BASEBALL: Mountain View High Team Preview

The Mountain View High baseball began 2011 play in late February, armed with a bushel of new faces all over the diamond.

Head coach Gabriel Stewart led the Spartans to a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division title a year ago.

However, the majority of those faces have departed, only one senior that saw significant playing time in ’10 remains for the Spartans.

“There’s a lot of new faces in the starting lineup,” Stewart said. “We’re short on experience, but long on desire. We return six seniors and only one of them saw significant playing time last season.”

With youth all over the field, no one will accuse the coaching staff of scheduling a cup cake schedule to ease the new ball players into the rigors of varsity play.

Mt. View squared off against Westmont High, Pioneer and Menlo-Atherton in non-league action, before stepping into the De Anza division play on March 9.

Waiting for them was defending league champ Palo Alto.

Paly ran the table in the upper league a year ago with a spotless 12-0 mark and quickly showed the newcomers that life in the top league would be much different that the El Camino.

“I know all about Palo Alto,” Stewart said. “They eliminated us in the playoffs last year. They are very well coached and do all the little things right.”

Palo Alto defeated Mt. View 11-0 in the teams first meeting this year and 13-0 two days later at Palo Alto High.

The Vikings exploded for a nine-inning in the second game, fueled by seven Mt. View walks.

Mt. View, currently 2-7-2 overall and 0-3 in De Anza play, is mired in a brutal stretch of league action.

After two-game series against Palo Alto to open De Anza action, the Spartans have games against Los Gatos and Wilcox High coming up this week.

“Wilcox might be the big fish in the barrel,” Stewart said. “Palo Alto is very good, but so is Wilcox. We play all of the toughest teams right away.”

Seniors Grant Appelgren and Collin Cabral will handle the bulk of the pitching duties this season.

Besides being a horse on the mound, Appelgren will also see time at first base, third base and designated hitter.

Juniors Nick Bondy and Matt Kang and senior Connor Nunley are all expected to contribute big things in the middle of the Spartans lineup.

Kang was forced to miss both games against Paly with a back injury, but was expected back last week for the Los Gatos series.

Los Gatos defeated Mt. View 12-2 on Wednesday. The second game of the series was rained out and will be played this week.

“Our guys are still learning to play at the varsity level,” Stewart said. “Right not we’re not hitting and we don’t have the relief pitching we need right now. The focus is on throwing strikes. Walks have really hurt us.”

Mt. View will have a busy week ahead of them, playing four games in the five days, a stretch that looks more like a Major League Baseball schedule than a preps one.

The Spartans play a non-league tilt against The King’s Academy on Monday before squaring off against Wilcox two days later.

A makeup game against Los Gatos is scheduled for Thursday at Los Gatos High. The fourth and final game of the week takes place on Friday at Mt. View High versus Wilcox.