BASEBALL: The stretch run is here. Pasadena Poly hasn't lost since opener, takes back top spot ... Monrovia peaking as playoffs near ... Alhambra finally loses in Almont, but like their chances in playoffs ... And here comes Arcadia!
Are the champs ready to do it again?
STAR-NEWS TOP TEN
1. Pasadena Poly (19-1)
You have Robbie Rasmussen, arguably the best lefty in West San Gabriel Valley history. You have a team that has won 19-straight after losing their opener against Monrovia in what was one of the best games of the season. You have the Elks tournament champions leading the Division VI poll from start to finish. I know this is baseball and anything can happen, but starting fitting 'em for those rings. There is no way Poly is finishing without a championship.
2. Alhambra (19-4)
This is a team that takes after their competitive coach, Steve Gewecke. How can you not like playing for this guy? The city of Alhambra isn't exactly the grooming-ground for baseball players, but somehow they've managed to win three straight Almont League titles because they're fundamentally sound, and play with tremendous heart. And, and this is a big and, they've got the area's third best pitcher in Noe Ramirez after Rasmussen and McKiernan, who we'll just say are the best righty and lefty around. We're not arguing who's best anymore.
3. Monrovia (18-5)
We thought they didn't have enough pitching after Eddie. We thought they might not be hungry enough after winning last year's championship. We were wrong. In one of the most competitive Rio Hondo's in recent years, the Wildcats struggled at first, then played like champions in defending their title. And like I've said all along, I'll take McKiernan against anyone in the CIF playoffs, including those boys in blue at Bishop Amat.
4. Gabrielino (16-6)
The area's Cinderella story. They've clinched at least a tie in the Mission Valley League for the first time in school history, and can clinch it outright on Tuesday against Arroyo. This is a team that hasn't been to the playoffs in years, and now they're playing like they think they can cause some damage in the postseason. This is great for Gabrielino, who hasn't had the best sports year at the school, but they have kids who love their sports.
And the rest ...
5. San Marino (14-5)
This is another feel-good story. They can finish second in the Rio Hondo League by winning out, and at one time the Titans had a good chance to win the RHL when all they were hoping for was a playoff spot. And can they do the impossible and sweep Monrovia on Thursday? They've won the first two games against the 'Cats, but they haven't faced McKiernan, who said he will pitch, and guaranteed a victory when I interviewed him last week. But let me ask this bloggers, if Monrovia wraps up the league title outright on Tuesday against South Pas, would you pitch McKiernan on Thursday with the playoffs starting next week, or rest him?
6. Arcadia (14-9)
If we were ranking teams based on the last month, the Apaches would be three or four. Think of it, they're 11-1 in the Pacific after a horrible nonleague start against quality teams. They're pitching and hitting has improved and they're tied with powerful Crescenta Valley heading into Friday's night's big showdown at home. Don't miss it, it starts at 7 p.m. If the Apaches can get past CV and win the Pacific outright, it would be the shocker of the year.
7. Temple City (15-7)
The Rams are unfortunate in that Monrovia realized they were the second best team in the RHL, so they pitched McKiernan all three times against him to earn a sweep over the Rams. Take those losses away and the Rams are 15-4 and 9-1 in the RHL. Hey, life's not fair. The Rams did the same thing to Monrovia when they had the mighty Ryan Tucker.
8. St. Francis (16-8)
Don't want to beat a team while they're down, but what happened? Is the Mission League really that good? I know the upper-half of league is very strong, but that doesn't excuse the Knights getting swept by lowly Harvard-Westlake last week when they still had an outside chance of reaching the playoffs.
9. Bosco Tech (13-9)
Hey, the Tigers can play some ball, or at least that's what Andrew Campa tells me, who has seen them a few times. But they have lost twice to San Marino, and again to La Salle, so I'm not so sure. But they should finish second in the Camino Real, so they deserve to be in the top ten.
