Winless Bulldogs waiting to play more ball

The rain the last three weeks has kept much of the scheduled baseball games to be postponed and pushed back and in some cases, cancelled. As of Tuesday, Folsom High's varsity team has only played four games (0-3-1), and three of those were held the first three days in March. Beyond that, the Bulldogs have been doing whatever they can to get some form of practice in. "I'm done with this weather," Folsom coach Brian Casteel said this week. "It's been brutal. Our first three games; two of them were supposed to be at home but we had to move them to the road to get them in. So we played three games on three consecutive days on the road. The roof on our batting cages has blown off. That's one of the perks we had, but not now. We're still working to get that fixed. "Monday we got out and got our bullpens in, took some swings and played some catch. We've just been doing whatever we can." In terms of games, while Folsom's record is 0-3-1, they've played solid baseball in the face of some superior pitching. Folsom lost to Elk Grove, 2-1, Franklin, 5-2 and De La Salle, 6-3 and tied Christian Brothers, 5-5. "Against Franklin and De La Salle, we faced four pitchers going to Mississippi State, Oregon, UCLA and Santa Barbara," Casteel said. "We held our own. That's why I'm not worried about our batting average right now. We've faced some really strong pitchers. "Defensively, we've played great. We lost to Elk Grove because we didn't execute offensively. Other than that, I have no problem with how we played." Folsom senior Sean Carey pitched four innings of no-hit ball and struck out seven against Elk Grove, and then against Christian Brothers, Carey against threw another four innings, allowed one hit and struck out nine. He also hit a home run against De La Salle's Cal Randall, a UCLA commit. "Sean is one of the best players in Sacramento," Casteel said. "He really is. He's a different kid." In Folsom's first four games, Casteel has thrown 10 pitchers including seniors Carey and John Kim, juniors Christian Serrano, Jake Cruz, Collin Elmore and Josh Kim, sophomores Jacob Neal and Luke Williams and freshmen David Engelken and Bennett Downey. Casteel will use the entire staff this season out of necessity, as he doesn't have the luxury of relying on three big arms like he did a season ago. Offensively, Carey will lead the team as Colin Callahan, Payton Dupree, Colin Gallagher, Collin Elmore and Logan Hutton figure to be top hitters. "We'll see how things go," Casteel said. "Our goal is to always make the playoffs. We're going to have to have guys with big years and we can't afford to have any injuries."