Sports

California High School Baseball Standout Secures Title After Retracting Threats In Boycott Controversy

by

iStockphoto


The Ganesha High School baseball team won the Southern Section Division II state championship on Saturday vs. Loyola.

It did so after players and coaches retracted a threat to boycott the final contest. The Giants had a full roster at their disposal. There were initially doubts surrounding the availability of a number of top players.

In the end, everyone played. It helped Ganesha win a high school baseball title.

Ganesha is a high school baseball champion.

The Giants faced Loyola on Saturday in a championship bout. Despite being outhit 11-7, Ganesha walked away with a 6-3 victory.

The Giants struck first with a run in the bottom of the first frame. They then built a 3-1 lead in the third.

Loyola evened the score at 3-3 in the top of the fifth but was outscored 3-0 over the last two innings. They attempted a comeback in their final at-bat. Standout Ganesha pitcher Logan Schmidt closed the door.

Schmidt is an LSU commit and likely first-round MLB Draft pick this summer. He is one of many D1 commits on the roster.

Starting catcher Dyson Grant is committed to Oregon State. Pitcher/outfielder Ford Stoen is committed to Purdue. That trio, along with most of the team’s talented players, was expected to be in Mississippi on championship night instead of California.

There was a boycott threat.

Ganesha high school is located in Pomona, California. It enrolls around 800 students from 9th to 12th grade.

The baseball team is made up of both school students and outside contributors. Most of the players on the roster do not attend the school.

Instead, they are enrolled at the Baseball Performance Academy. They are allowed to compete with Ganesha due to the school’s online program. Head coach Jared Sandler is the BPA founder.

This weekend, a number of those non-students were scheduled to be in Mississippi for an out-of-state camp. They were at risk of missing the championship game.

Players and coaches threatened to boycott the matchup while petitioning for a schedule change. The CIF would not accommodate a request to move the game to Friday. In fact, it did just the opposite. They gave Ganesha the latest possible slot for Saturday evening.

“We are dealing with a very sad and disappointing situation. We have a lot of players and their families who are traveling out of town. (Ganesha athletic director Don Cayer) emailed CIF asking if we could play anytime Friday and if they could accommodate that. CIF responded by giving us the last game on Saturday. Our coaches, players and parents are very upset with CIF being so unwilling to work with us.

“It is too expensive for most families to change their trips this late. With the expensive gas prices, the cost for flights is outrageous right now. We should be playing for back-to-back CIF championships and (right) now we are just trying to get enough players to play the game. It is beyond disappointing.”

-Jared Sandler

Travel plans had already been booked. They could not be reversed. As a result, Ganesha planned to play with backups and JV players. The AD was slated to replace the head coach.

Not only would the lack of starters diminish Ganesha’s chances of winning, but it could also put the school at risk of punishment.

CIF Bylaw 600 prohibits high school student-athletes in California from competing on an “outside” team in the same sport during their high school season of sport. Ganesha would be in direct violation of this rule if its players skip the Southern Section District II championship to attend the camp in Mississippi.

-BroBible

Sandler has admitted that his players do not care about high school baseball. That punishment may not have impacted the large majority of the team.

Still, the coach and players showed up on Saturday night.

They retracted their boycott threats and suited up for the state title game. With all of its talent on hand, Ganesha closed the season with a championship victory.