10. Maranatha (12-10-1)
Okay Minutemen fans, since you have a shot to earn a share of the Delphic League title if you sweep last place Kilpatrick this week t end the regular season on a four-game losing streak, you've earned your right to be here.
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
Quote: "SF flat out did not live up to the hype this year". Why do you have to put the blame on someone? They played poor defensively and that's what cost them. Yes there were sparkling plays made in the field but there were quite a few fielding and throwing errors that nobody wants to talk about! When you're giving teams 4,5 & 6 outs an inning you're going to lose those games! It's like an earlier post stated, pitching and defense wins almost every time! Seems to me you would rather lose 8-7 with 2 HR's than win 1-0 on a walk, sac & single! Since you have access to the stats why don't you post the errors committed? I'll won't hold my breath!
CIF Playoff Pairings will be released this afternoon on www.cifss.org under Spring Sports/baseball
PAIRINGS
First round pairings in all divisions will be announced MONDAY, MAY 14, 2007. Personnel of
member schools that qualify for the playoffs should NOT telephone the CIF-SS office in an attempt
to determine the identity of their first round opponent prior to this date. Pairings will be available
at the following times:
Divisions IV, VI and VII - 12:00 Noon
Divisions I and III - 12:30 p.m.
Divisions V and II - 1:00 p.m
SF flat out did not live up to the hype this year. Yes there were extremely high expectations this year after last years magical run, but to not even make playoffs is a shame. Mission League was competitive this year. There was no push over team. It is by far the best league in the Los Angeles area with the exception of maybe the Marmonte league. However, that is no excuse for what happened this season at SF. I still can't believe they did not even qualify for playoffs. Who can be blamed for this? I saw the stats and the team leaders did their job. De Pinto led the entire league in hits and was second in average at around 490. Simonitsch had another solid season, Quintero hit around 400 in league, and ya maybe Sember and Collis didn't have sprakling records but their ERA's were under 4! So what happened?
GKnights...the players on the field, in the line-up tried and played as hard as they could. But, who was on the bench for the Mission League games? Only parents, not the occasional fan, see the season long game story. Maybe Solar did not insert best players at defense? I don't have the scorebook, but counting the Errors would probably help to answer the question "What happened to sf?" I saw a lot of errors this season.
I saw some players at the Notre Dame All Seniors Play game that I didn't see for a long time. and SF won.
Anyone know when CIF will be posting playoff games?
I’m looking forward to see how far Maranatha will advance. After finishing 14-10-1 for the season and co- champions with Windward with a 7 – 1 league record, in the somewhat weak Delphic league they are peaking. In their last 4 games against
Pacific Hills and Kilpatrick, with a combined 10 and 27 records they had an overall run tally of 57 runs scored while only allowing 6 runs against them.
It will be great to watch how far they go in playoffs
CV
Anyone know the results of the Arcadia vs. Crescenta Valley game?
Stop acting like the SF boys didnt try this season. Everyone played as hard as they could every inning. These guys all knew what was at stake and just did not live up to the extreme hype that was placed on them in the beginning of the season. The only reason this is so shocking is that unlike every other team in this area SF is supposed to make the playoffs in every sport every year. Hopefully next year everything will be back to normal.
ScottG, Thanks.
What can be said about Joe De Pinto and Evan Simonitsch? Where they the only guys that played hard this year for SF?
According to my conversation with the CIF last week, the answer is no to all three teams.
St. Francis is definitely out. The ML gets four automatic teams to the postseason. SF was tied for fifth and is technically sixth by way of head-to-head with Harvard-Westlake.
La Canada finished fourth in a league that gets three teams in and La Salle was tied for fourth in a five-team league that gets three entries and, like St. Francis, would lose a tie breaker to Bishop Montgomery due to head-to-head.
In summary, Division III gets 41 automatic invites (13 leagues) and Division V gets 34 (11 leagues).
