Culver Baseball Summer Camp to Begin

The Culver City High Centaur baseball team had a remarkable 2016 season with a 21-8 record. They went undefeated in winning the Ocean League title. They finished with a flurry by winning 15 consecutive games before losing in the CIF Playoff Quarterfinal round.

The Centaurs only gave up nine total runs in 10 league games and only 53 total runs in 29 games. It will be very difficult to improve those numbers regardless of their future success in any year. The program is stronger than ever with dozens of students filling out the rosters representing Culver High: the varsity, junior varsity and freshman squads.

Pitching and defense are the cornerstones of the Culver City baseball and with the improved hitting facilities on campus the future looks bright. The common denominators to success have been the Culver City Little League that keeps feeding the program and the 'Fundamentals of Baseball Camp' put on each summer by head coach Rick Prieto.

"A majority of our team is Culver City Little League. We are pretty much a home-grown baseball program here at Culver City High School. We work with what we have and try to prepare as much as we can to be successful on and off the field," said Prieto.

"2016 was probably one of the more relaxing seasons for me because I was able to delegate a lot more responsibility. Those responsibilities were preparing the players for practice, the games, to pitch and all aspects of the game. Having those quality coaches with me definitely added to the success of the players.

"We're losing Nolan as our right-handed senior pitcher. We're losing our catcher, Jacob Weiner, who was very instrumental to this season. To control the staff as well as he did and keeping the opponents from wanting to run if they saw him throw the ball down to second base was impressive."

The 2016 varsity team will be losing eight seniors to graduation out of the 21 players on the season-ending roster. The seniors: Mason Mulvihill, Tomas Saucedo, Kelvin Murillo, Michael Netzel, Joseph Perez, Hunter Hutchinson, Nolan Martinez and Jacob Weiner.

The juniors: Daniel Aceves, Ryan Weiner, Justin Weiner, Andrew Calo, Jason Zeidman, Eli Saucedo, Max Sterner, Matthew Paspalis, Donovan Haase, Matthew Stewart and Matthew Rummelsburg. The sophomore: Kevin Mateo and the freshman: Mason Le.

Prieto: "We're losing our outfielders Michael Netzel and Mason Mulvihill which is huge. Trying to replace those guys is going to be very difficult.

"We have to replace our shortstop, Kelvin Murillo, who's been the cornerstone of our infield for four solid years to where we never thought twice about him leaving but... he's going to be very hard to replace.

"I can go right down the list and tell you the whole starting lineup have been at my camp at some point, most if not all the players on the roster."

This summer marks the 20th year that Prieto and his staff of coaches and former players are conducting the Culver City Fundamentals of Baseball Youth Summer Camp.

This year the Culver City High ballpark where the camp is held will include the addition of three batting cages that compliments the newly renovated field.

Here are the details of this year's camp for those interested in signing their youngsters up designed for Grades 3-8:

The camp will cover the basics skills in throwing, catching, fielding, hitting, bunting, base running, and instructional games.

The low Coach / Player ratio ensures that each player will receive personal attention while having fun improving their baseball skills.

Camp Hours: Drop off at 8:45; Instruction hours are 9:00 am-1:50 pm; Pick up by 2 pm

Cost for five-day session is $135; $81 for three-day session; Payment arrangements for multiple weeks available.

Please make check payable to: CC Fundamentals of Baseball, PO Box 4372, Culver City, CA 90231

Session Dates: 1st Session - June 13-17; 2nd Session - June 20-24; 3rd Session - June 27-July 1; 4th Session - July 6-8; 5th Session - July 11-15

Items campers will need: lunch, water bottle, gloves (fielding and batting), baseball pants or shorts, hat, sun block, turf shoe, tennis shoe, or rubber cleat (No metal cleats)

Please Note: $25 non-refundable fee is forfeited (from paid registration) for cancellations received less than seven days prior to each camp week.

For more information, please contact Prieto at 310-842-4370 or email at: rsprieto@att.net

Location: Baseball field behind Culver City High School on Harter Street.

Coach Prieto wrapped it up: "I can honestly say that a large percentage of all our baseball players that have come through Culver City High School and have gone on to bigger and better things once they've graduated have come through the "Fundamentals of Baseball" camp."