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WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO GET READY FOR THE 2010 BASEBALL SEASON?

The High School Winter Sports Season officially started this week.  That puts baseball just 3 months out.  There are high expectations for the baseball program this year and meeting those goals requires off-season preparation.  What are you doing to be "baseball ready" come February 10?

Ryan Hern came to Fall Ball today to take his first official look at the Tracy High baseball program.  He came with a smile on his face and excitement in his heart because he already knew he was inheriting a great program.  "I'm really blessed to be getting this opportunity," said Hern who has coached at the varsity level at Ripon High and the J.V. program at Riverbank.  "Tracy is known for their very solid and competitive baseball program, and I've been waiting for an opportunity to open up."

Ryan is in his 3rd year teaching math at Tracy High.  He comes to us from the Ripon area where he lives with his wife and 18 month old son Travis.  Ryan and his wife also have another baby on the way.

To his sophomores he said "if you are involved in other sports, you need to be conditioning and throwing the ball so your arm is not rubber come February.

Next stop, February 10.  Until then all players need to be staying in baseball ready shape. 

Stay tuned to this web channel for continual updates on season information and developments in our baseball program.

It's been a great Fall season for Bulldog Jacob Valdez. First he gets crowned Homecoming King and then he signs with San Jose State to play baseball under a scholarship. Great job Jacob and good luck in your Spartan Baseball career once you help take the Bulldogs this year to a Sectional Title.

Jacob signed his letter of intent during National Signing Day this past week.

Vic experienced chest pains early Tuesday morning and was immediately rushed to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto for treatment.  Within 2 hours from the initial pains, Vic was out of surgery and recovering.  Vic's doctor (Dr. Wong) explained to family members that one of Vic's major arteries had 100% blockage.  The blockage was completely opened up in surgery.

Vic has been moved to another Modesto hospital and is recovering with family members in attendance.  He is recovering well and has been advised to take it easy. 

The Alkire family would like to extend their love and thanks to all who have prayed, called, and contacted them.  The family requests that for the immediate future, that there be no phone calls or visitors while he continues to recover.

Son Steve Alkire stated "although this incident was very scary to all of us, I whole heartedly believe it to be a blessing and not a curse.  Vic and family, are aware of what happened and why and are positive about his recovery and his active life continuing in a similar fashion as before his heart attack.  I'm not sure when he will be hitting ground balls or swinging a fungo, but knowing my dad, it will be sooner rather than later," said Steve.

1) Fall Ball will continue for the next two Saturday's.  It will follow the same format as today (an inter squad game that requires players arrive at 9:15 a.m.  Scrimmage begins at 10. 

2) The full baseball schedule for next year will be out in draft soon.  Earlier I had reported that the season was going to be shortened by the CIF (governing body for athletics).  This is in error. We will play 12 pre-season games and 15 league games before entering the playoffs.  This is the same as some of the recent years.

3) The varsity and sophomore schedule will feature several Saturday home games in the late February/March/April pre-season timeframe.  These were very popular last year with Tracy parents who could not make the later afternoon weekday games, and Coach Alkire is extending this line of scheduling to the 2010 season.

4) Coach Alkire has announced that the Alumni Game will be Saturday February 20, 2010.  This is a very popular event where the newly formed varsity squad takes on dozens of ball players who once wore the Bulldog uniform.

In a few weeks we will have a full draft of the 2010 schedule.  Listed below is what has been released so far for the Varsity and Sophomores.  The freshman play a slightly different schedule that will be announced later.

Of note are all the Friday home games at Tracy.  We also will plan a special event for the afternoon of Wednesday May 12 when the seniors on the varsity will play in their last home game at Tracy High.

Sophomores and Varsity will travel on a Saturday in March or April to Pacific Grove for an early morning game.

While we wait for Tracy High baseball to resume, thought I would reach into the picture vault and pull out each week a special picture from the 2009 season at the freshman, sophomore, and varsity level that was a key play in a game or a funny moment. 

So here you go for week #2........ In the picture below, Andy Levand crosses home plate in the 8th inning for Tracy to steal a win from East Bay powerhouse Bishop O'Dowd.  The Bulldogs got off to a very slow start spotting the Dragons 4 runs in the 1st and another 3 in the 2nd.  Tracy would tie the game in the 7th and then win it in the 8th when Levand crossed the plate.

