Catching up with a former Chaffey College Panther . . .

Former Chaffey College baseball standout Alex Caldera struck out a career-high 11 and allowed just five hits over 7 2/3 scoreless innings in his best start of the season Friday as the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a Carolina League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, edged the Potomac Nationals, 2-1.

Caldera (2-2) did not walk a batter and lowered his ERA to 3.32 through six starts. The 24-year-old right-hander faced 26 batters, inducing seven fly balls and two grounders.

The 11-strikeout effort eclipses his previous best of 10, also against Potomac on May 7, 2009. He’s second in the Carolina League with 45 strikeouts over 40 2/3 innings.

Caldera fanned two in the second, third and fourth innings. He caught Rob Jacobsen looking for his final out in the eighth inning before Buddy Baumann came on in relief and struck out Stephen Lombardozzi to end the frame.

Jamie Romak’s two-out, two-run homer in the fourth was enough for Caldera to pick up his his first victory since April 22.

Caldera survived a rocky 2009 campaign in which he finished 5-10 with a 4.77 ERA in 27 starts for Wilmington. He earned Carolina League Pitcher of the Week honors last Aug. 31.

He was a 13th round draft pick out of Chaffey in 2007. While pitching for the Panthers he earned Foothill Conference Pitcher of th Year honors.

 

Share this

Plusone Twitter Facebook Tumblr Reddit Stumbleupon Email

CMS golfer wins national championship

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps golf standout Tain Lee brought home a national championship today at the NCAA Division III championships in Hershey, Penn. But it gets better than that . . . senior Mitchell Fedorka of the University of La Verne finished second, giving the SCIAC the top two individuals in the country. That is some feat!

Lee led from wire-to-wire which is pretty impressive. Fedorka pulled into a tie with him during Thursday’s third round but he had a triple bogey late in the round that gave Lee the lead back. He never gave it up.

The win was nice for Lee which might be of some consolation to Fedorka, who lost in a playoff for medalist honors last season.

La Verne finished a respectable fifth in the team competition which was won by Methodist University of North Carolina. Had it not been for a bad opening round, the Leopards would have been right in the thick of the team competition too.

The SCIAC is one of the top conferences in the country when it comes to golf. CMS and the University of Redlands were ranked among the top 10 teams in the country all season long but La Verme got the automatic bid. And only three at-large bids are awarded nationwide so both those teams were left at home when they were probably better than some teams that won their conference.

According to CMS coach Bim Jollymour, the rules are changing next year so that six at-large berths will be awarded. That should bode well for the SCIAC.

 

Share this

Plusone Twitter Facebook Tumblr Reddit Stumbleupon Email

Three SCIAC softball teams make the playoffs

The announcement of playoff pairing for the NCAA Division III softball tournament were announced and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, La Verne and Redlands are all in, Now let’s hope the teams do a little better than last year when the same three got in to the same six-team regional and they were THE first three teams eliminated.

La Verne got the automatic bid by winning the SCIAC tournament. That looked like it was going to knock Redlands out of the running because few believed the SCIAC was going to get three teams in again this year and CMS seemed like a sure bet because it beat Redlands head-to-head in three of four meetings,. And it should have won the other game too.

Redlands coach Laurie Nevarez seemed to think her team’s chances weren’t good, and said as much after her team lost the SCIAC title game to La Verne.

But after all that the Bulldogs might have the best draw of the three local teams, who are headed to separate venues.

La Verne got the short end of the deal. But then again it was third to the other two in the regular season. The Leopards (27-18) will play at Louisiana College and face the host team in its opener. Louisiana (41-6) also happens to be ranked first in the country. No. 2 Texas-Tyler and No. 10 East Texas Baptist are in the same field. That’s a tall order!

CMS will be off Simpson College in Iowa. The Athenas are seeded fourth and will face fifth-seed Central (Iowa). Going by the rankings, the biggest obstacle looks like No. 8 Linfield, Ore. Central is No. 15 while host Simpson is No. 14.

Redlands will play in an eight-team regional at Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Bulldogs (32-120 will face Augustana, Ill. in its first game. That shouldn’t be an overwhemling task for a team with considerable playoff experience. No. 5 Luther (Iowa) is the highest ranked team in the group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share this

Plusone Twitter Facebook Tumblr Reddit Stumbleupon Email