SAN JOSE >> It was a serendipitous day of baseball over the weekend at Leigh High.

The host No. 11 Longhorns welcomed in visiting Leland with a record of 10-1 at stake. Leigh’s early-season success had come under fourth-year coach Drew Marino, a Leland alumnus in the class of 2008 who was previously an assistant baseball coach and head basketball coach with the Chargers.

But he’s a Longhorn now. And Leigh kept up its winning ways on Friday afternoon in San Jose, beating its crosstown rival 11-1 and improving to 11-1 this season, continuing a robust start to its 2025 campaign.

“We’ve got a good group of seniors,” Marino said after the victory. “A couple four-year varsity guys, Dylan Christian and Brandon Kim, and a lot of three-year varsity guys that have started for three years. They’re carrying us right now, and it’s cool to see them come into their own as they’ve grown up here. It’s all coming to fruition right now as seniors for them.”

Leigh has torn through the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Mt. Hamilton Division in the early going. The Longhorns are 4-0 in the BVAL’s highest league, having swept Westmont and now Leland by scores of 13-2, 12-0, 7-3 and 11-1.

Leland has been on the other side of the ledger, struggling with a tough early slate. The Chargers (4-9, 0-4 BVAL) have faced perhaps the two best teams in the Mt. Hamilton, Leigh and Christopher, and have yet to record a league win.

“We’ve got to do a better job of playing catch, of putting the ball in play and throwing strikes,” Leland coach Jeff Canter said. “Simple. We did not do a good job at any of the basic core baseball principles.”

Canter, a five-year Leland assistant coach, is filling in this season while longtime coach Mike Sparrer takes a leave of absence to spend time with his young daughter.

Longhorns first baseman Marcus Glanville gave Leigh a 3-0 lead in the second inning with a triple after a Leland walk loaded the bases. Christian scored Glanville with a sacrifice fly, and after an error in left field extended the inning, Noah Miller’s two-run double gave the Longhorns a six-run cushion after two innings.

Leigh walked off the game in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Truman Beaudoin drew a bases-loaded walk to score Ethan Chan and clinch the win by 10-run rule. The Longhorns’ celebration afterward was muted.

It’s clear Leigh is focused on bigger goals.

“Our first goal that we set out was to win the Mt. Hamilton,” Marino said. “That was the first goal. And if we hit that goal, OK, now we go to the playoffs and try and win, take one game at a time in the playoffs. But our first goal was to win the Mt. Hamilton, and that’s what we’re striving for right now.”

Leigh is a program with a proud baseball history. The Longhorns have won four Central Coast Section championships, most recently claiming a Division IV title in 2021, and have been runners-up on three other occasions.

Just last year, Leigh was the No. 1 seed in the CCS Division II bracket but lost 4-2 to No. 7 seed King’s Academy in the championship game. Leigh also lost the Division II final to Bellarmine in 2023.