Commentary On The Film Devil's Playground

Noah Dent steps up to the plate, waiting for a pitch that could possibly decide the game. He concentrates solely on the ball and watches the pitcher wind up and launch the pitch, knowing that the game was on him.
He swings and makes contact, a grounder for a routine out was the outcome, giving Excelsior Charter of Victorville the victory over the Santa Clarita Christian Cardinals in the CIF-Southern Section Division VII championship game.
There are no replay buttons in life, but at that moment in time the Cardinals wished they had one.
However, they have something much different in mind this year. Vengeance.
“Losing in the finals really turned out to be fuel on the fire. It motivated me to work harder because we were so close.” Said ace pitcher Noah Peterson.
The Cardinals head coach Garrick Moss is also the head coach of the football team and the assistant coach of the basketball team. With his hand full year round, he managed to lead Cardinals baseball to three consecutive league championships, with hopes of accomplishing the team’s fourth straight title in a row.
With the Cardinals exemplifying such a dominant force in the Heritage league, it makes it hard to believe that anyone could stop them from snatching the fourth title. The Cardinals however will face huge team changes in the coming year, losing their previous team captain and ace pitcher Clint Ross.
“Clint was a tough loss. He was our emotional leader and he was one of our top players. This year we will have to rely on our only senior Caleb Peavy, with help from Juniors Noah Dent, Joe Sparks, and Ryan Franchimone.”
There’s no doubt those will be hard shoes to fill, with Ross averaging a .374 batting average and a .978 fielding average over his four year SCCS career. However, Cardinals have found something in their star pitcher Dent.
“He is a key player on our team and provides a lot for us. With Clint leaving we lost a great player and also a great leader, but I have no doubt that Noah has the potential to fill his shoes, the kid’s a beast.” Franchimone said.
No kidding, Dent averaged a 0.92 ERA over the 138 innings he has pitched, not to mention his 187 total strikeouts just over the course of his freshman and sophomore year.
Let’s be honest the kid’s a force, that’s the reason when Dent’s name is brought up around his teammates the word “talent” always seems to describe him.
Clint’s shoes aren’t the only ones to be filled as the Cardinals would also lose starting short-stop Luke Orona and Golden Valley transfer Tripp Bowers, who is a pitcher. The two won’t be on the Cardinal’s roster in the 2016 season due to school violations.
The question people are asking is “Why are the Cardinals so good?” playing against schools in higher divisions has a lot to do with that. This year Moss has managed to schedule what would be the Cardinals first game against Saugus High School, which would also be their first time playing against a Foothill league team. Cardinals would also play teams like University prep, Little Rock, Viewpoint, and Dunn High-school.
“We never look at the higher division teams as a learning experience, we look at it as a chance to prove that we can play in your league if we wanted too. A team’s talent and potential shouldn’t be limited by their
division.”
This is a point that the Cardinals look to prove in their first Foothill league face-off.
With the Cardinals currently ranked number two in the Southern California Division seven section only one goal lingers throughout the entire team and that’s get back to the CIF finals and beat whoever meets them there.
When asked what would be the main focus points to get them to the finals, Moss emphasized on the facts that they must play solid fundamental baseball, minimize their mistakes both fielding and on base-running, get production out of the bottom of the lineup, and ensure that our pitchers dominate the mound so that their strike-out to walk ratio is in the strikeout’s favor.
Some people might think that’s a high standard, but when the Cardinals are on their way to their fourth consecutive league championship, excellence is the standard.
The Cardinals work in the off-season will be put to the test in their first legume game against Guidance Charter, seeking to keep the Heritage league title.
The Cardinals have the mind-set that they are a force to be reckoned with, and they are ready for anyone who wants the challenge.
And with the season they had last year, it looks like there’s only two things that stand in the way of Cardinals winning the CIF title, and that’s Excelsior and…themselves.