Benefield: Casa Grande baseball squad tearing through North Bay League opponents

Paul Maytorena thought it would take 10 games. He was wrong. It took 11.

The Casa Grande Gauchos, an early-season favorite to lead the pack in a crowded North Bay League baseball chase, had, on paper, all of the pieces Maytorena could want: prodigious offense, solid pitching and sound defense. He also had experience up the wazoo. After all, the Gauchos returned the heart of the roster that led them to a second-place league finish behind Maria Carrillo last season.

“I said, ‘By game 10, we’d hit our stride,’?” he said. “It took us a little longer, but at the Boras tournament I thought the boys played really well.”

At the 10-game mark, the Gauchos were 7-3. Since then, Casa is 5-1, falling 1-0 to Davis, a team ranked 19th in the state.

“We had the potential,” Maytorena said. “I knew it was going to take us a little while to get going.”

They are now officially going.

At the invitational Boras Baseball Classic in Sacramento earlier this month, the Gauchos beat Turlock High 22-9 in a game ended by the mercy rule, lost to Davis 1-0 and beat Granite Bay 3-1. Maytorena says his Gauchos hit their stride right about then, but he was left with little doubt after Casa beat Windsor 7-0 seven days after returning from Sacramento.

“It’s confidence,” he said. “We knew we could play with people. Our biggest opponent is in the mirror. We bring people back in games because of our mistakes. One unearned run was the different in the Davis loss.”

The Gauchos are riding the talents of the usual suspects - seniors Hance Smith, Spencer Torkelson, Chris Joaquim, Quinton Gago and John Green. But the bonus player through 15 games has been senior Max Cerini, a guy who didn’t even suit up last season.

“He’s just a stud,” Maytorena said. “He’s just playing baseball and having fun.”

If you call leading the team in batting and stolen bases fun, then Cerini is having a blast.

He’s hitting .524, just ahead of perennial sluggers Torkelson and Smith, both of whom are Division I-bound.

Cerini also has eight stolen bases - five more than the next nearest Gaucho.

But Maytorena has more than your average number of guys to thank for their 12-4 overall and 7-1 NBL record after Friday afternoon’s 22-4 win against Montgomery.

The Boras tournament turned into a coming-out party for the already heralded Torkelson - a guy, who, along with Gago, earned All-Empire first-team honors as a junior. Torkelson, who is headed to Arizona State next fall, hit two homers against Turlock, picking up eight RBIs.

“There were tons of scouts out there,” Maytorena said. “He’ll get drafted; it’s just a matter of where. It was neat to see.”

And Joaquim, a second-team All-Empire pick last season, has been the Gauchos’ go-to guy on the mound, in a sea of potential go-to guys.

“He started the season with a hamstring injury so he was on the shelf. He missed his first two starts,” Maytorena said.

Then came the one-hitter against Davis.

“Then he threw a gem against Windsor,” Maytorena said. “He’s been a horse.”

Maytorena has a whole stable at his disposal. He’s got “eight guys who can throw.”

“It’s developing pitching and defense, that’s what we do at this program,” he said. “Competition is only going to get people better. Let them fight for innings rather than give them innings.

“We have a short leash on everyone,” he said. “Our pitching is too good to let guys pitch out of jams.”

As loaded as the Gauchos are, Maytorena is keenly aware of the talent throughout the NBL.

The team’s one league loss came April 3 against a solid Ukiah squad that returned the core of its team from last year. But the Wildcats have dropped games against Windsor, Montgomery and upstart Rancho in the first half of the season and then fell 3-0 to Santa Rosa on Friday afternoon. They are tied for fourth place with Montgomery.

Rancho Cotate has snuck up to second place with a 5-2 league record after beating Windsor 2-0 Friday.

Despite the abundance of talent on the roster, don’t think Maytorena is getting too comfy with his team’s place in the standings. He knows what the rest of the league can do and there is a lot of baseball left to play.

“This league? It’s any given day,” Maytorena said. “Especially in baseball. It’s seven innings. One bad throw can dictate things.

“The bottom line is how great you play in May,” he said.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes and SoundCloud “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”