The Tracy Press did a nice feature story on the baseball retirement of Ken Perez and his battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease).

You may view the article here

Don't forget about his appreciation dinner.  An article below has all the details.

Sophomore coach Ken Perez has tabulated the season ending stats from the Sophomore season.  Look for these stats on the Sophomore home page. 

Varsity stats are kept on maxpreps.com

The 2010 Tracy High Baseball Program is poised to have a dominant year.  With the bulk of the varsity lineup returning and a talented crew of sophomores and juniors waiting in the wings, exceptional things are about to happen in 2010.  The build-up of the program started 3-4 years ago and it is evident in the statistics:

In the past 3 years the varsity program is 61-25 overall and 23-7 in league play.  The varsity program has made four straight CIF-SJS playoff appearances with the most recent being the most successful in school history as the Bulldogs played deep into May making a run for the Sectional title.

Info on fall ball will be posted soon.  Stay tuned!

Chris Anklam a 2007 graduate from Tracy High who has spent two years at Delta College will now take the next step in his collegiate career and pitch for California State University Stanislaus where he will receive a partial scholarship.

Congratulations to Chris.

Here is a list of potential players based on the active rosters of 2009. 

While the varsity column shows 10 names, these are not guaranteed spots.  The table only assumes the player will likely return and tryout for the position.  Normally the varsity carry approximately 16 players.

The Stockton Record announced The All Area Team for 2009 Baseball.  The symbolic roster represents the greater Stockton region and several CIF/SJS leagues.

Congratulations to Ricky Diaz who was named first team All-Area.

2nd Team All Area players were Kyle Hassna and Brandon Jossey.

Honorable Mention went to Kyle Moses.

To view the roster go here

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090628/A_SPORTS/90626013

A visitor to our site came up with an idea to have a message board where players, fans, and alumni can chat and leave messages.  Specifically the parent thought it would be a good place for friends of Joey and Colt who are entering the Army could communicate with them.

Look on the left hand site of this site for "Message Center."  You may need to login with eteamz (the company that owns this website) and create a login.  Please keep the messages clean or I'll have to turn it off.

How do you top a league championship for the freshman and sophomores and a deep run in the playoffs by the varsity?  You get back on the horse and do it again next year with 3 league championships and a sectional title.  A tall order or wishful thinking?  When you look around and do a quick scan of the talent in the 2010 THS Baseball program you have reason to dream big.  On the varsity 9 players could potentially return including the 1-4 batters from the 2009 squad (Moses, Valdez, Jossey, and Diaz), along with Tanner Turner, Robert Emerson, Chris Collins, Alex Flores, Robbie Jackman, and Kyle Perez.  Looking to join the varsity ranks will be numerous players from the spirited and talented Sophomore squad.  Add to the mix the very successful freshman team and you have a fantastic nucleus of talent that will bring quality baseball to Tracy High for several years to come.

2009 saw Tracy go further into the playoffs then any other team.  The single season runs record was broken (see article further below).  Coach Alkire also announced on Thursday that Kyle Hassna set a new single season RBI record which was held for one year by Vince Canale.  Kyle generated 37 RBIs in 2009.  The record will now reflect:

1. Kyle Hassna (09) 37 RBIs

2. Vince Canale (08) 35

3. Kevin Hollenbeck (91) 35

4. Brandon Jossey (09) 30

5. Ricky Diaz (09) 29

• Brandon Jossey (2009) 43 runs scored
• Stevie Ramos (2008) 37
• Kyle Moses (2009) 35
• Dexter Hermosura (1995) 34

  ---

The 2009 season officially ended on Tuesday night as the Tracy High Baseball Program issued their awards to a full house in Room 62.

At the ceremony, Coach Ken Perez stated he and his staff would call it a career after 9 seasons coaching at Tracy High.  Throughout the evening as their faces appeared in the movie, the crowd led by their Sophomore players, clapped in appreciation.

We had hoped to keep this a secret until Tuesday night, but the Tracy Press released this information. 

