Central Catholic baseball goes into attack mode under Ayala

Lined up along the dugout fence – arms cast over the yellow railing, Oakley eyes charting each pitch – the Central Catholic baseball team looks no different from those of springs past.

Oh, but they are.

There is a fundamental difference between the 2016 Raiders and those of yesteryear. His name is Danny Ayala, a Beyer High graduate who has dedicated his life to teaching the game of baseball.

Ayala is the first-year skipper at Central Catholic, a post he inherited from Mike Glines. All Glines did in 18 seasons at the helm was win 11 Sac-Joaquin Section championships, including 10 in a row from 2000 through 2009.

“The support has been great,” Ayala said before Thursday’s come-from-behind 9-4 victory over Lodi on the final day of the 47th annual Dick Windemuth Easter Tournament. “It’s made my job a lot easier.”

Under Ayala, the Raiders have been re-branded as an attack-minded team, one not afraid to swim against the current.

They step into the batter’s box ready to pounce on the first pitch, and they run at all costs. Even the catcher.

“It’s just a different style of game that I’m allowing. We want them to make decisions and read and react off the game. We’ve given them a bunch of tools,” Ayala said of his staff, which includes former Waterford coach Steve Marks, Beyer graduate Kyle Crawford and longtime Central Catholic assistant Dave Escobar.

“As an instructor and teacher – and for them as a group – I think they’re really responding. You can see how we’re running the bases aggressively. You can see how many stolen bases we’re attempting. That really wasn’t in their repertoire before.”

Occasionally, that aggressive approach leads to errors, such as the four on Thursday. Occasionally, that aggressive approach leads to mini-meltdowns, like the one experienced by Ayala in the fifth inning.

Ayala was tossed for arguing a call at third base and exited Streeter Field with the game tied at 3-3.

He missed quite a finish.

Gus Leal led off the sixth inning with a single. Pinch-runner Jacob Days scored the go-ahead run from first on a double by catcher Kyle Costa, who, in keeping with the new practice, swiped third.

“For me, we’re really coming together well. It is a family and we talk about it often. They’ve taken me in very well, it being my first year, and as you can see, they responded for me and that makes me pretty happy.”

Lodi ultimately buckled beneath that pressure.

The Flames plunked three consecutive batters to load the bases and forced in Costa.

Austin Escobar ripped open the floodgates with an RBI single to make it 6-3. Two more would score on an error off the bat of Nathan Clark, who reached in all four of his plate appearances.

The Flames tried to turn a double play on Clark’s grounder. The throw home was in time, but the relay to first sailed down the right-field line to clear the bases.

Clark eventually trotted home on Sam Mundt’s sacrifice fly to make it 9-4.

The sixth-inning carnage: six runs on four hits, including two doubles, three hit batters and one error.

“It’s playing with a ‘one pitch at a time’ mentality; showing up to the ballpark ready to play,” Ayala said. “Watching these guys down the stretch, you could see they let the coaches take care of them and they held their composure. And they showed up at the right time.”

Early on, Mundt was the main attraction – and he seemed to know it before the game.

While his teammates warmed up, Mundt sat by himself in the dugout, his eyes fixated on the mound.

Meanwhile, another kept his gaze on Mundt, tracking his every pitch with a radar gun.

Though the 6-foot-6 senior has committed to Utah, a Major League Baseball scout remained in the area an extra day to see him make an abbreviated start against Lodi.

The scout clocked Mundt’s fastball at 89 mph, and left intrigued by the senior’s delivery and demeanor.

While Mundt was impressive in a short start, shaky play in the field didn’t get give him much of a chance to pick up the win.

The Raiders kicked a routine grounder in the first inning, allowing Lodi to jump out to a 2-0 lead.

Mundt minimized the damage with three strikeouts over three innings, and then turned the mound over to Escobar, who gave up one run on three hits over four innings to earn the win.

Central Catholic will jump back into Valley Oak League play with the Mundt brothers, Sam and sophomore Joey, as its penciled-in starters. But like Ayala showed on Thursday, he won’t be afraid to call on Escobar or Clark.

As a first-year high school skipper, Ayala admits he has a lot to learn about the game and the system. But if there is one thing that has carried over from the previous regime, it’s the dogged pursuit of pennants.

Ayala has his Oakley eyes on the postseason, and he understands a stable of quality arms will only help their chances.

“It’s easy to look at stats and numbers. As far as Sam is concerned, he’s a senior and he’s committed to Utah. His little brother, JoJo, has gotten a lot of attention, too,” Ayala said. “But we have two guys in Clark and Escobar who, at most other high schools, could pitch as a one or two. They really compete and throw strikes. We’re trying to set up for the long term.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Central Catholic baseball goes into attack mode under Ayala."