Baseball wins league and enters the third round of CIF
After an impressive run from last year’s baseball team which made it to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) semi-finals, this year’s program welcomed new coach and science teacher, Loren Drake. After defeating Righetti 9-1 on May 21, and Northwood High School 3-1 on May 26, Samo is mov- ing into the third round of the play- offs with a record of 20-8.Drake has been coaching for over 25 years and his main objective for his first year of coaching is to instill a feeling of unity in players. According to first baseman Ryan Slinger (’16), Drake introduced new techniques for practicing that has led to visible improvement.“The coach always contributes to the team’s success,” Slinger said. “It’s hard coming into a head coaching position for the first year, but we were able to get it done and make playoffs which is all that really maters. He had the pitchers throw live to us more, which helped with our hitting by giving us more realistic reps.”
Drake’s coaching style is one of teamwork. By promoting the idea of TEAM: “Together Everyone Achieves More”, which was used by former Samo coach Lambardy, Drake is trying to get his players to work as unified group, rather than just as individual athletes playing different positions.For this season, Drake is confident in the skills of his team.“If they all play well, I think they can beat everyone,” Drake said. “If they’re all able to focus and do their jobs, they can be very successful.”The Vikings have clearly held onto this mindset as they endured nine innings on Tuesday instead of seven due to their tie with North- wood at the end of the seventh in- ning.Entering the ninth inning, Samo needed some late game heroics to pull out the win. It started when catcher Matthew Kassowitz (’15) hit a double, following third baseman Rudy Olmedo’s (’15) walk to first base, resulting with men on first and second. Following the walk, second baseman Lowell Schipper (’16) hit a single to the right cen- terfield to load the bases, allowing shortstop Jaylon McLaughlin (’16) to step up to the plate and hit a single, resulting in Kassowitz and Olmedo scoring, giving Samo the victory.
Samo will face San Dimas High School, ranked as one of the top 10 teams in the state, on May 29.