Congratulations to the following players who were named All-League:

SJAA MVP:  Ricky Diaz (Tracy) 

Offensive Player of the Year:  Jordon Enos (Lincoln)

Pitcher of the Year:  John Bowling (Lincoln)

Pitchers:

Kyle Hassna (Tracy)

Mike Toon (Lodi)

Brandon Gildea (Lincoln)

Tyler Eppler (Bear Creek)

Brandon Jossey (Tracy)

Joey Armostrong (Lodi)

Robert Corralejo (Franklin)

Kyle Moses (Tracy)

Richie Rhoads (Franklin)

Anthony Garcia (Lodi)

Patrick Armstrong (Lodi)

Casey Jardim (Chavez)

2nd Team All-League

Pitcher:

Alex Flores (Tracy)

Geeze Borges (Lodi)

Josh Rodriguez (Lincoln)

Matt Clark (Lodi)

Luke Simon (Lodi)

Tyler Sullivan (Lincoln)

Juan Ortega (Franklin)

Daniel Heefner (Tracy)

Jacob Valdez (Tracy)

Matt Hansen (Franklin)

Joey Yamuni (Lincoln)

Ryan Pudwell (Lodi)

Tanner Turner (Tracy)

On Friday evening this website ran out of space (the allotted size I buy for web space each year got filled up from having too many pictures, text, handouts, audio clips, etc).  Thanks to the ad sponsors and those families who have donated money this year, I'm now able to purchase more web megabyte space in which to put additional pictures and audio.  My sincere appreciation to:

Debbie Nelson (All American Sports Academy), Susan Goulding (Realty), Mary Valdez (Jazzercise), Neal Daily (Aflac Insurance), the Sanfilippo family, Johnson family, those who have purchased pictures through the photo gallery, and coming soon Tangles Hair Salon and C&M Landscaping.

Know anyone else that wants to support THS baseball coverage?  We are approaching 100,000 web hits so people will see your ad!

Tracy High statistics going back to 1951 are on this website.  Surfing through the Historical Records Section of this website you will see career and single season records of all players who have passed through the varsity ranks. 

The data provided covers 1977-present along with one set of data found from 1951.  Coach Alkire will continue to pursue additional years to add to the collection.

Based on the data collected, we honor these all time leaders:

Batting Average  Career:  .419    Brad Kelley   1982-83 (based on 80 or more at bats)

Single Season:  .525  Dexter Hermosura  1995

Hits: Career:  87   Ryan Scornaienchi (06-08)    Single Season:  45  Steven Ramos (2008) 

RBIs Career:  69  Vince Canale (06-08)  Single Season:  35  Kevin Hollenbeck  1991 & Vince Canale (08)

Homeruns Career:  14  Kevin Hollenbeck  1990-91  Single Season:  9  Kevin Hollenbeck 1991

Pitching ERA 0.75 (75 innings) Louie Contrera 1980 (single season and career record).

Pitching Career Wins: 14 - 3 Danny Auchard 1987-88 and Ernie Lopez 14-10   2002- 04

Pitching Single Season Wins: 9 wins by Bret Maddox (08) & Danny Auchard(88)

Pitching Career Strikeouts:  185 by Jason Timko 1991-92

Single Season Strikeouts:  98 by Jason Timko in 1992

We are proud to present the THS Career Leaderboard.  Check out our full article below on the new historical section of this website where every varsity player can be found.

NEW.....UPDATED WITH 2008/09 STATS

Click on the title of this article to unveil historical coaching records.

Thanks to my photo partnership with Tracy High teacher Wayne Thallander we have thousands of recent pictures of male and female Bulldog student athletes in action since the fall of 2008.  Swimming, softball, track, water polo, football, cross country, soccer, basketball, tennis, homecoming, girls treat, and of course baseball all available for viewing at stujosseyphotography.com

Spread the word to parents and your classmates at school that these photos exist.  We will continue to build our library of Bulldog athletes and events throughout the 2009 season and likely into next year.

If you choose to purchase a picture, the very small proceed goes to the school newspaper or to covering the fees associated with this website.

Eteamz, the online sports community leader with websites in over 120 countries and over 2 million teams, announced this website was their award winning site for design during the month of October, 2007.  Thank you Eteamz for the recognition!

From Coach Alkire:  "What a pleasure it was to play postseason baseball at beautiful Klein Family Field at the University of Pacific.  For four days we played four excellent teams (Davis, Golden Valley, St. Mary's, and Lincoln) before large crowds, many of whom were supportive Bulldog fans.  To be one of a very few teams playing baseball in late May, I feel that our Bulldog players represented themselves and the city of Tracy well.

