De La Salle Delivers Complete Performance At Islanders Field

The big moments keep coming for the De La Salle High baseball team at Islanders Field in Lathrop.

The Spartans upended solid College Park 9-0 on Saturday as three pitchers combined on the shutout and Tennessee commit Blake Burke launched a prodigious home run to right-center at the beautiful new ballpark in the River Islands community.

Overall, the Spartans (9-4) appeared energized a day after beating San Ramon Valley 19-7 to snap a three-game losing skid which included two shutout losses to SRV.

“The kids really showed some toughness in all aspects of the game, hitting, defense, pitching,” a pleased Spartans coach David Jeans said after Saturday’s win. “Pitching was phenomenal.”

De La Salle also beat Tracy 13-2 at Islanders Field on March 27 and will return on May 8 to face Acalanes in Lathrop.

De La Salle senior right-hander Max Ramirez, also a Spartans soccer player, was impressive in his first varsity start. Dancing with history, he did not allow a hit until a Julian Martinez single to lead off the bottom of the fifth.

Was Ramirez thinking about maybe throwing a no-hitter?

“No, not at all,” he said. “I was mainly just thinking about just throwing strikes and just letting my defense work and doing what they do and doing the best for my team.”

Jeans couldn’t have asked for much more from the composed starter.

“I was ready to take him out after the third, and my pitching coach said, ‘No, we’re going to leave him in and let him do his thing,’ and so he threw a couple more innings which is outstanding. He was phenomenal; he was around the zone. He threw strikes. First-pitch strikes were great today by him. He went right after guys and he trusted the defense.”

As for Burke’s no-doubter home run, the 6-foot-3 power hitter appeared a bit stunned as he watched the ball launch off his bat toward parts unknown.

“It was the first time I had that feeling this season,” said Burke, who was 4 for 4 and raised his batting average to .576. “I’ve been waiting on it and waiting on it and just to finally get that feeling where it just touches the barrel and you can feel it fly, it felt amazing leaving.”

In the celebration that followed, Burke started a tradition – he put on a cowboy hat.

“I actually bought it on the way here,” he said of the hat. “It’s a new thing: If we hit a home run then we put it onto people’s head and dance around with it, so we’re hoping to turn it into something.”

College Park (5-4, 4-0 Diablo Foothill League) made a move in the fifth inning, but Spartans third baseman A.J. Bianchina made a web gem to help keep the Falcons off the board. He raced in and fielded a well-placed bunt and threw the runner out at first by a hair. Then, after Ramirez walked a batter to load the bases, Jeans brought in Mickey Radanovich, who retired Nicco Castrillo for the third out. Fire-balling De La Salle reliever Eli Gennis later closed out the win.

Jeans raved of the defensive play by Bianchina, which kept College Park from gaining momentum.

“Unbelievable,” Jeans said. “This is what’s great about high school sports. He’s not hitting what he wants to be hitting. He’s been struggling and he had a tough night last night. I trust him and he came out here and that play is worth a couple of hits. That was a big-league play and he’s normally a second baseman.”

Burke gave the modest Ramirez high marks for his effort on the mound.

“He’s a tough guy and he’s grown up with those (College Park) kids … We were probably more excited for him than he was for himself. When he came to the dugout, I literally said ‘good job’ 10 times. I counted. I had somebody else count for me too.”

Ramirez is taking everything in stride as a member of two NorCal powers at the same school, the Spartans’ soccer and baseball teams. He said it’s “hard” to juggle the two sports, but the challenge pushes him to work harder. The coaches help him by being flexible with his dual role.

“Knowing that my team is OK and just accepting about it is honestly just the best thing,” he said.

Burke and his teammates clearly enjoy playing at Islanders Field, which has a professional venue appearance.

“Love it … It’s beautiful … the lighting … the infield is perfect,” Burke said." They’ve been working on it all game. The grass is awesome. It’s a great field.”

NOTE: In the Friday night game at Islanders Field, Sierra-Manteca (5-3) beat Ripon (2-9) 12-3 as Austin Frisk took the pitching win with eight strikeouts, Caleb Perales was 3 for 3 with two RBIs and a run scored, Zion Bell also had three hits for the winners with two RBIs and two stolen bases. Brendan Rapisura tripled and scored twice.

For Ripon, senior Devon Bacon was 3 for 3 with two doubles.