SOFTBALL: Early schedules

Alverno plays Los Altos tomorrow, so much for that weak pre-season they always have. I don't think there's going to be a blowout.

Did anybody watch the la salle etiwanda game? Someones saying that la salle mercies everyone and blah blah blah but i think the score was something like 11-0 etiwanda? Granted etiwanda has a stacked team of travel ball girls. I think Escamilla was the best pitcher in the tournament, even over etiwanda's. The 1st place game against covina etiwanda allowed 3 runs with travel ball girls up and down that field, and Escamilla with a D VI team only allowed 2 runs. Someone needs to calm down about the travel ball parents. They really aren't that crazy they're just more serious about the sport.

Competing against higher division teams makes you a better squad and prepares a team for league play. La Salle has attended tournaments for years in which division 2 and 3 teams were there and done just fine, even beating some of these "monster" teams. So, complaining about Etiwanda in the Duarte Tournament is unneccesary. Just because they pose some competition in this tournament compared to the other teams which La Salle mercies is not basis for arguing that they are "too good" and should not be there. I agree with Anon 9:08, GO BIG OR GO HOME. How do you expect to get any better mercying teams 10-0 who have no pitching? I believe that in itself is a way to boost stats.

puhleeze is french for I am covering my ears and saying lalalalala.

Puhleeze.

Sports are not that easy. This isn't bout travel ball, this is about commitment to a sport. Football players have a year round regiment, baseball players have a year round regiment, and most boy sports have a year round regiment. Girl sports used to be recognized by cif and colleges as a hobby or recreation, sorry but that is not the case anymore. I am not talkng about travel ball I am talking about staying in tune with a sport throughout the year.

You may not like this because it gets in the way of your summer plans, but better teams have more committed players. So if your kid is not doing ANYTHING with her sport in the offseason, she is part of the problem.

It is not about how many kids go to a school it is about how many kids are committed to the game that creates success. If success isn't very important to your kid then have her go play in a rec league. Varsity sports are about commiting to a program and trying to win a championship.

Coaches make team decisions and good coaches choose their teams by how many players are committed in the offseason because those kids get things done on the field.

Its a great idea to have each of the players in your program comitted year round. This would certainly make your team much more competitive. However there are to many other activites and distractions that does not allow this to happen. There are individual exceptions where the player(or their parent)decides there is a future for their daughter in softball and they will probably be year round players. One parent of a recently injured local high school player commented " at least it didn't happen during travel ball" Where do you think his mind set is? Bottom line LET THE PLAYER CHOOSE WHAT SHE WANTS TO DO.

Some of you softball (travel ball) parents are a little too hard core and "superior" in your attitudes. This is high school ball. No one is going to the Olympics here. Its OK for kids to show up in the spring and play. Many kids who pick up the bat & glove in the spring are well-rounded students who are also involved in many other extracurricular activities. In your world, they should 'go away' if they do not choose to focus solely on softball. Believe it or not, this is not about you! Were you this intense about anything when you were in high school? Get over yourselves.

As far as casual players go, I would say that a kid who doesn't pick up a glove between May and February should be unacceptable on a varsity team in any division whether they play travel ball or not. These are the types of players that create the blowouts discussed. Coaches should expect an off season regiment for all of the players who expect to make varsity. The menatality that a kid can "casually" show up at the beginning of the season with nothing but their athleticism and that is OK is what creates very weak teams.

Softball teams are made up of a small amount of players and with proper coaching and an off season regiment they can compete with teams on higher levels and should try and do that in the non-league play if they want to get better.

Most good teams are already committed to two good tournaments and are in no hurry to leave those tournaments for something unproven.

By the way most good tournaments have have teams from multiple divisions, however if a team is proven not competetive, they are not invited back.They are welcomed back in Duarte.

In years gone by, LaSalle had great teams in CIF Div. 6. Etiwanda is a very high level CIF Div. 2 team. If you don’t recognize the competitive difference (past or present), you’re crazy! Not to say that LaSalle hasn’t had some very good players in the past (there are even some now that have great potential), and maybe they could have made a high school team in a higher CIF Div., but as a team, a CIF Div. 6 team (even with a Div. 1 caliber pitcher) would not be competitive with a CIF Div. 2 team. For a 16 team tournament (like Duarte) to have CIF Div. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 teams in the same tournament playing each other is ridiculous.

Anon. 9:08, why would you want to discourage "casual players"? And I don't think that is what Anon. 4:19 was suggesting. Travel Ball is certainly not for everyone, but for those how want that type of challange, that's great too.

The blogger defined casual players as the "Feb. to May players" (basically, non-travel ball players).

He's right, a team of 3 month a year players is not competitive with a team of 12 month a year players. There are an excessive number of ridiculous blowouts every year at the Duarte Tournament and there is little benefit to participate in those types of games.

Also, I think the top 16 was a referenced to a previous blog that suggested a tournament of the PSN Top 10. 16 teams was a suggestion to make 4 pools of 4 teams. But if you wanted to keep it to 10 teams, you could make 2 pools of 5. I think a great idea (but you'll never get the pseudo top 10's to ever participate in such a tournament).

Lastly, teams can participate (and do) participate in more than 1 tournament. The reason why tournaments are popular is because 1 tournament only counts as 2 games toward the maximum number of games allowed in a season by CIF rule. Many of the better teams play in multiple tournaments.

I want to point out a statistic that I rarely see from teams in our area. It is called reached on error (ROE). Use it.

The only problem is that it doesn't add to your teams batting average.

