SAN JOSE — It was a serendipitous day of baseball on Friday at Leigh High School.
The host No. 11 Longhorns welcomed in visiting Leland with a record of 10-1 at stake. Leigh’s early-season success had come under fourth-year coach Drew Marino, a Leland alumnus in the class of 2008 who was previously an assistant baseball coach and head basketball coach with the Chargers.
But he’s a Longhorn now. And Leigh kept up its winning ways on Friday afternoon in San Jose, beating its crosstown rival 11-1 and improving – wait for it – to 11-1 this season, continuing a robust early start to its 2025 campaign.
“We’ve got a good group of seniors,” Marino said after the victory. “A couple four-year varsity guys, Dylan Christian and Brandon Kim, and a lot of three-year varsity guys that have started for three years. They’re carrying us right now, and it’s cool to see them come into their own as they’ve grown up here. It’s all coming to fruition right now as seniors for them.”
Leigh has torn through the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Mt. Hamilton Division in the early going. The Longhorns are 4-0 in the BVAL’s highest league, having swept Westmont and now Leland by scores of 13-2, 12-0, 7-3 and 11-1.
Leland, meanwhile, has been on the other side of the ledger, struggling with a tough early-season slate. The Chargers (4-9, 0-4 BVAL) have faced perhaps the two best teams in the Mt. Hamilton, Leigh and Christopher, and have yet to record a league win.
Moreover, scoring runs has been a struggle. In four league games so far, Leland has only pushed five baserunners across the plate.
“We’ve got to do a better job of playing catch, of putting the ball in play and throwing strikes,” said Leland coach Jeff Canter. “Simple. We did not do a good job at any of the basic core baseball principles.”
Canter, a five-year-tenured Leland assistant coach, is filling in this season while longtime coach Mike Sparrer takes a leave of absence to spend time with his young daughter. Canter thought Leland could have a lot to gain from testing itself against the best early on.
But the Chargers will have to apply what they have learned moving forward.
“You can see and you can compare yourself to what success is supposed to look like, and know that when you play good teams, the margin of error is small,” Canter said. “You have to attack the game the best you can. Not play tight, but know that if you make a mistake, they’re going to take advantage of it. So you’ve got to try and be as perfect as you can.”
Leland was imperfect in the second inning, and Leigh took advantage to build a big lead and never looked back. After Leland loaded the bases with a walk, Longhorns first baseman Marcus Glanville tripled to center to bring everybody home, giving Leigh an early 3-0 lead.
Christian added on to the Longhorns’ advantage, scoring Glanville with a sacrifice fly. And after an error in left field extended the inning, Noah Miller’s two-run double gave the Longhorns a six-run cushion after two.
Life is good at Leigh right now. The Longhorns have the look of a team that could do a lot of special things.
To top it off, Leigh has spring break coming up next week.
“Our first goal that we set out was to win the Mt. Hamilton,” Marino said. “That was the first goal. And if we hit that goal, OK, now we go to the playoffs and try and win, take one game at a time in the playoffs. But our first goal was to win the Mt. Hamilton, and that’s what we’re striving for right now.”
Leigh is a program with a proud baseball history. The Longhorns have won four Central Coast Section championships, most recently claiming a Division IV title in 2021, and have been runners-up on three other occasions.
Just last year, Leigh was the No. 1 seed in the CCS Division II bracket but lost 4-2 to No. 7 seed King’s Academy in the championship game. Leigh also lost the Division II final to Bellarmine in 2023.
So the Longhorns have quite the pedigree, but they’re still hungry to polish off some unfinished business.
“Pressure, I would say no,” Marino said. “We’ve created a standard here. These guys that have come in, some of these seniors, they came in with me, right? So we’ve been together for four years now, and they’ve created a standard, and it’s been passed down and passed down. Some of the guys that have been here before that are playing at the college level right now pass it down to these guys. So there is a standard of how we do stuff.”
Leigh walked off the game in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Truman Beaudoin drew a bases-loaded walk to score Ethan Chan and clinch the win by 10-run rule. The Longhorns’ celebration afterward was muted.
Part of it was the occasion – a bases-loaded walk isn’t the most exciting way to end a game. But it’s clear Leigh is also focused on the bigger goals that are ahead if the Longhorns continue to play at this level.
