Perfect introduction to varsity baseball: Delta freshman tosses perfect game in 1st start
.jpeg "Freshman Kaden Clive delivered a perfect game for Delta High School in his first start.")
Tim Rapp coaches football and baseball at Delta High School, his alma mater located so close to the Sacramento River in Clarksburg that you can hear the water.
Rapp wanted a football season this pandemic-squeezed spring stretch, as did a host of student-athletes on the small-school campus. The River Delta Unified School District elected for traditional spring sports schedules, but no football because there were not enough athletes to go around. Groans everywhere.
Now some applause. With this baseball season on full throttle, may we introduce you to a freshman in Kaden Clive who figures to pile up some gaudy numbers for awhile in the Central Valley California League.
Clive would not have had a breakout season out of nowhere if there was a football season because you can only spread it so thin over so many rosters. Eleven of his Delta 17 teammates are football guys, each glad to have anything to play for a year after having nothing to compete for.
Clive in his first varsity start April 29 tossed a perfect game, a five-inning, mercy-rule shortened game to beat Foresthill 14-0. The slightly built 5-foot-9 sudden Saints ace struck out 13 of 15 batters. He followed with a five-inning one-hitter with eight strikeouts to beat Forest Lake Christian 12-0 on May 10. What now? Autographs and selfies on the campus quad?
These efforts register as something of a big deal for Rapp. As the Delta ace in 1987, Rapp tossed four complete-game shutouts. And young Clive? He saw his sterling effort coming. Sort of.
“The funny thing is, Kaden hadn’t thrown much except for in relief earlier this season, and I told him, ‘Hey, you want to have your first high school start next week?’” Rapp recalled. “He joked and said, ‘I’ll throw me a no-hitter.’ Then he mowed them down. There was a one-hopper to first base in the fourth inning, and then a kid got a hold of one into center field but it was snagged by our sophomore outfielder Zach Carli.”
The coach added, “Some may say we didn’t play a great team, but it’s still a perfect game: not one beaned batter, not one walk, not one hit, not one error. No fluke, no bloopers, just a special performance Kaden, his teammates and family will always remember. I know I sure will.”
The Carli kid? He’s good, too. The sophomore tossed a no-hitter before delivered his masterpiece, an 11-strikeout, five-inning 18-1 win over Foresthill, a program that has had just about enough of the Saints by now.
Clive’s next start is Monday at Woodland Christian. The Saints are 6-5 overall and 4-0 in conference play. With no playoffs to shoot for, every inning matters. The season ends May 20, against Woodland Christian.
For all of Clive’s pitching prowess, he is a kid of few words. Through his assistant-coach father John, young Clive credited his defense, especially catcher Tyler Finley, and all his teammates for his success. Clive doesn’t suit up in football but that doesn’t mean he can’t crash craniums. He had a swollen head and mouth for his second start, no thanks to the kid doing kid things.
“He bumped heads with a friend, had a tooth knocked out, put it back in, missed two days of practice and never missed a beat,” Rapp said with a laugh.
The joy of small-town coaching is how it all binds together. Rapp is a physical education teacher at Delta Elementary Charter. He taught Clive in the sixth grade and was wowed by his live arm three short years later during baseball conditioning drills. If Clive fills out anything like his bear-of-man father, that’ll add velocity to the kid’s fastball.
Clive the kid started pitching when he was 11. His mother Yolanda attended a Franklin High School baseball fundraiser that year and won a raffle prize of pitching lessons with former A’s and River Cats hurler Brad Kilby, brother of longtime Franklin coach Brian Kilby.
“After Kaden’s first lesson, he was hooked,” Yolanda Clive said. “It started to ramp up when he was on the 12-under Laguna Gray All-Stars during the state regionals. He loves it.”
After those youth games, it was common for teams and families to pile into Lamppost Pizza in Elk Grove, owned by the Clive family, to celebrate. Perfect game outings? Still celebrating.
In the backdrop, there’s Rapp. His is a story of prep glory, dashed collegiate hopes, perseverance and second careers. Earlier this season, Rapp reminded his team that pitching can be sweet or crushing. While at Delta, Rapp recalled taking on Bee No. 1 Bella Vista. He pitched a complete-game 3-0 loss, each run unearned on bunts.
“I overthrew first base on two bunts because I had the yips that day,” Rapp said. “So, I reminded the kids here of that and that we were going to work on bunts because little things can cost you.”
Rapp also urges his players to chase dreams. He dropped out of college at 19, no longer an ace, and did “odd jobs for 12 years,” he said, adding, “I’ve done it all. Worked for Pepsi as a merchandiser, was a Class-A driver, a server at Spaghetti Factory, a butcher. Everything.”
Unsatisfied career-wise and married with two children, Rapp returned to Cosumnes River College at 31, graduated from Sacramento State at 35 in 2004, got his teaching credential and landed his first teaching gig at Delta Elementary Charter in 2007.
“I didn’t want to have life regrets,” Rapp said. “I wondered what I could do for a career at 31. Well, I like coaching. I like kids. So I talked to college counselors and set a path. There’s something special at Delta and small towns, and that’s why I love it here, and then you see a kid like Kaden Clive do something amazing and it really hits you. This was meant to be.”