CCS Senior of the Year
CHRIS CLEMENTS, P, PACIFIC GROVE
This time last year Chris Clements was figuratively sitting on top of the world.
He was preparing to pitch in the CBCA Junior Showcase – which took place over the weekend at Santa Clara University – after going 14-0 for Pacific
Grove in leading the Breakers to a 31-0 record, the section title and a mythical small-school state title.
The righthander managed a 0.91 earned run average as a junior and had three shutouts. Opponents hit just .160 against him.
"He's really good," Pacific Grove coach Gil Ruiz said before last season’s event at SCU. "He's gotten about 10 to 12 calls (from college
coaches) in the last 10 days. He throws in the 86-87 (mph) range, but his off-speed stuff is Division I level."
Even the gods seemed to be with Clements and the Breakers. They brought “Jobu” – the remnant of a battered ball that became their
lucky talisman – to every 2013 game as the wins piled up.
For his part Clements kept the good vibes going in 2014, continuing to wear non-matching socks – his own good-luck ploy – as the
winning streak of the Pacific Grove program reached 39 games over two-plus seasons with a 10-2 victory against Escalon on March 7.
But then the skein ended with a thud March 8, as the Breakers fell to Hughson 6-4, while allowing three unearned runs in the sixth
inning in what would become a familiar pattern for the young Breakers (just five seniors).
Sadly for PG another streak ended in 2014, as the Breakers (20-7) fell to Branham on May 24 in the section quarterfinals – snapping
PG's run of two consecutive CCS championships.
Despite some disappointments, Clements was no less effective in managing even a lower ERA (0.88) than last season, to go along with a
6-2 record. He also hit .333 with 25 runs batted in. For his efforts, he is the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Senior of the Year.
“It was awesome,” Clements said of all of the success he enjoyed at Pacific Grove. “Not many people get a chance to win that many games
in high school. To play on a team that good is really rare. When we finally lost (to Hughson) it was sort of surreal. We almost forgot
what it felt like to lose. It felt different because I hadn’t been part of a loss since the middle of my sophomore year – that’s 1½ years.”
Clements gave up 14 runs in 56 innings as a senior, but only seven of them were earned.
“It was just experience,” said Clements, bound in the fall to UC Santa Barbara on a baseball scholarship. “We had a lot of young guys.
We had six sophomores and few juniors and we hadn’t played together too much. The chemistry wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t like it was
the (previous) two years.”
If anything, the adversity has made the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Clements even tougher. Thirty-nine game winning streaks are nice, but they
just don’t happen in NCAA Division I baseball. Neither does one pitcher win nearly half a team’s games as Clements did in 2013.
“From a mental standpoint, I think I got better this year,” Clements said. “This year wasn’t the easiest as opposed to the last
few years, but I’m physically better and stronger and now I’m more experienced.”
The heady righthander threw in the mid-tohigh 80s throughout much of a three-year prep career in which he went 23-5 on the mound.
Off the field Clements maintained a 4.0 GPA and got some rounds of golf in too, though he said he’s not very good. He’ll study
communications in Santa Barbara, dead set to make the big leagues one way or another.
As a fan of the San Francisco Giants, that would make pitcher-turned-broadcaster Mike Krukow Clements’ No. 1 role model. Back when Clements
was just a kid, he was sitting watching Giants’ games, beating Kruk and Kuip to the punch with his commentary.
“I’d love to commentate on baseball broadcasts,” Clements said. “It would be a good way to stay in baseball and have fun going to the
ballpark every day.”
Also considered: Brad Degnan, Woodside; John Gavin, St. Francis; Hunter Haworth, San Benito; Josh Nashed, Leland; Luke Rasmussen,
Archbishop Mitty; Drew Strotman, Homestead.
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