There were many highlights throughout the playoffs but to see our #8 and #9 hitters in our lineup succeed night after night was a joy.  Tanner Turner and Robert Emerson combined for 11 hits in 25 at bats to hit .440 in the playoffs.  They were instrumental in getting us out of the first round in the 2-0 win over Davis.  Turner's triple and Emerson's double contributed to both runs in that game.  Combine that with the excellent pitching of Kyle Hassna who outdueled Ryan Stice of Davis, giving him his first loss of the season, and putting Tracy into the second round of the playoffs.  It was a great run and I will never forget the joy that this team has brought to our coaching staff."

More to come from Coach Alkire in a You Tube video interview in a few days.

Kyle Hassna pitched 6+ innings of solid baseball and Kyle Moses came in to clean up a late Lodi rally as the varsity took care of a major goal this evening clinching a berth in the Sac-Joaquin Sectional playoffs.  "Congratulations guys on once again upholding the standard that has become Tracy Baseball. You are now the 4th team in a row to make the playoffs from Tracy," said a proud Coach Alkire after the game.

"Kyle Hassna was a Bulldog on that mound today," said Alkire.  "He pitched 68 pitches and 64 of them were challenge fastballs.  He basically said c'mon I'm going to give you my best stuff, and you try to hit it."  With only 3 strikeouts, the Lodi bats put the ball into play but the Bulldog defense was solid turning 3 double plays and executing several other solid put outs.  "We tried to let Kyle finish the game, but he ran out of gas in the 7th and we turned to Kyle Moses to bring home the victory.  Moses did not disappoint as he quickly shutdown the Lodi comeback.

The Lodi club and their fans were very spirited as the Flames had their season in the balance with a must win situation.  Tracy was going to have to bring an "A" game to defeat them.

Tracy got the scoring started very quickly as Kyle Moses led off with a single.  Jacob Valdez doubled and then Brandon Jossey wasted little time driving in Moses on a ball to the right side.  Ricky Diaz followed with a sacrifice fly to score Valdez.  "I thought that those were the 2 most productive outs of the game," said Alkire.  The Jossey and Diaz outs allowed two runs to score and really put us in the driver's seat and put the pressure on Lodi before they even had a chance to bat."

Tracy would score another run in the 3rd when Valdez singled and Hassna drove him in.  2 more runs followed in the 5th when Valdez led off getting hit by the pitch, and Jossey singled him home.  Jossey then advanced on a wild pitch and Diaz singled to knock the Lodi starting pitcher out of the game.  Daniel Heefner then squeezed to drive in Jossey.   Tracy would plate one more run in the 6th when Valdez doubled again and Diaz singled him home.  Valdez and Diaz had very productive plate appearances collecting multiple key hits and RBIs.  Valdez would end the day with two doubles.

Player	AB	R	H	RBI	Other
Moses	4	1	1	0
Valdez	3	4	3	1	2-2Bs, HBP
Jossey	4	1	1	2
Diaz	2	0	2	2	HBP, SAC, SB
Hassna	4	0	1	1
Heefner	4	0	1	1	SB
Silva	3	0	0	0
Souza	1	0	0	0
Mattos	0	0	0	0
Emerson	2	0	0	0
Turner	3	1	1	0	BB

Pitching: Hassna (W) 6 IP, 4R, 8H, 3K, 2BB, 3ER

Moses (S) 1 IP, 0R, 0H, 1K, 0BB

For the fourth year in a row, the Bulldogs are headed to the playoffs at the beautiful new field at the University of the Pacific.  After countless years of always being the bridesmaid, the Bulldogs have now established a standard of excellence which started with the 2006 club.  Those clubs however, never got past the first round.  The 09 Bulldogs have an excellent chance of getting deeper in the playoffs as they have a fresh pitching staff and are playing superb ball having rolled through league on their current 11 game winning streak

(Note:  The 11 game winning streak is the longest in Tracy High history.  In the 08 and 07 seasons the club put together 6 game winning streaks).

PLAYOFF BRACKET DOWNLOAD HERE

The playoff picture is still a bit cloudy but Tracy will play either Wednesday or Thursday of next week at UOP.  If Tracy and Lincoln both win on Friday, they will share the league title and then participate in a coin flip for 1st/2nd seeding (per SJAA league tie-breaker rules).

The coaching staff do not have to remind the players about finishing strong on Friday.  This team has a lot of pride and they want to keep the momentum going.  It is a team that has seen an amazing amount of change in team chemistry since the middle of March.

