Senior Trent Hammond and sophomore Duncan McKinnon have dreamed of playing at Dodger Stadium since they were eight-year-old tikes in the Mira Costa Pony Baseball and Manhattan Beach Little Leagues.
Friday afternoon the two will get their chance when their team, Serra High School, meets Mira Costa High School in the CIF Southern Section Division III Final at 2:00 pm at Dodger Stadium, squaring them off against longtime local friends on the Mustang squad.
Hammond was a former player on the Mustang team in 2012 but later transferred to Serra, seeking to avoid controversies that had developed in the Costa program. Coach Cassidy Olson was suspended by the district for the first part of the 2013 season for violations of coaching policy, which he maintained he did not commit.
“It was tough especially the first week of school,” Hammond said of his transfer from Mira Costa to Serra. “But everyone from the faculty to the students really took me in and made me feel like I had been there for four years. It has been an amazing year and it really helped me focus on playing baseball.”
Hammond and McKinnon will be seeing a lot of familiar faces across the diamond when they face off Friday afternoon against their former squad, with Serra looking for a measure of revenge after having lost to the Mustangs earlier this season without their full roster.
“They beat us with basically our JV team,” Hammond said of their first meeting. “They were really letting me know about it after the game and telling how much of a mistake I made for leaving.”
The trash talking has been in full swing on the social media circuit since both teams advanced to face each other in the finals.
“We have been going back and forth with the trash talking,” McKinnon said. “But it is all in good fun. It is going to be exciting, intense and of course we want to win but I think we just need to stay focused on our task at hand.”
Hammond has been a force at the plate for the Cavaliers, helping Serra to its first league championship in 42 years and their first ever appearance in a CIF final, while leading the team in RBI's with 40. For the season, Hammond has produced eye-popping numbers with a .402 batting average scoring 28 runs, 39 hits, 40 RBI's, 17 doubles, two triples and two home runs and has been just as blistering at the plate during their playoff run going 11 for 17 with six doubles, one triple and nine RBI's.
“It’s been a great ride,” Hammond said of the Cavaliers playoff run. “We have a tremendous line-up and hitting behind Domonic Smith has been a hitter’s dream.”
Smith, who is widely considered one of the top pro prospects in nation with many projecting him to be drafted high in the first round of the MLB draft, along with Hammond and McKinnon have given the Cavaliers a line-up other pitchers cringe when facing.
“Facing Costa is going to be awesome,” McKinnon said of the upcoming showdown. “I am going to soak up this opportunity and make the best of it. I’ve been a Dodger fan my whole life and I am extremely grateful to be able to step on the field where my heros Matt Kemp, Andre Either and Clayton Kershaw play.”
McKinnon has been a consistent force at the top of the line-up this season for the Cavaliers and has produced some very gaudy numbers as well, hitting .340 with 26 runs, 34 hits, 25 RBI's, 5 doubles, 3 triples and 1 HR.
“This has been a fun experience for both of us,” Hammond said of the experience they have had together at Serra. “But I’m glad that we were together because I felt like I had someone I could talk to.”
Gardena Serra, which is one of just three private Catholic School’s in the South bay area, has long been considered an athletic powerhouse, producing high-level college prospects along having won multiple CIF and State Championships in variety of different sports but baseball has been the one sport at the school that has not been successful until this season.
“We know that we don’t have a lot of history as a program,” Hammond said. “But we feel like we are starting our own legacy and starting something like the football program.”
Their legacy will be cemented in the annals of Cavalier baseball lore with a win against the Mustangs on Friday afternoon. But for the parents of the players the experience is better than any win.
“These kids have been friends and teammates since they were little boys,” Hammond’s father Kip, who has coached most of these boys, including Mira Costa players, in travel ball, said. “My son, Gordon Cardenas and Garret Wells still work out together three times a week.
“It really is something special to see all these kids who I have watched grow up, get to play against each in the CIF final at Dodger Stadium, it really is destiny. If it were a Hollywood movie nobody would believe it”