It was a long battle in the Moore League this year, but after a win over Wilson and a sweep of Lakewood, the Poly Jackrabbits found themselves in second place, with what would generally be considered a favorable seeding into the Division 1 CIF Baseball playoffs.  Instead, thanks to a coin flip, the Jackrabbits are on the road south to Tesoro, to take on the 19-7 Titans, the second place representative from the South Coast League, and MaxPreps’ number four team in California.  Welcome to the talent-stacked Southern Section.

“There was a moment when we were worried about even being in the playoffs after the 0-2 start,” says Poly coach Toby Hess, “So believe me, nobody is complaining about having to go on the road.”

Hess’ Jackrabbits will find themselves in a familiar position, as a young group of spotty hitters will lean heavily on ace pitcher Mario Gordon to pull them through the tough first round tussle.  “I know, I probably sound like a broken record,” says Hess, “But if Mario pitches well, we’ll compete.”  If not…well, it’s unlikely the ‘Rabbits can hang with the Titans in a slugfest.

Tesoro, who have won four of their last five, hits .395 as a team, with seven players hitting over .400, and 13 team home runs.  They have a team OBP of .458.  By contrast, Poly hits .282 as a team with a grand total of two home runs, both by Kevin Nanbara.  The two best sluggers for the Titans are Anthony Hutting, who’s played every game and is hitting .451 with 4 HRs and 28 RBIs; and Conner Spencer is the team’s best situation hitter, and is batting .489.  If Hutting, Spencer, and the rest of the Titans get going, it’s unlikely that Poly’s young bats will keep up.

“Yeah, a 2-1 game would be the best case,” says Hess.  If there’s more than five runs scored in the game, it’s hard to imagine Poly coming back north with a win.  Still, if you’ve seen Mario Gordon when he’s on, you know that Hess is a broken record for good reason.  If he brings his best stuff, and stays focused, Poly absolutely does have a chance to hang with anybody.

“Their lineup one through nine probably has a lot more depth than ours,” says Hess.  “Luckily we play in a sport where they don’t line up at the line of scrimmage and knock each other down, or we wouldn’t stand a chance.  One player can kind of undermine a whole offense.”  They’ll need Gordon to undermine in a big way, as well as Nanbara and a few other bats to get going if they want to make their way into the second round.