Raul Camacho arrived at St. Bonaventure High's baseball field Monday and discovered a new decoration.

"I saw a medal hanging in the dugout," said Camacho, coach of the team that has rolled off a fourth consecutive 20-win season, "and wondered what it was for — and then recognized it. It's a 2006 runner-up medal.

"I didn't think anybody kept it."

The medal appeared courtesy of senior Martin Medina, who wanted to remind the Seraphs what they're chasing as the CIF-Southern Section baseball playoffs begin — and what they're trying to avoid.

The highest local seed in the baseball playoffs, the Seraphs are seeded third in Division IV. On Friday, they'll look for the first of the five wins needed to capture a title, and to ease the memory of past playoff disappointments — the 3-1 loss to Monrovia in the 2006 Division V championship game, and last year's second-round loss to Santa Monica.

"It's just a reminder," said Medina, a sophomore on the 2006 runner-up team. "If we're getting tired or don't feel like doing something, look at that.

"It's a big difference from a little pin to a big California state plaque."

The plaque is, of course, what teams receive when they win a Southern Section title. The medal is the individual award that goes to players on a runner-up team. Given that it represents falling one game short of the ultimate goal, it is no high school athlete's favorite memento.

With a plaque, not a pin, as a goal, St. Bonaventure has steamed toward the playoffs by running off a 24-4 record against a schedule loaded with accomplished larger-school programs: games against eight teams in the Division I, II or III playoffs, including the No. 2 seed in Division III (Notre Dame) and the No. 4 in Division II (Palos Verdes); against teams ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in MaxPreps' current CIF-City Section rankings, and games against teams in the playoffs in other CIF sections. Some of the wins are impressive, and even the losses aren't bad.

"Every team we've lost to this year," says Camacho, "has been ranked in Cal-Hi's top 20 at the time we played them."

It's why Medina can say, "I think this is the hardest season we've had in school history," and why Camacho says, "I'm more than pleased to be 24-4 and right now." It's also why the Seraphs have reason to feel as prepared as possible entering the postseason.

"Once we get to playoffs, we've seen those teams that are as good or maybe better," says Casey Serna, who will play baseball at Oregon. "I think it gets us a lot more prepared, and we aren't shocked when we see all the good players."

That approach, always a good idea for teams with high aspirations, has become more like a necessity. After playing for the Division V title, the Seraphs were promoted to Division IV — and made an early playoff exit.

"We learned last year," says Camacho. "We played Santa Monica in the second round. They're a school of 3,500 students and we're 700. So we've learned we can play anybody in this division. There's no logic to it size-wise or anything."

Not that the Seraphs consider last year's outcome simply a function of school size. After playing in a semifinal and final the previous two years, they may have simply gotten ahead of themselves. Senior Jeremy Dann says the team was "lackadaisical"; Serna says, "I think we looked too far in the future before we handled business right in front of us. I think this year we're going to do a lot better."

If they do, Serna and Medina (bound for Cal State Bakersfield) figure to be significant reasons. Serna's batting .500 with five homers and 30 RBIs in 28 games and is 8-1 with a 0.88 ERA; Medina (.296 with six homers and 32 RBIs; 7-1 with a 0.39 ERA) is a similar double threat.

But as Camacho sees it, it's not a star system that has allowed St. Bonaventure to go 92-24-1 over the last four seasons. It's an increase in year-round players — "We have a pretty good core group of baseball-only players," he says — and a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

"They play well together," says Camacho. "We don't have the outstanding athlete. This year has been an exception; we do have Casey and Martin. But it's not like we're loaded with Division I athletes and just have to show up and win. We need to play error-free baseball to win."

To that end, Dann and Serna both cite the team's work ethic.

"It's continuing the tradition the players before us have established," says Serna. " Carry over the hard work they showed us."

Adds Dann, "We've worked hard at practice. We know what it's like to have a winning program; we know what it's like to be at CIF and how to get there."

And, says Medina, it's trust — and responsibility.

"I think we trust each other," he says. "And I think that trust is almost like a sixth sense on the field, and you have more confidence."

The responsibility part? Well, that's one more reason he brought in that medal, as a reminder of some unfinished business.

"It's huge," he said. "Not only on us as players that have lost, but even the players that have graduated. You kind of want to win it for them, too, because they came so close. And they would want us to come through at the end."

If they do, that runner-up medal can be put away for good.

— Contact columnist David Lassen at dlassen@VenturaCountyStar.com.