lone win, “but we took things for granted.”

That’s something Los Altos has done far too often this season, according to Wihtol.

“You can’t just show up and think you’re going to win,” he said.

With only six games remaining - starting with Friday’s 3:30 p.m. contest at Los Gatos - Ecker aspires to salvage what’s left of the Eagles’ season.

“I want to win out so we can prove to everyone how we can play,” he said. “We want to show everyone what we can really do.”