DOWNEY - The Downey High School baseball team has seen their season come to an end with a 4-3 loss to the Los Altos Conquerors in the second round of the Division III playoffs on Tuesday.The Vikings, who are the 2012 SGVL champions, finished their season with an overall record of 15-13 and a league record of 11-4. Downey defeated Santa Monica 5-1 in the first round of the playoffs on May 18 and were defeated, as previously mentioned, by Los Altos. Assistant coach Bryn Wade said that Anthony Cortez, David Espindola, Jordan Ybarra, Eric Parra, Adrian Ayala, Yamel Delgado and Juan Gonzalez have all been playing solid for the Vikings. "It has really been a total team effort," Wade added. Coach Wade went on to say that Juan Gonzalez has steadily improved his play and has finished the season strong for the upstart Vikings. Along with Gonzalez, Gabriel Llanes, Tyler Tungate, Richard Gomez and Alex Rodriguez will all return next year with a year more skill and experience under their belts. Coach Wade maintains that this was a great season for Downey baseball because "our players learned to come together to overcome adversity. They had fought back from, at one point, losing 11-of 12 games and starting 0-3 in league to winning a league title and being one big hit away from being in the third round of the C.I.F. playoffs." Certainly Coaches Gonzalez, Grady and Wade are looking forward to next year, defending their league title and making another run in the C.I.F. playoffs.

********** Published: May 24, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 06