As coach fights cancer, Los Amigos baseball learns how to win

GARDEN GROVE —  The ups and downs of a baseball season are not unlike life for Aaron Pines, who tries to have more good days than bad while fighting a debilitating disease.

Pines began his battle with cancer in 2019, and while the fight continues, he has not let it stop him from doing what he loves.

Named the head coach of the Los Amigos High School baseball team three seasons ago, Pines has the Lobos in the middle of their best season in decades.

Los Amigos (16-3, 7-3 in the Garden Grove League), the top-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Division 7 poll, has already assured itself a winning season. Records kept on MaxPreps.com only go back as far as 2005, but Pines said he believes it is the first winning season for the program since 1984.

“This is my third year,” Pines said. “The first year I got out there, I was telling the kids, ‘We have a chance to make the playoffs,’ and a lot of the kids, I could tell they didn’t really believe it. They were used to being on a losing team, expecting to lose.

“It’s been a couple years to kind of change the mentality that we come out and expect to win every day. You’re not always going to win, but we can win, and we can put a winning team out there if you do things right and practice hard. I think we’ve gotten to that point where the kids now, they believe they can win, they expect to win every day.”

Pines, 34, has managed the Lobos while participating in a clinical trial at City of Hope in Duarte, which is combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy. He also had hip surgery in February.

He made his way to the dugout at Santiago High School with a walker for Tuesday’s game, and once situated, sat at attention for the duration.

Los Amigos coach Aaron Pines sits in the dugout following a game against Santiago on Tuesday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Los Amigos lost the game 14-2, but the inspired Lobos remain tied for first place with Santiago (9-9, 7-3) in the Garden Grove League. The teams play for the final time this season on Friday at Los Amigos at 3 p.m.

“If he’s out here trying to win for us, then we try to win for him,” center fielder Aaron Alarcon said of how the Lobos fight for their coach. Alarcon had two hits, including a double off the left-field wall, and a run scored for the Lobos.

This year, Pines has been joined on his coaching staff by his father, Myron, who spent the last 16 years coaching with Pines’ brother, Greg, at Rancho Alamitos.

Pines considers himself a fan of wrestling, especially Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who sent Pines a video message of support hoping for his recovery last year. When the Lobos have won this season, they have passed around a championship belt to the player of the game.

The Santiago bats were responsible for pulling the Cavaliers even in the standings on Tuesday, as they compiled 14 hits in total. Second baseman Gael Lemus had three hits, including two doubles, and six runs batted in to lead the Cavaliers.

Lemus also caught a line drive off the bat of Josiah Alvarez and turned it into a double play to stymie a bases-loaded situation for Los Amigos in the top of the first inning, before Santiago put three runs on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the frame.

“I think it was huge,” Lemus said of the double play. “They jumped on us pretty early, and we got out of the inning. Putting up those runs early on, I feel like they [allowed] us to get ahead.”

Third baseman Ivan Lopez, shortstop Cesar Lopez, first baseman David Montano and pitcher Adrian Sanchez each had two hits for Santiago.

Los Amigos will send ace Juan Gutierrez to the mound Friday as the Lobos look to quiet the Cavaliers’ offense.

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