Willie Keeler was born on March 3, 1872. Despite being only 5-foot-4 and weighing 140 pounds, “Wee Willie” had a 45-game hitting streak in 1896-97, the second longest hit streak in MLB history. He ended his career with 2,932 hits and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. His plaque in Cooperstown includes the inscription “Best Bunter.”
151 years to the day after Wee Willie’s birth, the Acalanes JV Dons faced Monte Vista. With a team that has been struggling to generate offense, the coaches dialed up a small ball game plan that would have made Willie proud. Austin Wampler, Hank Bauer, Dominic Patitucci, and Henry Garbo all successfully converted sacrifice bunts. Unfortunately, the team struggled to convert those opportunities into runs. For the game, the team was 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position. The one success was an infield hit by David Gonzales in the top of the 7th inning where speedster Ben Pecci was able to score from 2nd base. Wyatt Cooper, Brady Quinn, and Cole Gwaltney recorded the other 3 hits for the Dons.
The pitching and defense for both teams were tremendous as the teams only managed to register 1 run on 7 hits combined. Brady got the start on the mound for the Dons in his first pitching outing of the season. He did not disappoint, going 3 strong innings giving up no runs on two hits and 1 walk.
David completed the shutout for the Dons, going 4 innings giving up no runs on 1 hit and 2 walks.
The defense, anchored by Dominic behind the plate, continued to make significant improvements.
Get to know the Coaches: Both coaches played baseball. Jim made all-conference playing 3rd base and was a “third string” relief pitcher at CalTech, a program that snapped a record 228 game NCAA losing streak in 2013. Dan was a pitcher in high school and played at Cal for 2 weeks as a Preferred Walk-On (PWO).
The Dons play their next game at home on Tuesday, March 7 vs St Pats at 3:30pm