In the News: South City High Sophomore Giovanni Bernal is SM Daily Journal's Athlete of the Week

by Terry Bernal Daily Journal staff

 

“Yeah, he’s got to go match the record now,” Bernal said after his second historic feat.

 

However, even with Bernal throwing the team’s third no-hitter of the season, the feeling never gets old.

 

“They were fired up,” Warriors manager Matt Schaukowitch said. “Anytime you do something like that, a no-no, a perfect game on the mound, you hit for a cycle, you’re going for big things, everyone gets excited.”

 

Last Tuesday’s feat was extra special for South City in that the school saw two pitchers throw no-hitters on the same day. On the softball diamond, South City needed just three innings to claim an 18-0 mercy-rule win over Jefferson, with senior Angelina Rogers firing an abbreviated no-no.

 

Rogers is something of a baseball fan, and has enjoyed watching South City’s baseball rotation on the rare occasion she gets to sit and watch a game. She was less impressed with them when the baseball team crossed over for a late-season intra-school softball friendly last May, where the fast-pitch varsity softball team saw a different side of the school’s revered baseball arms.

 

“They [threw] really, really slow,” Rogers said.

 

Jokes aside, South City’s historic run of pitching is a fitting way to wind down the 2023-24 school year. In the fall, the gridiron Warriors made history by capturing the Central Coast Section Division V championship, the first CCS title in program history. It was the most riveting storyline throughout the PAL in any sport, seeing as two years previous the South City varsity football program was shuttered due to lack of numbers.

“I feel like everybody was just hyping up the football team,” Rogers said. “In previous years we haven’t really done good football wise, but this year I was really impressed. Everyone was impressed.”

 

The baseball Warriors haven’t captured imaginations around campus quite like the football team. While the run of no-hitters has made them buzz worthy, they admittedly have some work to do. Playing in a “C” league in which only the division champion advances to the CCS playoffs, South City is currently in second place, one game behind PAL Lake Division leader Priory. With six league games remaining on the schedule, the Warriors will meet Priory twice in the final week of the regular season.

 

“We’re in a situation where we have to win out to get in a shootout with Priory,” Schaukowitch said.

 

South City’s starting rotation of Bernal, Martin and sophomore Emilio Oseguera make them a dangerous matchup for any team, though. And as Bernal has shown twice this season, he has the potential to be untouchable.

 

Navigating Harker’s lineup wasn’t easy, though. Bernal faced the Eagles earlier in the year. And while he recorded the win through five innings of work in the Warriors’ 9-4 victory, he got roughed up for two runs in the first inning. Harker No. 2 hitter Shaurya Jain was highlighted on the scouting report, after the freshman went 2 for 4 with a long two-run double against Bernal in that March 19 meeting.

 

This time around, Bernal pitched the top of the Harker batting order gingerly in the first.

 

“They have tough 1-2-3 … so once I could get past them, I found my groove,” Bernal said.

Varsity no-hitters can be ambiguous beasts, though. Like most high school scoreboards, South City’s doesn’t display a hit column. Sometimes, even the players and coaches are unaware there’s a no-hitter in progress.

 

“I want to say I started to think about it in the fifth, but I wasn’t sure because I kind of felt like I had gave up a hit,” Bernal said.

 

Schaukowitch said he was unaware of the no-hitter for most of the game. It wasn’t until Eagles manager Michael Delfino, from the third-base coach’s box, gave it away in the seventh when he called timeout to confer with the Priory hitter at the plate.

 

“I was down in the dugout and the coach call timeout to talk to his hitter … and then he did it again,” Schaukowitch said. “He was telling him not to drag bunt on the no-no.”

 

Pitching to South City catcher Jacob Nabung — who belongs to one of the three sets of brothers in the program, Jacob and Josh Nabung; Adam and Owen Keith; and Giovanni and Vincent Bernal — the seventh inning was a breeze. It was the fifth and sixth innings where Bernal faced the most adversity.

 

In the fifth, a defensive replacement in right field proved valuable. Senior Gabe Fregoso, a part-time player, checked in and was immediately put to the test on a flare to shallow right. With Fregoso shading in, the senior ran it down with a diving finish for the defensive highlight of the day.

 

“A lot of times in the season, that ball gets dropped, but Gabe came in and made the diving play,” Bernal said.

 

Then in the sixth, Bernal dug himself a hole by walking two batters at the bottom of the Harker order. That left the sophomore no choice but to challenge the top of the order he had pitched so carefully earlier in the game.

“I pitched to them,” Bernal said. “I didn’t really shy away from them. I threw it right there, they just didn’t hit it.”