The city of Santa Maria has cemented itself as a place for premier prep baseball talent. While Righetti was the high school that received most of the acclaim during the year with their 28-7 overall record and second round MLB draft pick, it was Santa Maria High School that finished the season the strongest.
The Santa Maria Saints sported a record with double-digit losses heading into this year’s CIF Southern Section playoff tournament. But once the team started play in the tournament, it was as if they had dominated opponents all season long. The Saints won all five playoff games and took home the Division 6 CIF Southern Section Baseball Championship.
“On paper, we knew this team had the potential to do what they did,” Head Coach Rick Hebert said. “In league play this year we didn’t really come together as a full team until the end of the season when everything just started clicking.”
The regular season didn’t go as smoothly as their undefeated playoff run, but the Saints still finished with a more than respectable record of 21-11-1. Often playing against local teams in upper divisions, Santa Maria held their own in nearly every game they played this year.
Of the 11 losses this season, Santa Maria lost four of those by one run, and two games went into extra innings. The most closely contested matchup of the year came against San Luis Obispo’s Mission Prep, an extra-inning nail-biter that ultimately ended in a 3-3 tie.
“One of our biggest issues during the season was not hitting with men on base and starting with the series against Templeton late in the year,” Hebert said. “We started to execute better offensively and the defense was always there to get us out of jams.”
Once the Saints started to find timely hits and play their same solid defense, the tail end of the season saw a series of smooth successes. Receiving major contributions from the undeniable team MVP senior Pauly Navarro, Santa Maria was more than ready to dominate Division 6 opponents come tournament time.
Not only did Navarro hold down the mound whenever he pitched for Santa Maria, the senior was arguably the Saints’ biggest bat at the plate. The shortstop/pitcher ended the year with a .369 average with 41 hits in 33 games. Navarro was named the CIF Southern Section Player of the Year.
“Pauly Navarro and Trevor Garcia were the two horses that we rode all year,” Hebert said. “We also got some good pitching from Slim Lopez, Marcos Rodriguez, and Isiah Garcia too, but Navarro and Garcia were our two main guys.”
While pitching was key for Santa Maria the whole season, consistent hitting from across the lineup was perhaps the true reason for the team’s stunning success. The Saints had an overall batting average of .320 and averaged around five runs per game.
The hot bats and reliable pitching erupted in the postseason. In the Division 6 postseason tournament, Santa Maria outscored opponents 66-12 in five games. Hebert and his coaching staff did their best to keep the emotions of their players in check, a task that became harder as the prospect of winning the school’s first CIF baseball title since 1957 became more and more realistic.
“It was a huge weight off our shoulders,” he said. “Coach Orozco and I tried to keep the players focused on the play at hand and not get too excited. But once the final game was done it all just hit us at once, the relief was immense.”
For his effort, Coach Hebert was rewarded with the title of CIF Southern Section Coach of the Year. Beside Navarro’s Player of the Year honor, other notable accolades included Tommy Herrera and Trevor Garcia being named to the All-CIF team. The whole Saints team and coaching staff were honored at Santa Maria’s Downtown Fridays, with Mayor Alice Patino emceeing the affair, on June 23.
When the possibilities for next year’s team were brought up, the excitement was palpable in coach Hebert’s voice. Santa Maria may be losing some good players, but a core of solid players still remain, and with a rejuvenated mindset to boot.
“We are losing three senior starters and we can’t replace some of those special players,” Hebert said. “I think we are going to be just as dangerous next year and maybe even more so because the players are now believers.”
Sports contributor Keenan Donath can be reached through Managing Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 6-13, 2017.