SOFTBALL: Public-Private All-Star game finishes in exciting tie
No Losers in the Valley
Pitchers dominate in scoreless, nine-inning Private-Public game
My two cents: This was one heck of a game to watch. Both teams played as if the game mattered and the pitching and defense was lights out. Michelle Escamilla earns the MVP award by striking out 18 in nine innings.
By Scott Galetti, Staff Writer
SIERRA MADRE -- Postseason all-star games are supposed to be fun, pressure-free ways for players to be rewarded for outstanding seasons.
Somebody forgot to tell the players Tuesday's contest didn't mean anything.
Many of the top players in the west San Gabriel Valley took the field for the final time in a high school uniform in the third annual Public vs. Private All-Star game at Heasley Field.
Some of the participants were playing in perhaps their last competitive softball game, and they performed with the same tenacity normally found in a CIF-Southern Section championship game. Both teams battled as if a title was on the line.
Sometimes in games like this, people say "it's too bad either team had to lose."
On a night in which pitching and defense stole the spotlight, the teams played to a scoreless tie in a game called after nine innings.
Alverno High School pitcher Michelle Escamilla made the most of her opportunity to face some of the area's top players by striking out 18 batters. She was named Player of the Game.
"I really think it truly lived up to what it was supposed to," Escamilla said. "It got the best players in the area and it was a tight score all the way until the ninth."
In the eighth inning, the international tie-breaker was put into play with each team getting a runner at second base to begin the inning.
Both teams came close to breaking the tie, but having a runner on base didn't help.
The private team appeared to have the game in hand when it loaded the bases with nobody out.
Maranatha's Alex Hillier hit what appeared to be a game-winning single to left field, but Keppel shortstop Courtney Hirose made a diving catch and doubled up the runner at third.
"It felt good to contribute to the team because everyone did so well," Hirose said. "It started out as a fun game, but it's fun to win to, so all of us put our best step forward and tried our best. It sadly ended in a tie, but it was a good game."
With Escamilla and South Pasadena's Nichole Parada in the pitching circle, hits were at a premium.
The Jaguars' senior struck out eight of the first nine batters she faced and Parada got six in three innings.
Escamilla, who gave up
San Marino's Corinne Meyerson and Temple City's Kaitlin Ellingsworth took over for Parada and kept the private team at bay before Parada, who struck out eight, returned to pitch the final two innings.
Both teams had good scoring opportunities in the seventh. Michelle Mun singled and went to second on a sacrifice for the public team, but Escamilla struck out Stephanie Rodriguez to end the threat.
"I used to play with a lot of these girls pretty far back in the day and it was nice pitching against them," Escamilla said. "Our team finally got to know each other during the middle of the game and we just wanted to beat them just like any other team would."
The private team had runners at first and second with two out, but runner's interference was called against Alverno's Emillie Casalegno who was running to third on a groundball by Jordan Richard-Craven.
HOME RUN DERBY
Mayfield's Amy Vergel Del Dios and Escamilla saved their best swings for last in the home run derby before the game.
Vergel Del Dios was the only player to clear the fence with a home run over the left-field fence and collect three points and a spot in the semifinals. She then defeated Escamilla in the finals.
I played here when I was younger and I had never done that before, so it was really fun just to hit off the machine," Vergel Del Dios said.
Escamilla hit a ball against the left-field fence and earned a total of four points to reach the finals.
Vergel Del Dios hit the fence on her first try in the finals and wound up with four points.
Escamilla followed by hammering a ball to the fence, but couldn't catch Vergel Del Dios.
"I know a lot of the girls here and I was thinking it was going to be hard because a lot of the girls out here are really good," Vergel Del Dios said. "It was a surprise, actually."
Temple City's Alex Aguirre, Parada, Mun and Escamilla also reached the semifinals.
