Ohlone report: Baseball coach loving Oak Grove HS connection

Ohlone head coach Mike Curran sure appreciates his team’s Oak Grove High of San Jose connection.

Last year catcher Thad Phillips had a monster season, leading the conference with 15 home runs and 61 RBIs. The former Oak Grove Eagle now plays for Connecticut.
This season, Phillips’ good friend Miguel Cazares, out of Oak Grove, continues to set a high standard at shortstop. Cazares slugged his second home run of the season in Ohlone’s 9-3 win over Hartnell on March 22. He also had a double and two runs scored.
Cazares, who is headed to Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, was also 2 for 4 with a triple and two RBIs in a 9-2 win over Hartnell Saturday, helping Ohlone (21-4, 6-0 Coast-Pacific) extend its winning streak to eight games.
“He’s a guy the minute he got here we knew he’d be a superstar,” Curran says of Cazares, a three-year guy in the program, “just the way he goes about his business. He’s just a good kid, plays his tail off every day and just stays within our offensive plan. He’s the backbone of our team, always has been.”
Of the Oak Grove connection, Curran said “We got a pretty good recruiting class with those guys.”

RENEGADES SOFTBALL HUNGRY FOR MORE

After a week that was dampened by poor weather, the powerful Ohlone softball team will look to jump right back on the success train.
The Renegades are scheduled to play three games over the next four days, at Cabrillo on Monday, at home against San Jose on Tuesday and at Hartnell on Thursday.
Ohlone (20-7, 3-1), riding a four-game winning streak, and College of San Mateo (23-4, 3-1) entered the week tied for first in the Coast-North.
Impressively, Ohlone advanced to the CCCAA Northern Super Regional championship round last season as the seventh seed. The Renegades beat DVC and Cosumnes River in the Super Regional before falling to San Joaquin Delta.
In its lone action last week, Ohlone beat Gavilan 6-1 on March 20, behind the pitching trifecta of Karen Didio, Holly Gonzalez and Ana Beard. Didio, the starter, tossed two shutout innings and was also 1 for 1 with a double, run scored, and two RBI. Catcher Selena Gomez flipped the power switch with a double, triple, and two RBI. Dynamic center fielder Meida Taulalatasi was 2 for 4 with two runs scored. Third baseman Arrianna Whitlock was 1 for 2 with two RBI. Adriana Tornel lashed a triple and scored.
Taulalatasi is batting .444 for the season with 12 stolen bases (tied for 24th in the state).

SWIMMING
Renegades competitors gained some important experience at the Las Positas Hawk Invite last week. The Ohlone women finished eighth in the team standings with 162 points, and the men were 13th.
The Ohlone women were eighth in the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 2:09.47. Jamie Ng was a solid sixth in the women’s 50 freestyle (26.13 seconds) and was seventh in the 100 free (57.21).
Gabriella Kingsley cracked the top 10 in the 50 butterfly in 32.21 and was 10th in the 100 IM (1:16.65). Morgan Seely finished 10th in the 100 backstroke (1:10.71). Mikayla Lee placed 10th in the 100 breast (1:18.44). Ohlone was also ninth in the women’s 400 free relay (4:14.45)
On the men’s side, Ohlone’s Greg Harkey was fifth in the 100 breast (1:00.51) and was 14th in the 50 freestyle (23.16).