If the first two games are any indication of what type of season the Culver City varsity baseball program is going to have, the future looks bright. The Centaurs beat Los Angeles Marshall 11-0 on opening day last Saturday and defeated East Los Angeles Roosevelt 4-0 on Tuesday. They take their winning record on the road today when they face Granada Hills at 3 p.m.
Right now the Centaurs are led by the pitching of hard throwing right hander Nolan Martinez, closer Michael Netzel, pitcher and first baseman Eli Saucedo and pitcher and outfielder Max Sterner.
Last Saturday a dozen professional scouts convened at the Culver City field to clock Martinez’s fastball. Last year he was throwing in the high 80’s now he is being clocked at about 93 which puts in the top level of pitchers in the nation.
Longtime Centaur head coach Rick Prieto is happy with the early results after their victory over Marshall. “Opening day is always exciting and more importantly it’s more exciting when you when the game. I was happy and pleased at what we did on the field. We have a good group of seniors and juniors which is a good combination and mixture to have in the starting lineup. With that combination we are hoping to have a super year.”
The Centaurs also have a good mixture of right and left handed pitchers on the mound. “We will try to use three pitchers per game this year so I don’t burn anybody out,” said Prieto.
Prieto also hopes his bats will continue to score runs like they did in the first two games. “We are working on hitting but that’s basically baseball 101. We just want to keep it simple.”
Prieto has added three new coaches to his staff this season and they are Dale St. John, a long time South Bay coach, C.J. Johnson, who also coaches football and Eric Pringle who played six years of minor league baseball.
It looks like all the pieces are in place for the Centaurs to have a successful season.