[TAG1]scott.galetti@sgvn.com
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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. |
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Lindsay Lohan Moves to Rehabilitate Today, one month later she will be right back at it. Pity about the "star struck" legal courts for helping this person to ruin her life. Now she is owed punishment not rehab.
Excellent! Ahmadinejad did us a favor! Basically we frantically delude ourselves into considering this guy (and people who applaud him) are fit to get treated as reasonable human beings, he spits in your face to help remind us that many of us are (once more) fooling ourselves.
Beginning to sense this replacement GAP symbol is simply a PR stunt. It is really doing the job!.
There probably is a terror notifier for Us citizens traveling in The european union. Then again the joke’s on you, terrorists – we could not afford to visit The uk!
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Lindsay Lohan blames part of her inconveniences around the tabloids idealizing hard partying actresses, stating “I'd personally idolize those young girls … the Britneys and whatever. And I might be like, I want to resemble that.” Lohan went on to express, “I see where that’s got me now,” she says, “and I really do not think it’s great.”
Starting to presume this recent GAP symbol is just a PR stunt. Actually is doing the job!.
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I am a parent of one of the girls that AREAFAN cited as having a "torn labrum". Well AREAFAN, you are VERY MIS-INFORMED... aside from being a completely careless and irresponsible blogger! Before you start naming kids online and give out VERY BAD INFORMATION, you better check your facts. I am very irritated to have to respond to this at all. My daughter broke her first rib a month into season and it healed completely and she played in playoffs. NO surgery involved! She has a very healthy arm & throw and is very happy and excited to be going off to play college softball. She EARNED a very healthy scholarship playing YEAR-ROUND travel ball for a team and coaching staff she adored. You obviously dont know about what you speak (or write). My advice to you, dont analyze things you dont understand...remain a spectator.
There you go "chkyrslf", here I am catching myself again agreeing with you. I hate it when that happens.
I don’t get it, why would anyone suggest that “lowering-the-bar” would be a good thing. The way to raise the level of competitiveness should never be done by legislating against and limiting the play of the most competitive players. Here’s a novel idea … why not improve the skills of the less skilled … “raise-the-bar” and training them to be more competitive. To subsidize their lack of competitiveness is ridiculous … and to do it in the name of “fun” is even more ridiculous. Speaking athletically, true “fun” primarily comes out of accomplishment on the most competitive stage possible. I can tell you that the college softball players that are realizing accomplishment in their competitive environments are having “fun”.
Another point, you don’t create “parity” by decreasing competitiveness (unless you are a socialist or communist). You create high level “parity” by increasing competitiveness.
The reason the innings of a baseball pitcher are limited, is because physically the baseball pitching motion is an unnatural movement and over use can result in injury. This is not a reason to limit the innings of a softball pitcher because physically the softball pitching motion is a natural movement. Show me a softball pitcher, with arm, elbow, or shoulder problems, and I’ll show you a softball pitcher with improper mechanics. That’s why dominant softball pitchers like Ferri, Escamilla, and Parada can pitch limitless numbers of innings and they even get stronger in a game as they develop a rhythm. All three have excellent mechanics which they have developed through years-and-years of year-round practice.
The thought that limiting a particular pitcher’s innings would force high school softball coaches to train and develop other pitchers is preposterous, and would be a statement only made by the uninformed. For the most part, high school coaches do very little to develop softball players, and they do absolutely nothing to develop pitchers. Pitching is such a specialty and it takes so much intense focus, commitment, and practice, their training and development is done away from the high school field and is left primarily to private pitching coaches. “Area fan” also seems to think that limiting a pitcher’s innings will force high school coaches to develop other pitchers … again, dominant pitchers are never developed by their high school coaches, and their development doesn't happen over a 3 month high school season. If you were to talk to Ellingsworth and Harper they would tell you that they don’t develop pitchers, nor would they describe their pair of pitchers as “dominant”. If either had that “dominant” pitcher they would have gladly pitched that dominant pitcher the majority of innings. I believe Temple City would have won CIF with that dominant pitcher.
