Clements / Milby

Monday, June 5
Up And Coming Tigers May Have Arrived

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by Randy Byers
© 2006 Houston 5A Baseball.com

The Katy Tigers and State Championships have become synonymous with Katy Football. Hold the presses folks, The Katy Tigers Baseball Team is on their way to Round Rock.

Coach Mac and the Tigers have long since been one of the most respected teams in district 19-5A and for the second time in three years, have played for the right to go to Round Rock. In 2006 the young Tigers finally broke through with a dramatic Region III Finals series win over Cypress Fairbanks.

At the beginning of the 2006 season, the Tigers were being mentioned as a possible play-off team. Nothing automatic as it seamed in years past. The Tigers roster finds them with only five seniors and a ferocious underclass of 07, 08, & 09 players. Coach Tom McPherson and staff have assembled one of their youngest teams in years and have them all playing like seasoned veterans of varsity baseball.

Pitching is still the key and the Tigers have a staff that had held their own throughout the entire play-off season. Tigers senior Will Weidig had led the way with junior Aaron Daab completing their powerful 1-2 punch. Throw in junior Carter Jurica and you have a staff that can compete with nearly anyone. But wait, there’s more. Need long relief or a high quality spot start? Then bring out freshman Keifer Nuncio. Nuncio has become one of the Tigers "go-to guys" and while only a freshman, Nuncio has pitched as if he is the ace of the staff. "He has the mental makeup and the stuff to be a great one." "He doesn’t resemble a freshman on the mound." Just two of the quotes on Nuncio after his series clinching performance in game 3 of the Tigers Region III Championship.

Couple the Tigers pitching youth with that of their freshman catcher Andrew Stumph and you might think the Tigers Coaching Staff was out to lunch. Nothing could be further from the truth. "These guys know what they’re doing, just look at the results." And that they do. The Tigers have gelled at precisely the best time and are on a roll like no other Tiger Baseball team.

Leading the charge from the plate are juniors Bret Atwood, Michael Fuda, Carter Jurica, Michael Sauceda, Nick Pepitone, & Aaron Daab, sophomore Joey Fuda, freshamn Andrew Stumph & seniors Nick Barrios and Mike Thaler.

"These guys can mash the ball with anyone." And they do just that. The Tigers have legitimate power spread throughout their lineup from the freshman to the seniors and display an unbelievable ability to do what they have to do in crucial situations to get the job done. For example, down 9-1 in game one of the Region III Championship, the Tigers came roaring back to win 11-10. Down 5-0 in game 3, the Tigers slapped the ball all over the yard and won 8-6. While not over confident, the Tigers are sure in their abilities and are not easily intimidated. While heavy respect is given to their opponents, the fear factor you would expect such a young team to have, just isn’t there.

The Tigers will face one of their toughest opponents all year in the perennial power Moody Trojans. The Trojans are not strangers to the State finals making appearances in four of the past five seasons and won it all in 2004. Katy can count on seeing dominate right-hander Danny Grande who is perhaps one of the best pitchers in all of 5A baseball. Grande, a powerful pitcher displays the whole package from the mound and will truly test the young Tigers.

While a true test it will be, the Tigers have been through the battles and have been tested over and over again throughout their Region III Championship run and could prove to be a true test for the Trojans.

Brian Juhl's First Homer Lifts Stanford To 5-4 Win At Sacramento State

Cardinal wins for fifth time in last six games.

May 10, 2006

Sacramento, Calif. - Brian Juhl's first career homer lifted Stanford (24-21) to a 5-4 non-conference victory over Sacramento State (20-29) and its fifth win in the last six games on Wednesday at Hornet Field. Juhl snapped a 4-4 tie when he launched a two-out solo shot over the right field wall in the top of the sixth. He finished the game 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI, driving in the first run of his career with a two-out third inning single. David Stringer (3-4) earned the victory with a brilliant relief outing, tossing 5.2 scoreless innings and allowing just two hits with three walks. Austin Yount (1.0 IP, 1 SO) pitched a perfect bottom of the ninth to notch his first collegiate save.

"It felt really good," said Juhl of his first career homer. "I knew I got the ball up, and I was hoping it would get out."

"It's just important to keep winning games," added Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We just need to try to win every game we can at this point in the season."

Juhl was the only Stanford player with more than one hit, while Brent Milleville drove in a career-high-tying pair of runs with a key two-out, two-run single in the top of the first inning.

David Flores (3-4, 2B, 2 RBI) had a game-high three hits for Sacramento State, while Buddy Morales (2-2, 2B) added two and Jim Strombach drove in a pair of runs with a first inning triple.

The teams traded three-run rallies in the first inning before pitching took over on both sides.

Ryan Seawell led off the game with a single and moved to second on Jim Rapoport's team-leading 11th sacrifice bunt. Chris Minaker was then hit by a pitch, before Michael Taylor came through with an RBI single through the left side of the infield. Chris Lewis drew a walk and Randy Molina struck out before Milleville drilled his clutch hit down the left field line.

Sacramento State's first inning rally off Stanford starter Blake Holler (2.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO) started when Morales singled through the left side with two outs. Devin Spurling kept the inning alive with a single to right field, before Flores beat out an infield hit to score Morales and Strombach came up with his two-run triple down the right field line.

The clubs also exchanged a single run in the third inning.

Lewis drew a one-out walk from Sacramento State reliever Mel Cuckovich (2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO) to get the inning going and Molina followed with a single before Milleville was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Cuckovich got Jason Castro to fly out to short center field for the second out but Juhl came through with a clutch two-out RBI single down the left field line to score Lewis. Sacramento State limited the Cardinal to just one run on the play when Hornet left fielder Ronnie Machado, Jr. cut down Milleville at third base for the final out of the inning before Molina crossed the plate.

Morales started the Hornet third with a leadoff double before an RBI double by Flores two batters later plated Morales and ended Holler's short start. Stringer came on and got the final two outs of the inning without any further damage.

Stringer allowed at least one base runner in each of the five following innings but worked his way out of trouble each time.

The only base runner the Cardinal put on from the fourth through the eighth innings besides Juhl's homer off losing pitcher Travis Kane (3-5) was when Minaker reached on a bad-hop infield single with one out in the seventh.

Stanford had an opportunity to add an insurance run in the top of the ninth but Hornet reliever James Wheeler forced Minaker into an inning ending fly out with runners on second and third.

Stanford returns to Pac-10 action with a crucial three-game Pac-10 series at Washington (32-20, 9-9 Pac-10) this Friday-Sunday, May 12-14 (6:30 pm, 2 pm, 1 pm, PT). Stanford has won two-of-three games in each of its last two Pac-10 series to improve its league record to 7-11 after the Cardinal was just 3-9 at the halfway point of the conference season. Although Stanford remains in last place in the Pac-10 standings, the Cardinal is just 3.0 games behind second-place USC (10-8) in a very tight race between all eight teams in the conference besides league-leader Oregon State (11-4). The Huskies are an even 9-9 in league action to currently place fifth.

Click on the link in the headline to get more information on Brian Juhl and his career thus far at Stanford.   Congratulations to Brian for the success he has had "out West".

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