Blog Post: Memorable Season Ends Abruptly for Agoura High Baseball Team

After a regular season and first round playoff game in which everything seemed to go right, the way the year ended for the Agoura High baseball team was somewhat startling.

The Chargers lost a heart-wrenching 5-4 decision at Corona High in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.

"We just didn't have luck on our side that day," said Mike Cordero, Agoura's second-year coach. "[Corona] didn't hit the ball very hard, but they got some lucky bounces. It was like the tables were turned."

Agoura ends 23-5-1. The 23 wins are the most in school history. The 2006 team, which made it to the CIF championship game–a 2-1 loss to Lakewood at Angels Stadium–finished 21-9, by comparison.

"You need to get to the playoffs [to have a chance at a championship]," Cordero said. "But once you're there, every team is good in the playoffs. There's a certain point where luck takes over."

One example, of which there were many, of Agoura's bad fortunes in the game was when the Chargers tried to squeeze home the tying run late in the game. With a runner on third base, freshman Bryce Fehmel laid down what seemed to be an adequate bunt to bring the run home.

However, the ball hit the lip of the infield grass in front of home plate and bounced backwards, right back to the Corona catcher. Even with that destiny-shaking bounce, the play was still close at the plate. But the runner was out and the score remained 5-4.

"We're a good bunting team and we won a ton of games with our speed," Cordero said. "But the ball took the luckiest bounce for them. I mean, it was unbelievable. If the ball goes a foot either way we score the tying run."

Another example came in the top of the seventh and last inning when Agoura would have had runners on first and third with one out, the score still 5-4, when Tyler Cohen, a junior shortstop, appeared to have beaten out a slow chopper to the Corona shortstop.

"We've got pictures of it," Cordero said. "Tyler beat the throw by two steps. We would have had first and third with my best two base runners on and Albee Weiss at bat."

Instead, Justin Cana, who had singled and was sacrificed to second by Mark Seyler, was at third with two outs. Weiss, Agoura's most productive hitter this year, grounded out to end Agoura's threat. And the season.

"We've won a lot of games in the seventh inning and we were feeling really confident," Cordero said. "Our guys still had fight in them. They absolutely believed they were going to win that baseball game."

But it was not to be on this day.

In the end, Cordero tipped his cap to Corona's pitcher, Daniel Pena, who got off to a shaky start, giving up all four Agoura runs in the first three innings but settled down and kept the Chargers' batters off balance with a slider that became more effective later in the game.

As hard as the loss was, it is important to keep in perspective the fact that Agoura went 10-16 last year and was 4-10 in the Marmonte League. This season, the Chargers won the league championship by going 12-2. The turnaround was memorable.

"We had our exit meetings and you should see the smiles on the seniors' faces," Cordero said. "For these kids to turn the program around like this and have the season they had–it really is a Cinderella story. Everybody picked us to finish second-to-last or last and everybody believed it except us.

"We knew for a fact that wasn't going to happen. To us it wasn't a fluke. It was something that we worked towards. And the kids really bared down and stayed on their path. They really stayed on their goal."

Cordero said his team was rooting for Newbury Park, which finished second in the Marmonte League, to win a CIF championship. The Panthers completed that mission last Friday night when they beat the same Corona team, 2-1, at Dodger Stadium.

"I think any team that finishes in the top two in our league, maybe even the top three, has a shot at winning CIF," said Cordero.

Even though his players exhibited a steely resolve all spring, often playing with what seemed like ice-water in their veins, there is no replacement for postseason experience and the Chargers' coach said that this year's playoff experience will benefit the team for years to come.

"After a week of kind of getting over it, they all basically said, 'Coach, we've never been to the playoffs before. We weren't expecting that caliber [of competition]. We weren't expecting the chaos, the intensity, the anxiety we were feeling,'" said Cordero. "And they said, 'Next year we'll be ready. Next year we'll know exactly what to expect.'"