One Last Shot For Calabasas Baseball Team

baseball team lost again Monday, this time by a score of 3-2 at Moorpark, and with the last-place Coyotes (9-17, 4-0) no longer in the hunt for a playoff berth in the eight-team Marmonte League, it’s all about pride.

Calabasas plays one more game, finishing Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. against visiting Thousand Oaks, and the kids plan to give it everything they’ve got.

“I want to end my high school career strong. This is going to be my last high school game,” said shortstop Alex Rubanowitz, who’s headed to UC Riverside – one of Calabasas’ few players with solid plans to play college ball. “I love playing with these guys. They’re my second family, and I’m going to miss them a lot. I’m going to play hard until the end.”

Calabasas has lost three in a row, the past two by one run to tough opponents, as the defeat at Moorpark was preceded Saturday by a 2-1 loss at City Section power Chatsworth.

It’s been a tough year, and not a particularly fair one for the Coyotes, who seem to always pitch well when they don’t hit and to hit well when they can’t pitch – one of those Murphy’s Law kind of years that happens sometimes when talented, experienced teams don’t perform as well as expected.

Of course, that does not mean Calabasas and its plucky coach Ed Edsall can’t put it all together Wednesday for one last hurrah.

“This is the last one, and we’re going to give it 100 percent,” pitcher Jacob Fields said. “Every senior owes to each other, and every underclassmen owes it to the seniors.”

Four Marmonte League teams are slugging it out for first place – Newbury Park, Westlake, Simi Valley and Moorpark are all within a game of each other – and fifth-place Royal (18-8) almost certainly will get an at-large bid based on its .500 record; the others, Calabasas included, will have to wait ‘till next year.

Fields drove in two runs with a fifth-inning single in the loss to Moorpark, one of the few highlights. He also pitched a complete game while striking out four.

ARE YOU READY FOR FOOTBALL?

Calabasas conducted its first spring football practice Monday, and first-year coach Christian Pierce liked what he saw.

“I was very pleased,” said Pierce, a former assistant who has taken over for Larry Edwards (still the athletic director). “I’m pretty excited about this team. We have 48 or 49 kids, and that’s above where we were last year with 33 or 34.”

Among the standouts was new quarterback Brandon Marin, who should play a key role if the Coyotes want to improve upon last year’s record of 3-7 – the latest in a string of losing seasons for a program that has mostly struggled since moving up 10 years ago from the Frontier League to the much more competitive Marmonte League.

“Brandon looks good,” Pierce said.

Calabasas plays its annual Black & Gold game May 20.

“We won’t be allowed to hit, but we’ll do seven-on-seven,” Pierce said.

DOWN TO ONE FOR VIEWPOINT GOLF

After finishing the season with a 10-0 record in the Prep League, boys golf team had a tough time Monday at the CIF Central Division tournament at Lakewood Country Club, finishing near the back of the pack, coach Paul Bastedo said.

“We played the blue tees, but they were placed way back, so the course played very long,” Bastedo said. “This, along with the constant wind, produced many high golf scores. We did not have a particularly good day. I am still proud of my team as I know they gave it their best.”

Prep League individual champion Alex Angard participates Monday in the CIF Northern Individual tournament at Las Posas Country Club. The sophomore is the last Viewpoint golfer to continue, as Jake Kester fell one slot short of qualifying by finishing fifth in the league finals.