BASEBALL: Monte Vista Christian Team Preview

Every high school team across the Central Coast Section visits several unfamiliar non-league dots on the schedule in the early season portion of the slate.

It just so happens that the Monte Vista Christian baseball team hopped on a plane to get to its final landing point.

A coach and a teacher in the Houston-area for 14 years, Monte Vista Christian head baseball coach Don Keathley came to the West Coast and landed as the new head coach at MVC three years ago.

A long way from the lone star state, the new head man wanted to instill a new tradition for his team.

Keathley decided to bring his squad back to his old stomping grounds in Texas, putting them toe-to-toe with some high quality competition to open the season.

MVC (4-4, 3-0 MBL) made the trip in 2009 and did it again this February, heading to Texas for a four-game weeklong road trip.

“This is now the third year in our system and we have some really, really good players,” Keathley said. “I was a coach and a teacher in the Houston-area for 14 years. The trip is relatively inexpensive. It’s only $500 and the kids stay with the families of players from Seven Lakes High School. They get to face high quality competition and play in some bigger parks that you don’t see too often until the playoffs in our section. It’s quite an experience.”

MVC went 1-3 on the trip, defeating Seven Lakes 2-1 to close out the southwest tour. The Mustangs fell 6-1 to Katy High on Feb. 24 then lost a wild 9-8 slugfest to Morton Ranch High a day later.

“This year we played really well,” Keathley said. “We could have walked away 2-2. The kids we not intimidated.”

During the trip, the Mustangs regularly saw pitchers that threw in the mid-80s. With pitchers averaging around 85-87 mph, the caliber of pitching was arguably the toughest the team may see the rest of the season.

After the Texas trip wrapped up, MVC got to work and quickly snatched up its first three games in league play.

A runner up in the Monterey Bay League a year ago—Monterey High won the league and defeated MVC in all three of the teams meetings in 2010—MVC took both games from Watsonville High last week and blasted Pajaro Valley 15-0 on Tuesday afternoon.

“The goal is to beat everyone in our league two out of three games,” Keathley said. “We’re not over confident, but the goal is there for us. We want to win 20 games and be outright league champs.”

Pitchers Andy Muller, Austyn Tokar, Matt Manwarren and Sam Thorne have all seen significant time on the mound so far this season.

The Mustangs pitching staff has performed well early, especially against some big-time hitters in the first four games of the season.

Thorne and Muller can also do plenty of damage at the plate as well. The duo combined for five RBIs in the win over Pajaro Valley this week.

“It should come down to us and Monterey in league,” Keathley said. “North Monterey County always plays us tough and Watsonville has a nice team, but I still expect it will come down to just two teams. Once you get to the playoffs, the seeding doesn’t really matter. Everyone has a good team. We just want to win the league title first.”

The trek towards the MBL crown continues today against Pajaro Valley. First pitch is set for 4 pm at Pajaro Valley High in Watsonville.