On Monday evening with a swing of the bat, Kyle Hassna did more than hit a 3 run homerun he propelled his team into the record books as the highest single season homerun hitting club in the history of the school with 18 on the year.  The former record of 17, was held by the 1991 team (which Coach Steve Alkire was a part of) and the powerhouse 2008 team.  "This is a very unexpected record," said Coach Alkire.  "If you recall back to my February interviews with the Tracy Press and the website, I said this team is not going to hit the long ball on offense but rather do the little things like hit and run and steal bases.  Boy was I wrong, said Alkire. 

The team is led by Kyle Hassna with 6 homeruns, Brandon Jossey with 5, and Ricky Diaz with 3.  Kyle Moses has 2, Jacob Valdez has 1, and Bobby Agard contributed with 1 homerun. 

Alkire will be quick to tell his team that it is important they do not swing for the fences in the remaining games or else bad results will follow.  "The key factor why this team has generated as many homeruns as they have, is their approach at the plate.  I don't think these guys are trying to jerk the ball out with each swing, but rather they take the ball where it is pitched and they are smart about the type of swing they are going to provide based on the circumstance." 

The 6 homeruns for Hassna puts him tied for 4th in all-time career record book and Jossey's 5 has him tied for 5th with another season of high school ball in front of him.

With many young sluggers behind them, beginning with Moses and Tanner Turner, just to name a few, these records are sure to be short lived.

Congratulations to the unexepected sluggers of 2009. 

After 40+ home games, three year varsity member Daniel Heefner will play his final home game at Tracy High Friday afternoon.  Heefner will join seniors Preston Mattos, Chris Burgess, Tyler Silva, Paul Kroll, Colt Ching, and Scott Souza in providing Bulldog fans as well as themselves with some lasting home game memories. 

The sadness of the shadows falling on the Bulldog field will be lightened by the knowledge that more baseball awaits these seniors and their teammates next week in the playoffs.

The Varsity Bulldogs were 1 out away from victory but they could not extinguish the Lodi Flames as Lodi generated a 2 out rally to take the game to extra innings and then win it with a 1st pitch homerun in the top of the 8th.

A series of walks and hits by Lodi in the 5th was major turning point in the game.  Tracy struck first with the hot bats taking a 3 run lead early and increasing the lead to 4-0.  Alex Flores had pitched out of a few jambs and it looked like Lodi was headed for defeat.  Looking to give some other arms some work, Ricky Diaz was brought in and struggled a bit to give Lodi new life and a 6-4 lead.  Tracy would battle back to tie the game in the bottom of the 5th and actually took a one run lead on a Jacob Valdez smash to right center.  Kyle Moses was now pitching and controlling the Lodi bats.  With a 1 run lead, two outs and nobody on, Tracy was a strike or two away from a league title, but give Lodi credit as they began to battle back to tie the game in the 7th.  In the top of the 8th on the first pitch, Lodi homered to erupt into excitement.  Tracy got Robert Emerson to 2nd in the bottom of the 8th, but could not get him home.

"This was probably the most intense game I've every coached in," said 16 year coach Vic Alkire.  "It was a battle.  I'm proud of our kids because they did not give up and were battling as hard on the first pitch of the game as they were in the 8th inning.  We hit the ball well, played good defense most of the game, but give Lodi a lot of credit.  They had nothing to lose, were playing loose, and wanted to spoil our special day."

Coach Alkire was very pleased with the pitching performance turned in by Alex Flores.  "He was outstanding and pitched himself out of some jambs."

Lincoln defeated Franklin 3-2 this evening to give Lincoln the league title and 1st seed.

Tracy will now play Wednesday May 13 at 4:00 p.m. against 1st seed Grace Davis of the Modesto Metro Conference.  Tracy defeated Davis earlier this year in a close battle at Davis.

Across town, the Sophomores were almost perfect as they beat Lodi 11-1 to claim a first ever league title.  Congratulations to Coach Perez, his staff, and the roster of great kids assembled on the squad this year.

Pitching:

Flores:  4 IP, 0R, 2H, 3K, 3BB, 0ER

Diaz: 1/3 IP, 5R, 2H, 0K, 3BB, 5 ER

Moses (L):  3 2/3 IP, 3R, 2ER, 4K, 4BB, 5H