Barstow Baseball: Aztecs celebrate championship, look to playoffs

BARSTOW — Sparkling cider was the celebratory beverage of choice for the Barstow High School baseball team to commemorate the first Desert Sky League Championship in more than 15 years.

The Barstow Aztecs took group pictures in atmosphere full of elation, cheers, as they achieved virtually all of their season goals.

“We have just tried to stay consistent to our goals and expectations all season,” coach Sean Sers said. “The team has worked hard and that hard work has really paid off.”

The Aztecs, who were officially in a tie for first with conference foe Granite Hills but won the tiebreaker by winning the season series, received their championship T-shirts during Thursday's practice. The Aztecs fell into a first-place tie after losing to Victor Valley 8-7 in 11 innings Wednesday.

No one could confirm when the Aztecs last league championship was. The Barstow High School Athletic office does not have records prior to 1993. The Aztecs have spent time in three different leagues — Mojave River League, San Andreas League and DSL — and not taken first place since at least 1993.

“It's been a great season, and it's been worth the wait.” assistant coach Paul Negrette said.

Barstow pitcher Freezy Smalls reflected on the rocky 1-3 start at the beginning of the season.

“We were struggling with a lot of injuries early in the season,” Smalls said. “The coach told us to keep our heads up, and we never lost sight of our goals. That is one major element that coach Sers has brought to our team, and that's discipline. We didn't have that as strong as we have in years past.”

The discipline was something that Sers attributes to the team's success his first season as head coach.

“Obviously, with this being my first year as head coach, I've had quite a transition in learning what makes the kids tick,” Sers said. “It was a learning process for them, as well, to learn what I wanted from them on a daily basis.”

With all the new elements added to the fact the team was extremely young, their unprecedented success still wasn't a surprise to a lot of the players.

“We had a lot of young guys, so at the beginning of the season, a lot of people weren't really sure how we were able to perform,” Andrew Maes said. “However, it wasn't a huge surprise. We made the adjustments to the new coach, and made everything happen.”

Jaccob Muir said he felt there is one goal yet to accomplish. The team didn't achieve its goal of winning 15 games — something they could make up for with a playoff win.

“There is only one thing left for us to do,” Muir said. “That is play every game mistake free, and win the whole thing.”

Last season, the Aztecs won a wild card game against La Qunita but fell in the first round of the playoffs to Rubbidoux.

Because of the tie-breaker this season with Granite Hills, they are officially the No.1 seed, and will play the No. 3 team from another conference at home on May 15 or 16. The CIF-Southern Section playoff schedule will be released Monday at noon at www.cifss.org.

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