There was pure joy when Canon King ran to his Venice High teammates standing outside the canoe after touching the marble to finish a home run. He launched a group bump with Dylan Johnson, who crossed dirt like a child playing in a sandbox.
“It feels good,” said King later. “We worked so hard for four years.”
Venice (27-2) is about to win a trip to the Dodger stadium to play for the baseball championship in the city section section. The gondoliers play Sylmar at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Cal State Northridge in the semi-finals. The other match as part of a double head to El Camino Real against Birmingham at 3 p.m.
In many ways, these two games impose much more pressure on the players than reaching the championship match, because each player wants to go to the Dodger stadium so much to realize dreams of a life.
“It’s magic,” said King.
To see King’s smile and excitement last week after hitting his sixth circuit in a 4-1 victory against Chatsworth offered a hint of its value and importance for a team from Gondoliers who increases. It is a triple MVP of the Western League.
He is attached to Cal State San Marcos, obtained all the A for four years on his bulletin, with the exception of a B in the first year of chemistry and a B in Spanish AP. He is a born leader and “likes” to be named Canon by his father, high school teacher and former amateur rapper whose best friend had a cannon as a surname.
“Energy is contagious,” he said about the team’s success. “Everything meets. The chemistry of our team was raised. Our practices were so productive. ”
The King of Canon of Venice struck his sixth circuit last week against Chasworth.
(Craig Weston)
Coach Kevin Brockway has 16 seniors on the list. The Gondoliers have not won a higher division championship since 1972 and try to follow the same improbable path as the champion of last year, Bell, who was not at a final since 1953.
Venice received the seeded n ° 1 even if El Camino Real and Birmingham came from the strongest League in the West Valley. But the gondoliers went 18-0 in the Western League and have the defensive prowess of doing well, with a solid receiver in Charlie Nisbet, a reliable stop in Daniel Quiroz and King in the central field.
Sylmar, the Champion of the Valley Mission League, went to the Dodger Stadium two years ago for the championship match of division I. The launcher Alex Martinez remembers the third goal in the first year.
“It’s crazy,” he said about the atmosphere. “Crushing for sure. He looks different, even when the ball is in the air. He gets married.”
He launched a laundering last week during the victory of the open division of Sylmar against Cleveland. Coach Ray Rivera came to count on him as a launcher and striker.
“He trusts me with the ball and in special situations,” said Martinez.
He thinks that the Spartans enter the Tuesday match feeling good about their skin.
“This team is special this year,” he said. “This team can beat anyone if we play our game.”
Venice knows the upcoming challenge, first to go beyond Sylmar, then one of the two powers of the West Valley League, El Camino Real or Birmingham.
Whatever happens, King is ready, although he is grateful that the matches are 6 p.m. Tuesday and 1 p.m. Saturday. The gondoliers are not doing well with morning matches.
“We are notorious for Saturday morning matches,” he said.
He will make everyone read the day before. None of them will sleep well anyway, thinking of the possibilities.
“Surrealist”, this is the way King said if the gondoliers can go to the Dodger stadium on Saturday.
