New Dons

Mired in a late-season funk, Amador Valley baseball rediscovered itself and never looked back.

  By CHACE BRYSON | Editor

  They were everywhere. 

  The name plate-sized pieces of paper were taped to the wall, running the length of the first base dugout at Louis Guisto Field on the Saint Mary’s College campus. Most contained just one or two words. 

  They were reminders. They were rallying points. They were the words that helped the Amador Valley High baseball team reclaim its identity during the last week of the regular  season — right before it produced five straight wins for an improbable North Coast Section Division I championship.

  Some of the words: Experience. Hard-working. Talented. 

  None of these descriptions for the Dons were in dispute when they were 7-2 at the end of March and 11-5 on April 19. With a key core of seniors, strong pitching and good defense, Amador Valley had the look of a serious contender when they battled nationally-ranked St. Francis-Mountain View to a 1-0 loss on April 4.  

  Then came the swoon. Four straight losses over the first two weeks of May, taking the team’s record to 13-10. The Dons were already qualified for the playoffs, but were not in a good place. “We were really low. We were down in the dumps,” senior catcher Daniel Jackson said. “We were all frustrated, angry and underperforming.”

  The day after a 2-1 loss to San Ramon Valley on May 15, Jackson and fellow senior Jake Dronkers talked and decided a team meeting was in order.

  Amador Valley didn’t practice that day. The players talked with one another and aired their frustrations. Coach Lou Cesario invited a friend and sports psychologist, Duke Zielinski, to sit in with them as well.

  Zielinski has been on several coaching staffs over the past few decades, but his career in sports psychology also involved him in synchronized swimming and earned him some gold medals as a consultant for the 1992 and 1996 U.S. Olympics teams. 

  “What I saw was a team that just needed to get re-focused,” Zielinski said. “I think they were experiencing what I like to call a ‘mind drift.’ They were able to recognize that and get back to what’s important.”

  More signs on the dugout wall: Loose. Fun. Determined. W.M.I.N.

  “WMIN,” Jackson said, pronouncing it like the word ‘women.’ “What’s most important now. That became our philosophy.”

  The following day, Amador Valley defeated cross-town rival Foothill 3-1 and was reborn.

  * * *

  What’s most important now? 

  Nick Carney knew the answer. The Dons needed a double play. Badly. 

  Cesario called on his senior relief pitcher with two on and nobody out in the bottom of the fourth of the NCS final against De La Salle. Amador Valley held a 2-1 lead, but after a sacrifice and a walk loaded the bases, that lead was in serious jeopardy. 

  With a well-placed fastball down in the zone, Carney got Spartans pinch-hitter John Velasco to hit a chopper right back to him on the mound. He quickly returned the ball to Jackson, who touched home plate and fired the ball up the first base line for a 1-2-3 double play. 

  Cesario raised his fist triumphantly from just outside the dugout and was the first to greet Carney at the foul line as he walked off the field. Conversely, the De La Salle dugout took on an ominous vibe. After losing to the Dons twice in the regular season, the Spartans were growing exponentially frustrated. 

  Amador Valley added an insurance run in the fifth inning on a two-out base hit from senior Michael Echavia that scored No. 9 hitter Ryan Ibanez. It was Echavia’s second RBI of the game. Carney worked through single hits over the next two innings, which included stranding Chris Williams at second base after his leadoff double in the sixth. And with one out and one on in the bottom of the seventh, Cesario made one last trip to the mound in favor of Dronkers. 

  “Jake is our unconscious leader,” Cesario said. “He’s our guy. He said he was ready and we held him off as long as we could because he’d gone 7 innings in (the semifinal three days earlier). When he got out there, our guys felt it.”

  Dronkers struck out his first batter and got the second to fly out to center to seal the win. 

  “Great pitching team. Timely hitting team. Solid defense and just great workers,” Cesario said when asked to sum up his title-winning squad. “Our chemistry has been nails all years. We knew we could do it, we just had to be patient with them.”

  * * *

  Even more signs from the dugout: Street fight. Blue collar. Great friends. 

  Chemistry. Not just any team can find itself with one game left in its season. The foundation was already there in the Dons’ team chemistry. 

  “This team is like the 2010 (NCS championship) team with its chemistry,” Cesario said. “When you have great chemistry, it’s 25 guys focused on one thing. They identified that, they know it. It boiled down to ‘I’m playing baseball with my best buddy in the world.’” 

  After shutout victories over Berkeley and Heritage in the first rounds of the NCS tourney, the Dons still had to clear one more mental hurdle — top-seed and state-ranked, Granada.

  The Matadors entered the semifinal matchup with Amador Valley with a record of 24-1, including a pair of very convincing wins over the Dons. In fact, the infamous four-game losing streak began with a 15-0 drubbing at Granada on May 3. 

  “That was a big deal,” junior shortstop Austin Piscotty admitted. “We’d played Granada twice and been outscored 20-0.”

  Echavia hit a home run in the top of the first and Amador Valley jumped out to a huge lead. They led 8-1 through five innings before eventually holding on 9-7. Echavia finished 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI. Carney hit a grand slam as part of a five-run fourth inning. Seven different players scored runs and five different players had at least one RBI.

  After that, De La Salle — who the Spartans had defeated twice already — could’ve hardly seemed threatening. 

  “They were dialed in against Granada,” Cesario said. “It got a little scary in that game, but (against De La Salle) they were dialed too. They expected it. They executed. They played great.”

  Echavia may have summed it up best. 

  “We’re just a bunch of close-knit guys. We all loved each other and just rallied off one another. … It’s the most fun team I’ve ever been a part of.”

  One more sign from the dugout: Celebrate.