(Photo: Dominic Cotroneo/WCSN)
In the small world that is competitive baseball, teammates treat each other like family. Players have friends all over the map thanks to high school teams and summer leagues. It’s a baseball brotherhood that lasts a lifetime.
This weekend two former teammates from Palm Desert High School will reunite, but their bond is stronger than others. Arizona State sophomore catcher Brian Serven will see his older brother Jonathan with the Long Beach State Dirtbags. It will be the first time they ever face against each other.
“Before we got to high school we never played on the same team. My freshman year I was on JV and he was on varsity as a sophomore,” Brian said, recalling their time as Aztecs about 25 minutes outside of Palm Springs. “So then my sophomore year and my junior year we were on the same team.”
Jonathan saw playing time all over the diamond, while his brother found a niche as catcher in high school.
“My junior year and senior year we made it to the championships of CIF,” Jonathan said. “Being with him for those two years and going that far was great.”
In 2011, their first trip together to the CIF Southern Section Championships ended on a sour note to Bishop Amat. The Lancers shut out the Aztecs 7-0 thanks in part to current UCLA right-handed pitcher David Berg.
They returned the next season and won the title over Temple City 4-0 in Jonathan’s senior year. Both brothers collected a hit in the game en route to the school’s 2nd state championship. The Aztecs got a complete game shutout from Brooks Kriske, another righty pitching for USC now.
When ASU’s schedule came out in the fall, Brian immediately noticed the matchup.
“I got our schedule before he got theirs…I showed him right away,” Brian said.
From that moment, plans were set in motion to bring as many of their friends and family to Tempe for the weekend. Their immediate family, grandma, close friends, and some of the brothers’ basketball coaches (the pair played two season of varsity basketball) will make the trip to the Valley.
The familiar teammates haven’t played on the same field since their state championship. Arizona State and Long Beach State met last season at Blair Field but Jonathan did not play in the game. So far in the season, the junior infielder has appeared in all twelve games for the Dirtbags starting nine. Brian has a similar line appearing in each of the Sun Devils’ eleven games with eight starts. One could conclude their meeting on the diamond is inevitable.
As far as what the brothers will say to each other when they see each other in the game, both were uncertain.
“It’ll be a surreal moment obviously—going up against him in a DI atmosphere,” Brian said. “I’ll probably just say something like ‘Hey, good luck today.’”
Jonathan said he thinks it’ll be a little more lighthearted.
“We were kind of joking about that earlier,” Jonathan said. “I don’t really know, I think it’s just gonna be a spur of the moment kind of thing. We might make a little joke or it might be serious.”
Naturally, the brothers are competitive with one another.
“With sports we would butt heads and we would get into it,” Jonathan said. “But that’s just being brothers and then we were over it.”
Brian echoed his older brother on their time as teammates.
“Playing with each other we always got on each other. Just kind of like how we do now but it was more—when you’re brothers there’s always more, it’s always harder on each other,” Brian said.
Jonathan is proud of the strides his little brother has made and is ready to reunite with his brother on the diamond.
“It’s awesome,” Jonathan said. “I’m proud of him more than he knows and a lot of people know, so I’m excited for this weekend.”
The Sun Devils hand the ball to Seth Martinez on Friday night with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. from Phoenix Muni.
You can reach the writer on twitter @Dom_Cotroneo
