Toad baseball moves on to quarterfinals
by Misty Volaski

As one of the only teams in the Ojai Valley to advance to the CIF quarterfinals, The Thacher School's boys baseball team is reeling. In the regular season, it was not unusual to see Thacher win by at least five runs or more - in one game against Villanova, the Toads bested the Wildcats, 14-0, in five innings.
The Toads have prevailed against seasoned and novice teams alike in their last 14 games, including two early-round CIF playoff games.
In their first Division VI game, Thacher played Rio Hondo Preparatory. Though Rio Hondo came out in the first with an early lead, Thacher's Owili Eison hit a two-run homer in the third inning to jump start the Toad offense. Lee Shurtleff and Graham Douds drove in runners in the sixth to seal Thacher's win over Rio Hondo, 4-2.
Despite four errors - an unusually high number for the Toads - Thacher pitcher Douds and catcher Brenton Sullivan held Rio Hondo to only two runs in the first-round game.
The Toads continued their post-season barrage with a 6-1 victory over Los Angeles Lutheran. Pitcher Charlie Munzig led the way, striking out seven L.A. Lutheran batters and giving up just two hits.
Offensively, four Toads hit doubles, including Eison, Douds, Shurtleff and Richard Smith. Tyler Caldwell contributed an RBI on his three-out-of-four hits, and Dan Bartlett went two for four and gained another Toad run.
Thacher will play today in the CIF quarterfinals at home against Hesperia Christian at 3:15 p.m.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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