The Tomales High Braves baseball team is off to a 2-0 start to open up the 2015 season, which will be the last of coach Bill Tucker’s 20-year career at the high school.
A seventh-grade core teacher, Mr. Tucker has taught for 26 years and coached for over 30 years with two schools. After graduating from Sonoma State, where he started for four years at second base and shortstop, Mr. Tucker went to work for an insurance company.
“I hated it,” he said after practice on Monday, prior to a Tuesday matchup with Potter Valley High School.
He took a coaching position at El Molino High School in Forestville, and enjoyed the experience so much that he earned teaching credentials.
In 20 years with Tomales, Mr. Tucker has won one section championship and six league titles. Though he will step down after this season, he said he will be available as an on-call assistant varsity coach to help with the transition to new leadership.
“I’d be more than happy to do that,” said Mr. Tucker, who will coach the squad this year alongside his 23-year-old son, Joe. “So I can’t say this is my last year, but it will be my last year as head coach.”
A recent drop-off in kids that played little league—which acts as a feeder into the high-school level—has challenged Mr. Tucker to return to a focus on coaching fundamentals. “When you’re competing against teams like Sonoma Academy and St. Vincent, all those kids have played little league ball,” he said. “But we have a very good team.”
Coming off a 9-5 season with a trip to the section tournament, the Braves’ 16-man roster this year returns nine players. Last Thursday, the club trounced Laytonville High Warriors in the season opener, ending the game within six innings by the 10-run slaughter rule. The Braves struck early in the first inning, stringing together back-to-back-to-back singles past the hole at short from Ty Evenich, Billy Wright and Jose Chavarria to take a 3-0 lead.
Pitcher Billy Wright held the Warriors scoreless through three with four strikeouts to his credit, including one that ended a bases-loaded jam in the second.
The Braves added four to their tally in the bottom of the second after Devon Mayo reached on what would have been the third strikeout of the inning. Three errors by the Warriors and two Braves singles produced by Ivan Gomez and Billy Wright, his second of the day, gave the Braves a 7-0 lead, which would increase to 12-0 in the third inning.
The Warriors rallied in the fifth, putting four on the board that held the score at 12-4 until the Braves tacked on two in the sixth to end the game at 14-4.
Tuesday’s home matchup with the Potter Valley Bearcats was more of a pitchers’ dual, with the Braves knocking in six runs in the fourth for a 6-0 that held through seven innings. Jose Chevarria tossed a four-inning shutout with nine strikeouts.
On Friday, the Braves travel to Booneville to play the Anderson Valley Panthers, and the squad’s next home game is April 3 against the Upper Lake Cougars.