by Aydn Morris

After having a winning record and an incredible improvement over last season Bosco baseball was snubbed out of the CIF playoffs.

The Braves had an outstanding season even with falling short of playoff expectations.

The Braves baseball team, led by coach Don Barbra, finished with an overall record of 16-12 and a Trinity League record of 6-9 which was good enough for fifth in the Trinity League.

The Trinity League is regarded as one of the toughest leagues in high school baseball, similar to its reputation in many other sports. Even with the fifth spot finish for the Braves, they still had a chance of making the CIF playoffs, as the other four teams ahead of them made it to the playoffs. 

If the Braves were to have won one or two more of their Trinity League matches, it would have changed the outcome of their season. As the fourth-seeded team, Santa Margarita won six games in the league as well, and was able to make the playoffs.

Even though the Braves did not make the playoffs, finishing the season with a positive win record is a huge improvement and accomplishment for the Braves. Last season the Braves finished with a 6-21 record and 1-14 league record, which is a massive difference from this year. 

“The program will be strong next year as many of the junior varsity guys will be moving up to varsity, and the same thing as this year. They will have a heavy-sided senior class,” said senior pitcher Julian Orozco. 

This year, the Braves had 21 players from the senior class, and it is looking to be around the same for next season as most of the guys moving up to varsity will be seniors next year. 

“We had a hot start. If we could have been more consistent throughout the season, we could have had a different outcome to the season,” said senior catcher Dylan Taguiam. 

The Braves started the season off 11-1, with their lone loss being to Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita with a score of 4-3. This loss was not bad, however, as Tesoro finished their season with a 21-8 record and at the time were undefeated. 

This is where the talk about consistency with the Braves comes in. In some games, the bats were on fire, and the Braves won games scoring up to 13 runs. Other games, however, are quite the opposite as they would, time and time again, get shut out in the next game they play.

“The biggest adversity we had to face was when we were 11-1 and we had to play JSerra in a series. That first loss to them, we kind of dealt with it in a weird way,” said Dylan Taguiam. 

The first loss to Junipero Serra Catholic started a huge five-game losing streak for the Braves, as they went into a series against Orange Lutheran High School and got swept with two shutout losses. That stretch was key for the Braves and simply breaking that huge losing streak could have changed their season outcome. 

“In the National Classic Tournament, we were on and off as we went 2-2 in the tournament and just inconsistent, which was really our downfall,” said Dylan Taguiam. 

The inconsistent play of the Braves may have determined their season, but it is something that can be fixed next season and the program is looking to only improve going forward.