Welcome to the 2023 Acalanes JV Baseball season!  Although many of you would have preferred that we make Acalanes Boosters history by having ChatGPT write all the articles this season, unfortunately you will all be stuck with the same person who brought you last year’s underwhelming frosh articles since the technology isn’t yet ready for prime time, and nobody else volunteered to spare you from my writing.  However, to hopefully get things started off on the right foot this year, I tried to write this first article as if ChatGPT were writing it instead.

The Acalanes baseball team played on a field in Lafayette, California with 90 feet base paths and a mound 60 feet 6 inches from home plate.  Despite the 22.34 inches of precipitation that fell on the field since July 1 (179% of normal), the field was in perfect condition thanks to the hard work of the coaches, players, district personnel, and parent volunteers. 

The contest began at 3:31pm PST.  The weather was 50 degrees Fahrenheit at first pitch with WNW winds gusting to 30 mph.  A young man by the name of Brendan Miles wearing a white jersey with a #5 on the back started the game at pitcher for Acalanes.  The first ball he threw was a 62 mile per hour curve ball with a spin rate of 2K revolutions per minute that just missed the plate despite the frame attempt by catcher Augie Martinez. From there, Brendan went on to pitch 5 quality innings giving up 3 runs on 4 hits and 1 walk. 

Brady Wall came in for the last 2 innings, giving up no runs while issuing only 1 hit and 1 walk.  The defense had a few miscues, but generally played well all game and was helped out at times by the opponent, including a towering infield pop fly that landed fair where the batter decided not to run.  Augie set the tone in the first inning after the first two batters reached base with a great pickoff at 2^nd base.  For the game, shortstop Brady Quinn led the way, scooping up all 5 balls hit in his direction.

The Acalanes offense managed to score 2 runs on 5 hits on the day off a very tough Marin Catholic defense.  Austin Wampler, Wyatt Cooper, David Roux, Augie, and Ben Pecci all recorded hits, with Austin and Augie also recording RBIs.  Austin made solid contact on all of his at bats, including a hit to deep left center field where he got thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple in the 3^rd inning. Another baserunning out on a play at the plate in the 2^nd inning, along with 7 strikeouts, limited the Dons scoring.

Although my creators have not yet figured out how to comply with applicable privacy laws or express human emotion, my database indicates that the following volunteers should be thanked for making this JV season happen.

Based upon my ability to analyze mountains of data, I conclude that there is a high likelihood that the team will have a successful season this year.  Go Dons! 

The Dons play their next game at home on Friday, February 24 against Mt Tamalpais at 3:30pm