My opinion in comparing the softball World Series to the baseball World Series, I have been very surprised by the sloppy play and coaching in these college baseball games. Not terribly surprising though … college baseball (even division 1) is several levels below MLB and many of the best baseball players go for the money rather than the education and they are in the in minor leagues (A, AA, AAA). On the contrary, the level of very high quality play and coaching of the college softball games was astounding. Also, not terribly surprising though … division 1 college softball is not watered down by losing its best players to professional levels like is the case in baseball. My opinion that the level of play is better in college softball than in college baseball seems to also be mirrored in the documented TV ratings … softball rating far surpass the baseball ratings.
Do the supporters of moving the high school rubber to 43’ really think that will make dominant pitchers like Ferri, Escamilla, and Parada less dominant? Under the title, “be careful what you ask for” … on the contrary, it will make the very few dominant pitchers more dominant because that is their normal pitching distance. The best pitchers are more effective at 43’ because ball movement is a more prominent factor, in addition to speed and ability to locate their pitches. However, 43’ in high school will have an extremely negative effect on the overwhelmingly majority of less experienced, more casual, and less skilled high school pitchers. Also, those extra 3’ will not make poor hitters good hitters. The only thing that will enable a hitter to have a appropriate level of success vs. a dominant pitcher is a similar level of practice and skill as that dominant pitcher.
One last point, unfortunately occasional injuries are a fact of life in athletics … “area fan” has hardly illustrated an epidemic … not to mention, a couple of the players they indicated are not “torn labrums”.
P.S., “area fan” maybe you should consider starting a high school T-Ball league where ever player is guaranteed an equal level of playing time (regardless of skill) for those who are looking for a less competitive level of “fun” and “parity”. Female athletes have come so far since Title IX, and I for one would hate to see any “dumbing-down” in high school softball.
Areafan,
OK here are the top ten reasons why you are wrong:
1) None of the players you mentioned are from the area, except for Gogreve and I mentioned her, yet you call yourself an area fan.
2 ) One of the players you mentioned is a pitcher. Pitcher's arms are more safe than overhand throwing players. My guess is the pitcher with the shoulder problem that you mention has injured her arm playing other positions.
3) How dare you speak in terms of happiness when it is a group of 18 yr old kids? It is truly disgusting and I wish you would stop. You do not have the knowledge to assess these kids on that level. How are you possibly measuring these kid's "happiness?"
4) You speak in terms of the game becoming more "fun", as if some master changer of softball is going to step in and change the rules and make the game more "fun" for you.
5) Your understanding of torn labrums is limited. Diagnosing torn labrums is difficult and really can't be seen until the doctor goes in.
6) You come across as an area parent who is bitter that travel ball players have taken someone you care about's position on a team, and that hurts I know.
7) There is not a single coach this year that has the skills to develop a pitcher. These pitchers are being developed by pitching coaches and travel coaches. The coaches you speak of got their pitchers by the luck of the draw.
8) Nobody is against using more than one pitcher,but it is not fair to a coach who has one pitcher that can throw effectively to force them to lose a game by switching to an ineffective pitcher who may be better at another position.
9)It is dangerous to put a pitcher up against a batter who outclasses them. Not only can a comebacker hurt a pitcher it can disfigure them or kill them. I hope you are willing to accept that responsibilty if this ridiculous, never-to-be-applied rule that you are oddly fighting for were to be applied.
10) You act as though I must have a daughter pitching in order to have this opinion. I don't. Fortunately not every one is like you, trying to change rules in order to get someone you care about into the games.
10a) There are travel coaches who push their kids too hard and may help lead to injuries. However, the beauty of travel ball is that you are not tied to a team. There are literally hundreds of teams. Parents and kids still need to assess what best for them and make their decisions based on that.
Question:
How many of these terribly unhappy 2007 players are not going to play college ball next year?
