Not your normal league bye week: Justin-Siena to face gauntlet schedule, play at Oracle Park in once-in-a-lifetime experience

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By Kyle Foster

Kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews 

Most of the time, when you get your league bye, it is spent recovering or just worrying about your team, not anyone else’s. But that’s most of the time. 

This week, the Justin-Siena baseball team embarks on one of its toughest stretches of the season, all in non-league games. 

They kick off this journey with a trip to the Concord Classic, which runs around Easter. This will test their depth by playing 3 games in 4 days. They are also in the midst of a crazy 8-game stretch in 15 days that began on Tuesday. They hope to get better by playing lots of games, which they will do.  

“I think on Tuesday it kicked off an eight-game and 15-day stretch,” Justin-Siena head coach Jeremy Tayson explained. “So like I said, on Tuesday, the more we play, the better we’re going to get. So we’re going to learn a lot. We’re going to learn a lot on the fly about each other, about ourselves, about the game. 

But maybe the best part of the season comes on Saturday for the Braves. They get to play a non-league game at Oracle Park, which is the home of the San Francisco Giants, as part of the annual High School Showcase at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. It’s sure to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for everyone involved. 

“It’s truly special because I’ve been going there since a kid, early on,” Justin-Siena junior pitcher and third baseman Connor Zuehlsdorff said. “My mom is a big Giants fan. All my family are Giants fans.  So it’s going to be a once in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I mean, hopefully not, but it’ll be truly special to just take that field and experience a day out at Oracle.” 

This game is a way to honor all the success the program has had over the past few seasons. In that time, they have shown up as one of the CIF North Coast Section and the North Bay’s best programs. 

“Oracle Park specifically is also obviously going to be a real special experience for us,” Tayson added. “This group of guys, our seniors and what have you, have been putting the time in our program, seemingly year-round, doing all the right things. They’ve improved immensely over their career here. They’re all good kids, so it really made sense for this opportunity to fit this group as it’s something they’ve earned as they’re trying to carry the mantle forward of the good classes we’ve had in front of them.” 

The best part of all of this is the fact that Justin-Siena gets to use the very same dugout that Tony Vitello and the Giants use on a nightly basis. They will be the home team against Fort Bragg. 

Oracle Park routinely hosts the CIF San Francisco Section title game, and they do the showcase each year, too. Originally, the game was supposed to be against Petaluma. But it didn’t work out with scheduling. Petaluma was also the one that got Justin-Siena in touch with the Giants in the deal. 

“It’s just a high school showcase they call it,” Tayson continued. “Petaluma High did it last year, and (Head coach) Scott (Osder) sort of hooked us up with the Giants.  We were going to play Petaluma. The date didn’t work out.  Obviously, that would have been real fun. But we were pretty committed to making that happen, and the Giants have been great. Their hospitality is great, first-class organization, and we’re excited to be in the third base dugout and have a good day.”

This only leads to a few more questions for this lifelong Giants fan. If Justin-Siena wins, will they hang the Giants flag in right field and then throw in some Tony Bennett I Left My Heart in San Francisco? 

Naturally, this won’t be before or after a game of the hosts. For anyone wondering, they will be gone on a 10-day, 9-game East Coast road trip through Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Washington when the game takes place. 

It’s not the first time this has happened for Justin-Siena either. They played there against Marin Catholic back in 2008, about the time most of the current players on the roster were born.  

For fans to attend the game at Oracle Park, they must buy a ticket to a regular-season Giants home game. This includes a ticket to the high school game. You can go to that link here.

All over this comes after a week where the Braves swept Napa High. They won 10-0 on Tuesday and 12-0 on Thursday. This was their second sweep in a row over the Grizzlies. It was also a key sweep as it appears that splits could be the normal thing during VVAL play. 

“That’s a goal going into every week,” Tayson said of the key sweep. “It’s not going to be easy going into any VVAL week. Obviously, finishing the week here at Mount Field is never easy for any opponent. They’re building something good here, so we feel good about being able to take one here.”

When the Braves return from this very different league bye week, they’ll face American Canyon in their season series, hosting on Tuesday, April 14th at 4:30 and on the road on Thursday, April 16th.