Tigers happy to be in playoffs but hunger for more

It may be the first time in the playoffs for quite some time for Los Banos High's baseball team, but that doesn't mean the Tigers are happy just to be there.

As the second seed from the Western Athletic Conference, LB (18-8) faces off in the first round against Sierra Valley Conference champion Vista del Lago (16-10), which is on a seven-game winning streak, outscoring those opponents 78-16.

Apart from that, Los Banos coach David Zuniga doesn't know a whole lot about the Eagles.

"They're swinging the bats very well," Zuniga said. "From the people we talked to, they said over their last 10 league games, offensively they're swinging the bat well. They have a couple of decent pitchers. That's kind of where we are."

Vista del Lago sports a .352 team batting average, led by John McCants' .429. All starters are batting over .300.

LB's strengths lie on the opposite end of the spectrum, with the Tigers' hurlers putting up low numbers.

"We know we'll need to score runs to win games, but we haven't changed much," Zuniga said. "We're hitting a lot this week, but we'll continue getting our pitchers ready."

With four possible games between Friday and Monday (the first round, followed by a best-of-three in the semifinals), LB will have to dig deep into its rotation. That's where LB hopes the field will play into its hands, with three pitchers over 30 innings this season — Derrick Velasquez (1.38 ERA over 45.2 innings), Eddie Begonia (1.40 ERA over 35 innings) and Matt Nunes (2.46 ERA over 31.1 innings).

"We're good enough that we should be able to do some damage in the playoffs," Zuniga said. "We've got 11 seniors on our team, and most of those guys start. We gained a lot of experience playing in a tough CCC last year, I think the kids are looking to bigger things this season."

Offensively, middle infielder Zach Brazil leads the team with 34 hits, and Derek Neves sports a .571 batting average in spot starts over the season to lead the team.

The first pitch of the Vista del Lago game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday at Tony Zupo Field in Lodi.

"It's definitely exciting," Zuniga said. "Every year you go into the season with the goal of making the playoffs at the very least. We feel we have a really good team."

Enterprise reporter David Witte can be reached by phone at 388-6565 or by e-mail at sports@losbanosenterprise.com