Unless teams decide to pull out of postseason (perhaps due to sub-.500 records), Division III will have nine wild-card games with 18 teams out of the 41 participating). Division V will have two wild-card games.
Hope this helps.
Will LC, SF and LS make the playoffs?
At SF the kids playing baseball may be classy - but some others in the SB are the exact opposite and worse - thank God they have stopped posting.
Hey Anonymous, don't post on here if you do not get your facts straight. He is getting a money scholarship, I'm not sure how much because I don't know him but that is not the point, is your whole life just to bring this kid down to make your life seem important?
La Salle had enough talent to come in second in league. Obviously, Amat was the best team in the Del Rey League, as they went 12-0. Besides Amat, only one team had an overall record above .500. Amat was the only team to have a league record above .500. To say that the league competition for La Salle was too tough is a joke. Whoever is making those comments is not looking at facts before making an opinion. La Salle needs a new head coach. With Kohorst as the top pitcher on the staff, they should have easily been the #2 team in league instead of tied for last with a 4-8 league record. If they are lucky, they will be selected as a Wild Card.
I hope that the SGV teams can do well in the playoffs. There should be more than 1 title coming from this area. It is a shame that Saint Francis seemed to implode on itself in league.
No kidding LC inflates batting averages. Sac bunt, error and it's called a hit. HBP and it's a hit. Walk - called a hit??? I question all of their stats at this point, especially those "leading the league". Someone probably went "5 for 3" against Blair today. It's too bad for the kids that some adult is fabricating the stat results. And it's so obvious. It’s about time this gets out in the open.
The classy St. Francis team finished it's season today on a winning note 13-11 over Notre Dame at ND. While the season had to be a disappointment of sorts in the tough Mission League, the boys finished with smiles on their faces. Congrats to the seniors for finishing like winners - Andrew Sember got the save, Matt Quintero had a hit, Sean Burns had a hit in his last at bat, Luke Collis had a hit in his last at bat, Evan Simonitsch had a hit in his last at bat, Joe DePinto hit two home runs, including a grand slam, and James Wirosko, Chris Provenzano and Matt Kiewiett each helped pitch the team to victory. Thanks coaches and good luck to these boys, all of whom are going to college, now that's a class act!
kohoarst does have a paying scholarship to USD dude get your facts right
I thought Kohorst did have a scholarship to USD. No?
Korhorst is not getting any money from USD. He is will be a nonscholarship player. Ramirez is still a junior so there is still time for recruiting.
SGV - Look at Arcadia! The same story. The kid that leads the Pacific League in hitting, his father is the scorekeeper.
hey Anon 12:09 who is this kid from south pas that is ripping it up? cuz i havent seem them do to much please explain
hey Anon 12:09 who is this kid from south pas that is ripping it up? cuz i havent seem them do to much please explain
What's up with La Canada scorekeeping? When walks and obvious erros are scored as hits a batting average looks more like an on base average. Eric Smith is having a nice year as a sophomore - probably a legitmate .400, but his dad (the LC scorekeeper) is doing him a dis-service by inflating his batting average on MaxPreps as is known throughout the league and his own team. Makes you wonder about the integrity of the other LC averages and is unfair to the other teams. When did dads become the ones entering stats on MaxPreps - isn't that for the coach to do?
What makes Ramirez the third best over Kohorst per say? The Almont league is a joke, and who has he faced that has any decent talent. How can you rank Ramirez ahead of a kid who has signed a D-1 scholarship?
Anon at12:07 - I have never made any comments one way or another on this blog about Poly - I did not want to get dragged into that blogging thread. From what I know, Poly does have a good team - they have some depth - it just seems Rasmussen gets the press. And yes - one person cannot make a team. Pitchers do not play everyday. That is why Babe Ruth switched from being a pitcher to playing the outfield.
If the RHL is so bad, why is the Travel team star on South Pasadena ripping up the League. I think these travel team bloggers need to come back down to reality.
goteamgo,
So one person can't make a team - so esaying Poly actually has a good team?
