FREDDY GONZALEZ | Staff Writer
This year, the Lyford Bulldogs started the baseball season with one goal in mind: To win the program’s first district championship since 1995.
Now, with a record of 5-1 (tied for first place with Santa Rosa) and with just three games remaining on the regular-season schedule, the Bulldogs find themselves in prime position to achieve their goal.
“Right now we’re feeling very confident and our goals are still within sight,” said Lyford head coach Christian Cervantes. “The kids are really excited about have the opportunity of fulfilling those goals of winning a district championship and of also advancing in the playoffs.
“Like every team in the state, our team wants to advance in the playoffs and they’re working hard to get there. We’re just taking it pitch at a time and one inning at a time.”
This Friday, the schedule pits the Bulldogs against Monte Alto. However on Tuesday, Lyford takes on an all-too-familiar team in Santa Rosa. In their first encounter, the Warriors handed the Bulldogs a difficult 11-1 loss. But in their second meeting, Lyford came out on the right side of a 10-3 victory.
Since the team’s 11-1 loss to Santa Rosa, the Bulldogs have out scored opponents 54-5.
“District has been good. We dropped a tough one to Santa Rosa earlier in the season, but ever since then we have picked it up and we’ve been on a good roll,” said junior Layne Klostermann. “The (district) race is pretty important to us because we want to get that No. 1 seed just so we can have that edge in the playoffs. We’ve been close to getting out of the first round but we just haven’t been able to get over that hump and I think that first seed will be a big help.”
“That goal has always been there for us,” added junior Chris Gonzalez. “That first seed would really help out a lot by playing the fourth seed out of District 31-3A.
“Our bi-distirct is pretty tough so we go in there trying to get a first-round win and go from there. Last season we played a pretty good team in Banquete who we lost to.”