GONZALES — Don’t look now, but after sweeping Greenfield Bruins this week, the Gonzales Spartans find themselves with a 5-1 record overall and a 4-0 record in the Cypress Division.
After losing their first game of the baseball season to the Alisal Trojans, 13-9, the Spartans have won five straight games.
Going back to later years, the Spartans are trying to build off their previous season that saw them win their first Central Coast Section play-in game before falling to King City. Last year Gonzales started 1-4 before going 6-3 the remainder of the season.
“Going into the season, we knew we had a team that was willing to put up a fight from beginning to end,” said Spartans player Nate Dixon. “Knowing that we had a pretty good season last year set the expectations of our team’s ability within ourselves and from the viewpoint of other schools we are going to face.”
If one were to look at the Gonzales wins, one would see their run production has been great. Their lowest amount of runs scored in a game was four in a win against North Salinas. In one game against Anzar, the Spartan players scored 45 times.
“I know that we have the ability to put up runs like we’ve been doing these last few games,” Dixon said.
Along with Dixon, leading the Spartans in hitting are Fidel Gudino, Vicente Godoy III and Josh Chaves.
It hasn’t been only bats that have gotten the Spartans off to this good start. In their five wins, the pitching staff has only given up seven runs, which include two shutouts.
Gudino, in his last two pitching appearances, has a win and a save; Dixon is currently 2-0; and Chaves has a win and a save this season.
For as good as the Spartans have been playing, they have only faced one team that had a winning record, which was their first loss of the season against Alisal.
In the next two of the three series, the Spartans will face Rancho San Juan and Stevenson, who not only have winning records overall, but also stand in the way of contending for a league title.
“These teams are tougher,” Dixon said. “So it’s going to take our whole team to contribute.”
Gonzales started a two-game series with Rancho San Juan on April 5 in Salinas.
