‘We’re having a great time’: Cosumnes Oaks baseball keeps the good times rolling
Elvin Delic and John Sheehan grew up playing ball together. They took their hacks, fielded some 3,000 grounders and won a ton with Laguna Youth Baseball.
Before their freshman season at Cosumnes Oaks High School, a summer tournament in Fresno was all it took for Wolfpack coach Mark Gwerder to realize he had two players worthy of varsity time with the ability to be program cornerstones. He was right.
Now seniors, Delic and Sheehan represent the grit and hustle of the program, and their fingerprints are dotted all over their team’s 6-0 start this season.
On Wednesday, Delic made plays at shortstop and collected two hits. Sheehan was the rock behind the plate and got a hit and drew two walks. Their teammates were solid as the No. 10 Wolfpack beat Bradshaw Christian 8-6 in a nonleague contest on Wednesday afternoon in Elk Grove.
That’s a perfect showing of games packed into eight frantic days of fun.
“We’re having a great time,” said Delic, headed to the University of San Francisco to study business and play the infield. “We’ve had good pitching, good hitting, and we’re playing good defense. A lot of us grew up doing this.”
The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Sheehan is bound to Grand Canyon University to study communications and catch. He recalled how green he and Delic were as wide-eyed freshman. Now they’re mentors to the young ones on the roster, coaching in the dugout when they’re not making plays.
“Playing on varsity as freshmen, that can be intimidating,” Sheehan said. “We learned a lot. We’re bigger and stronger now, and we all connect and we’re all passionate to win.”
So much so that Delic and Sheehan have vowed not to shave their facial hair growth, “until we lose, and I hope that’s a long time,” Delic said.
Cosumnes Oaks opened the season with a 3-2 victory over Stanford-bound ace Ty Uber. Some 20 Major League Baseball scouts aimed radar guns at Uber and CO’s Steven Brooks, a 6-6 right-hander headed to Cal Poly and also on the MLB radar. Brooks earned the win and more than held his own, and so did the Wolfpack in general against an elite arm.
The other team victories are 10-0 over Bella Vista, 3-1 over Oakmont, 8-1 over Bradshaw Christian and 34-2 over El Camino — yes, 34 runs against a 2-0 team. The Wolfpack compete as if there’s a lot to gain, and there is, even without a Sac-Joaquin Section playoff tournament this season.
Gwerder, the sixth-year head coach and a 1988 Elk Grove High graduate, said his best team was the one that had most all of the 2020 season wiped out due to the pandemic. The holdovers from that group include Delic, Sheehan, Kevin SooHoo, Trevor Watkins and a host of others.
SooHoo had two RBIs Wednesday, and Watkins, another captain, drove in two and struck out two in the top of the 7th in relief to seal it. Cosumnes Oaks struck out eight Pride batters, including three by starter Gannon Castle.
“We have a lot to play for,” Gwerder said, adding about his two four-year starters, “They’re great leaders, good kids. As I coach, I can speak to the guys until I’m blue in the face, and when one of the captains tells them to be calm. they’ll listen. That’s leadership.”
Delic is off to a blistering start. He is batting .727 after Wednesday. Sheehan is hitting .357 and Watkins .412. The team average is .416.
Other key cogs to the CO machine include Mason Airoldi (batting .353), Manny Montanez (.333), Darryl Johnson (.417), Alexander Giron (.429), Brooks (the ace hitting .526), Castle (.400), Jake Fitzgerald (.333), Dylan Goodman (.300) and Royce Tsumura (.250).
The Wolfpack have 22 stolen bases, with the long and lanky Sheehan leading with five and Johnson with four. Johnson scored two runs against Bradshaw Christian. As a staff, Cosumnes Oaks has struck out 50 in 38.2 innings, with Castle (14) and Brooks (12) leading the way.
Bradshaw Christian (3-2) was solid in defeat, testament to the championship small-school program Drew Rickert built over the years. He is now an assistant coach to Kurt Takahashi. For the Pride, Trevor Baker had two RBIs on Wednesday and Michah Nicholson had two hits.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 6:16 AM.