Details, routine have led Centennial to brink of state baseball title

He runs every day except Sunday. Then he works out some more. Then he checks the field.

He has been doing it for years now. Runs, works out, checks the field.

Charlie Cerrone has this thing for routine, for approaching tasks in an unchanging manner. If consistency really is the direct product of work ethic, it’s no wonder Centennial High’s baseball team finds itself with another opportunity to win a state championship.

It’s the fifth time Cerrone has delivered the Bulldogs to this desirable moment of any season, and it might define his program’s best chance yet at standing alone at the top when the final out is made.

Centennial opens the four-team Division I bracket against Galena at 1 p.m. Thursday at Bishop Manogue High in Reno, where the champion will be crowned Saturday, and more than a few believe Cerrone’s team is the one to beat for such a distinction. Just don’t tell him that.

“Obviously, it’s a goal we set for ourselves every year,” Cerrone said. “We have come so close, and winning it would not only mean a lot to this current team, but all the great kids who have come through the program the last 17 years. Kids who went on to become great adults, to become teachers and lawyers and so many other professions.

“We’ve told our players, ‘Don’t change anything. Do what we do. Don’t deviate from the plan.’ So far, that approach has really worked well for all our teams.”

The Bulldogs were state runners-up in 2002, 2005 and 2014, also making the field in 2003, being outscored in the three finals by a combined 17-10, meaning they’re probably a few good innings away from having already hung a banner and ordered rings.

Perhaps more than anything else, no matter how good or average the skill level proved in a given season, Centennial under Cerrone and his 404 career wins has been defined by this unending sense of confidence. The Bulldogs, as much as anyone else over the years, stood up and took on all comers. Specifically, that which often proves the biggest kid in the batter’s box.

Bishop Gorman won seven consecutive titles from 2006 to 2012 and then again last year, but even when the Gaels were overpowering local competition and leaving little doubt as to which was the valley’s premier program during such a dominant run, Centennial almost always played them tight.

Sometimes, even better than that.

The Bulldogs have faced Bishop Gorman four times in regional finals: They’re 4-0, including an 8-4 victory in the Sunset championship on Saturday.

“I wish there was a magic answer for why we’ve had success in some of those situations,” said Cerrone, whose team has missed the playoffs just once during his tenure. “From the beginning here, we’ve always preached hard-nosed baseball and that it didn’t matter who we were playing on a given day. Maximize who we are and respect the game and play it the right way.

“No question, (Bishop Gorman’s success) pushed others locally to upgrade what we all did. We played more interleague games and tournaments. We got more games in each year.

“I have some really good friends who have coached at Gorman, and they’ve had some terrific kids over the years. I’ve always felt that whoever the best team is in a given season, you just grind and try to outwork them.”

Cerrone likes his current team, its attitude and cohesiveness and willingness to accept roles. When he helped open Centennial, local prep baseball had fewer teams, meaning the talent wasn’t spread across the valley as it is now, meaning a lineup of nine was usually deeper than what you might see in 2016.

It’s a Jose Bautista bat flip as to which players will arrive to Cerrone’s program each season with the tools needed to succeed and the toughness needed to play for him, some having been expertly taught at the Little League and club levels and some not, some properly schooled in the game’s nuances and some still not sure how to run bases or draw throws or cover their position or hit behind in the count.

So he and his staff teach all of it.

They drill the drills into teenage heads.

They make it all routine.

After it rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning Saturday, after Centennial had taken out Bishop Gorman and secured its place in the state tournament, after players ran onto the field in a wave of jumping and hugging and celebration, the Bulldogs made their way down the outfield line and began running sprints.

“I’m sure the parents were wondering what was up, but we always run sprints after games,” Cerrone said. “The kids didn’t think twice about it. We ran a few and called it a day. It’s just what we do. That’s what I’m hoping we can be like this week at the (state tournament). Just be who we are.”

And maybe, for the first time since he began the program, on his fifth trip to this desirable moment of any season, that will mean his team standing alone at the top when the final out is made.

It sure would make run, work out, check the field come Monday morning all the more special.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney.