Young Serra Padres pitching staff digging deep

Due to a glut of injuries, Josephson has emerged at the top of the starting rotation and pitched the Padres to a 9-1 win over visiting St. Ignatius Friday at Frisella Field. The sophomore went the distance, allowing one run on seven hits while striking out seven. It was the first complete game for a Serra pitcher this season.

“He threw great,” Houle said. “The biggest thing is zero walks — right? That’s always a huge thing … how many guys do we walk and eventually come around to score. That makes a big difference in high school baseball when you’re not giving away 90 feet.”

The Padres (5-5 WCAL, 13-6 overall) currently have no seniors on their pitching staff, but since the outset of the season, they never did. What they had was a depth of juniors, a depth that has been tested since projected ace Sam Kretsch was likely lost for the season to start the year, and opening day starter Thomas Egbert was shut down after departing in the first inning of the March 14 WCAL opener against Bellarmine.

Adding to Serra’s early-season woes, right-hander Cole Roark was lost for the year, also with an arm injury, after throwing a season-high 3 2/3 innings April 1 against Los Altos.

Enter the sophomore class in Josephson and Davis Minton, who have helped the Padres right the ship. After dropping its first four WCAL games, Serra won nine of its next 10 overall games, including six straight in WCAL play. Saturday’s 8-2 loss at Mitty snapped the WCAL win streak.

“We struggled out of the gate with the first week of league … and it coincided a little bit that we found out the top two pitchers weren’t going to be available,” Houle said. “Also, it was just a little bit of an adjustment figuring out what we really wanted to do with the pitching staff at that point.”

Josephson’s Friday outing against St. Ignatius (4-6, 12-10) was the culmination of that adjustment. It was his first outing in nearly two weeks, and the right-hander used the extra gas in the tank to throw 106 pitches while consistently getting strike one and proving sharp with all three of his pitches. In two previous WCAL starts, Josephson hadn’t made it out of the third inning.

Serra has bucked program convention in recent years by boasting some sophomore starting pitching. But in the offseason, a depth of arms had Josephson ticketed for a likely junior-varsity assignment. Even then, the Padres were getting bit by the injury bug. Junior pitchers Jack Brownfield, Anthony Ganim and Jack Olson, all of whom saw the varsity mound as sophomores in 2022, didn’t play this year.

Kretsch and Egbert opened the year as the only two arms with varsity experience. Now, the entire pitching staff features first-year varsity players.

“The juniors have a good number of pitchers,” Houle said. “So, we’ve obviously had to utilize what we have with them. And then basically we took the two best sophomore pitchers … but they, one, both pitched well, and then with the injuries there was an obvious need to keep them. And they’ve really stepped up, especially as starters.”

Serra suffered another key personnel loss last week when the team’s leading hitter, junior catcher Ian Armstrong, broken a bone his hand sliding into a base in Tuesday’s 4-3 extra-inning win over Bellarmine.

With the team hitting .287 on the year, though, the Padres stepped up to pepper 12 hits up and down the order in their first full game without their No. 3 hitter.

Josiah Rodriguez went 3 for 4 with two doubles and three RBIs; Samuel Rivas had two hits with a two-run home run and four RBIs; and Santa Clara University commit Ben Cleary had two hits at the top of the order, while adding an RBI, two stolen bases and two runs scored. Five different Padres recorded a multi-hit game in the big win, while Josephson helped his own cause by going 1 for 3 with a walk, a stolen base and a run scored.

“They’ve had some big hits, driving in some big runs,” Houle said. “Kind of strung together some big at-bats.”

Serra is currently tied for third place with St. Francis in the eight-team WCAL — behind first-place Valley Christian (10-0, 19-3) and second-place Mitty (9-1, 18-4) — with four league games to play.

“Overall, it was a good week,” Houle said. “Especially knowing how we played that first time in the three-game week, especially against Bellarmine, and were able to scratch out that win.”

Cleary is one of three position players with college commitments. Jake Downing is verbally committed to Cal Poly, while Joey Damelio is committed to Pepperdine.

The recent excitement of Serra’s hot streak coincides with the breakout performance of Los Angeles Dodgers rookie outfielder James Outman. The 2015 Serra graduate has clubbed four home runs in his last four games and boasts a hitting line of .311/.400/.703 while tied for fifth in the majors with seven home runs.

“It’s been cool,” Houle said. “It’s been very cool watching him have so much success. He’s a good guy and he’s very willing to — any time he’s been back and been around, he’s always willing to talk to the guys and hang out. Very down-to-earth guy. So, I think everybody around school is just excited to see him have success.”