The local top 16 is filled with what you call casual players.

(By the way what exactly is a casual player)

I hate to tell you but there aren't 16 good enough teams in the area to create the type of matchups that you get in other tournaments. And better teams are not going to give up their spots in other tournaments to try it out.

By the way LaSalle has competed in the past just fine with teams of Etiwanda's stature. Our area teams should play more teams like them and promote high level ball and discourage "casual players."

Go Hard or Go Home.

This is one of the things that makes the Duarte Tournament such a poorly organized tournament every year. There are tons of blowout scores. The Duarte Tournament takes huge schools like Etiwanda with over 3,000 students and has them play little schools like LaSalle. Even an average pitcher can look dominant if you can field the other 8 positions from a talent pool of over 1,500 girls (quadruple the size of LaSalle). Etiwanda does not have a single casual player on their team. It would be an extremely rare situation that a casual player that only plays softball from Feb. to May would ever make a squad of where there are over 1,500 kids to choose from. Likewise, even a very good pitcher who is teamed with field position players selected from a very small pool of students (or even a large school that fields a team of casual players) has no chance to compete with a team like Etiwanda. Large schools like Etiwanda travel from outside the local area to enter tournaments like Duarte to pad stats. before league against easy competition. That is why a local Pasadena Star News top 16 Tournament for next year is a good idea.

Can anyone tell me if the Alverno pitcher has signed for college? The team she face lastnight looked pretty good. A few errors in the field hurt Alverno. She did bring the heat and had some good offspeed pitches. She had a total of 13 K's. That's pretty good.

Can anyone tell me if the Alverno pitcher has signed for cillege?

good pitcher but it's hard to tell because she's pitching in the weakest of all the pools at the duarte tournament

I too saw Escamilla pitch and totally agree! Head and shoulders above any pitcher at Duarte this year with the exception of Etiwanda's. Wish she'd mix in a few more off speed to go with that heat.

The Alverno pitcher is a very good pitcher but every year her high school schedule is predominantly made up of games against extremely low level high school teams. The Horizon League is one of the least competitive leagues in Southern CA, is in one of the lowest CIF divisions, and Alverno seldom ever challenges themselves in their non-league schedule. Alverno does have a few other decent players on their team which compliment her pitching but her talent is deserving of greater challenges. That is not to minimize her considerable talent but the very low level of competition on her high school schedule hurts her in the long run in relation to being considered at truly great pitcher in relation to the much broader world beyond SGV softball, and the Horizon League.

Maxpreps is often wrong because it is usually one of the parents who forwards the stats and believe it or not, their kid seems to have done better on paper than they did in the game. Its true

I was able to see Michelle Escamilla pitch last night in Duarte. The young lady was amazing. What college is she going to? She was simply lights outs. Tough lost, a bobble at 3rd allowed the winning run to reach first, and the number 4 batter battle Escamilla to get the game winning hit. It was a get game. Escamilla had about 14 K's. That girl ws Good!!!!

which team understated a score?

You must be new to high school softball scoring, especially in the Pasadena area. I assume you are looking at Maxpreps.com. It's a problem every year.

* Errors are understated for the scorers team, and overstated for the opposition.
* Hits are overstated for the scorers team, and understated for the opposition.
* Dropped fly balls are almost always scored as hits for the scorers team.
* Routine ground balls off an infielders glove that roll past outfielder are almost always scored as home runs (especially at Duarte).
* Routine Infield plays with bad throws to 1st base are hardly ever recorded as errors.
* Pass balls and wild pitches are seldom scored against the scorers team
* Base advancements on pass balls and wild pitches are recorded as stolen bases for the scorers team.
* Earned Runs and unearned runs are hardly ever recorded correctly.
Etc., etc., etc.

There are a few schools that do a decent job of scorekeeping, but there are a lot more that don’t. I think a lot of times it’s just honest ignorance, but there are a select few in particular that blatantly lie.

The stats on Maxpreps.com that you can really rely on are wins, losses, strikeouts, and total runs scored.

Wait a minute . . . one of those constant blatant liars has even grossly understated their opponents run total against them in a recent loss. No surprise though, this is the same school that grossly overstates individual stats. of their kids every year.

Very sad and great example for the kids. Teach them how to be frauds!

Unfortunate for you, all of those in the know recognize the frauds you are. I suggest you make the correction on Maxpreps.com to avoid the embarrassment of someone else pointing it out on this blog.

Let's encourage keeping it real gang and most importantly, it's the right example for the kids too.

LaSalle 6 monrovia 4
Monrovia 8 Marshall 2
Asuza 3 Maranantha 2
San Marino 15 San Gabriel 1
La Crescenta 13 LaCanada 1
Sunny Hills 1 South Pasadena 0
Alverno 18 Gladstone 3
Flintridge Sacred Heart 5 Whittier 2
LaSalle 12 Baldwin Park 2

The score keeping is atrocious on Max Preps in some of the high scoring games. It seems like some teams are scoring situations where people reach on error as hits. It should be pointed out to scorers that just because a person gets on first it doesn't mean it is a hit. This is how pretty good players on teams that play bad teams end up batting .600 or something. It is not fair to the people who score their games properly and give the kids true batting averages.

Duarte scores?

They both not very good. Monrovia was ranked because of how they did in recent past not because of this year.

la salle beats monrovia and isn't even ranked? isn't there something wrong with that picture.

South pas plays at 1:00 tomorrow not 11:00

Is Alverno playing Sacred Heart today?