Top-seeded Mustangs Open NCS Baseball vs. Moreau

The boys basketball team complained about its seeding in the North Coast Section Championships, then did something about it, winning the title as the fifth seed.

The Mustangs have no such incentive in baseball, where they have been awarded the top seed in the Division 3 competition.

“I thought we had a good chance to be the No. 1 seed being that we beat Miramonte (No. 2), Alhambra (No. 7) and El Cerrito (No. 8) using wood bats against their metal bats,” San Marin coach noted. “Even though we didn’t win Friday night (in the Marin County Athletic League Playoffs), all the other top four teams lost, too.”

So the Mustangs got a break no other squad in the 15-team field received – a first-round bye. They will begin play Saturday night in the quarterfinals against Moreau of Hayward, which surprised El Cerrito 6-1 Wednesday in the first round.

The bye is great. Playing at home is even better, Whitburn assured.

“Us playing at home is a huge advantage,” he boasted. “San Marin is not an easy place to play. It’s a big park and it’s windy. There are a lot of pitfalls that can happen if you’re not used to playing here.”

Whitburn named as his starting pitcher. He had been slated to start the MCAL championship game had the Mustangs gotten that far.

Whitburn expects big things from his pitcher, but he’s more excited about the Mustangs’ bats – metal bats.

“We swung them for the first time on Monday, so we’re pretty excited,” he said. “Hopefully it’ll give us a lift after (Friday’s loss to Drake). We swung the wood well this year. It would be nice to see it carry over to the metal.

“Hopefully we swing the bat a lot better than last Friday night. As the game went on, I think we pressed and tried to do too much. Hopefully (Saturday) we can get back to the basics and not press and put more pressure on ourselves than necessary.”