TomS...thanks for monitoring the site on a regular basis...I appreciate it. And yes, we haven't posted a new topic in the last several days because there hasn't been much to talk about that isn't being run into the ground here. Send us an email and suggest a topic or you can start your own thread on the site.
We'll be very active in the fall and winter when the sports we find most interesting are in season.
And again, thanks for your support.
Kohort's ERA (per MaxPreps) is a respectable 1.276, which is number 1 in the Del Rey league. Unfortunately, he could not pitch every inning of every game. The move up a couple of levels (not to mention Amat moving down into La Salle's league)was probably a bit too much to adjust to this year - hopefully this was an adjustment year, and things will jell next year.
Hey pasapreps.com
Looks like things are getting pretty stale over there on your site. You might want to spruce things up.
And I didn’t raise the pom-poms for MHS
Don't understand your rankings...you have SM over a better TC team that hasn't only beaten SM twice, but has had the task of facing Eddie 3 times "the best righty in the SGV." Also, SM has lost to LC twice a team that TC swept, I understand a feel-good story, but you still have to rank them accodingly.
If Miller was the coach, La Salle would be 0-10 in league. The new coach knows what he is doing, but the change in league was the huge factor. The old La Salle was successful due to talent alone, and the new program has a good combination of player and coaching ability.
La Salle's season was very disappointing and many of the boys are not happy with the results. Their new coach seems to be slowly destroying the program built by Brian Miller. I would like to see a new coach at La Salle. The competition outside of league was not much different from last year, and they did not produce. With Kohorst, they should have at least gone .500 in league. Bring Miller back.
What happened to La Salle - their leading pitcher (Kohorst) seemed to have good stats at least ERA wise
the same thing that happened to SF. they sucked.
What happened to La Salle Baseball and all the korosht pre-season talk?
Prep league fan
The poly score was initially reported as 20-0 on maxpreps
It was 20-1
San Marino comes back with solo runs in the sixth and seventh to beat La Canada 5-4. The victory wraps up a playoff spot for the Titans.
I guess poly's offense woke up. They just beat webb 20-0
How about them Eagles from GHS? Representing!!!
How about them Eagles from GHS? Representing!!!
In the Delphic league to the players get to hit a ball off a tee?
Don't worry Freddy. We won't let you down. I know that the Delphic league isn't much but it is an accomplishment considering where we were last year. Thanks for the support. Can we expect to see you guys at our playoff games (Notice that I said GAMES)?
Your right, I wasn't factoring in the tiebreakers for CIF seeding purposes. But they would still finish second.
Fred:
I think your wrong if San Marino wins out, they would end up in second place. That would put them in a tie with Temple City and TC would take second on a head to head match-ups, TC was 2-1 against SM. TC plays Blair and SP this weak. The other possibility is if La Canada beats SM and SM loses to Monrovia that would put them in a tie with LC and they would have swept them for the season making LC the 3rd place team in RHL.
The Cif Polls are a JOKE, who votes on this teams. There are a couple of teams that are out of the top 10 in D5 that have better winning % and tougher schedules. I count at least 4 maybe 5 teams that should not be ranked were they are due to weakness of schedule. If Coaches from there own division are voting, then there is something very wrong going on, how they can manipulate the final Top 10. The Playoff seedings would have teams seeded higher than they should be.
Let know if I am right on the league standings. Thanks
There was also a kid from LC named Matt Whisnet. He was dominant in HS and had a 10yr pro career.
Didn't I say arguably? And I meant the best high school pitcher, not the one who goes on to have the most success..
Wait-a-minute, Fred
Careful with the "best lefty ever" tag!
Rasmussen is a very good HS Pitcher ...but ( and you may be too young to remember) there was a lefty out of St. Francis? by the name of Matt Young who was bigger, stronger AND did it on the Big League level (an All Star too) that you are dissing!
Let's not get carried away.