I ask again.... Are there any local 2007 grads healthy AND happy playing college softball? If so who and where?
More torn labrums: Lainey Depompa (catcher) and Sarah Montes (OF) @ CV. Lina Avila (pitcher)and Bev Bultsma (SS)@ Cerritos Valley Christian.. . to name four more. Throw in Gogreve and that makes 5 year round travel ballers with torn labrums. Great athletes each of them. Looks like a pattern to me?
To prove its WAY easier coaching a team with good pitching versus not having one great pitcher: One just needs to look at Monrovia and Arcadia the past two years AND keep an eye on SP and Alverno this year compared to next to see how little a coach has to do with a ONE PITCHER dominated sport. I catch myself watching the College playoffs too but am struck by how one dimensional softball is as compared to baseball!
I suppose if your kid plays on a team with a dominant pitcher (or is a pretty good pitcher herself) you will most likely be against any pitching limits. So much for parity.
Take a look at Ellingsworth (TC) and Harper (LS) for two local coaches who do develop and use 2 pitchers. It is possible.
Who are all of the players with torn labrums? I know of one, Cassie Gogreve playing for South Carolina and she is a catcher, so maybe we should limit the amount of innings catchers play. Your exaggeration is ridiculous. I do not know of any pitchers that have injured labrums, please tell us who you are talking about. (I have no child that is a pitcher by the way.)
Are you kidding me, do you really think that coaches currently do not have to coach or that players do not currently have to play defense? I do not know of any pitchers anywhere that have that kind of stuff. Tell me how much FUN it will be when you have two top pitchers in a 1-1 tie in the seventh and one of the pitchers has to leave the game because of inning limits and a walk-fest begins. Oh boy that is fun!
By the way torn labrums are an epidemic with baseball players and all "Overhand throwing sports." Go to a sports medicine clinic and you will see that it is a problem for them all. However I doubt that you are in the position to diagnose six kids in the area. Torn labrums are also very common in life in general and difficult to diagnose and most are not operated on or even bothered with unless it is getting the way of a persons game or life. Go on to the football blog and tell them that you think that quarterbacks in the summer league should stop throwing because of the potential danger to their labrums. See how that works out for you.
Second of all your point about kids being unhappy is very gross. Are you in the homes and know whats going on, I don't think so. All 2007 kids have just finished their freshman year in college and you as some supposed "adult" are trying to analyze their psche's from a distance in a blog? Get over yourself. College athletics is not "happy land" but it is a huge challenge that helps turn kids into well prepared adults in society. Happiness is fleeting and challenges provide a wide range of emotions and experience (including happiness) and prepare you for life.
Bon bons make people happy and their shelf life is a thousand years, you may want to point the kids you know in that direction.
I'd bet a dozen doughnuts to a dollar that "chkyrslf" has a daughter that pitches... Any takers?
Pitching limits (like the boys) makes all the sense in the world. It would bring the closest thing to parity among more teams than any other rule change.Coaches would have to coach. Teams would have to play D and the girls would have to score runs. Sounds like more fun to me?
And another thing check out how many YEAR ROUND full time travel ball players are suffering from torn labrums. I have heard of at least 6 kids this year alone... ALL travel ballers about to undergo surgeries. Ask around. I even hear that most local 2007 grads who went on to play College ball are either VERY unhappy or injured. Is it worth it?
Are there any LOCAL 2007 grads healthy and happy playing college softball?
Truth,
Thanks for agreeing with me, but it is not what I said. I believe high school should move the pitching rubber to 43'. I just don't think it will make pitchers less dominant. But, I am not interested in making pitchers less dominant. For that matter, the point you brought up about weak pitchers getting beat worse from 43' is fine with me, the good thing for them is it will give them 3 more feet to get out of the way.
I am a little different, I am mostly interested in promoting the kids who work harder and are prepared for the tasks at hand. If that makes them more dominant, then fine, it sets the bar for other kids.
chkyrslf, great observation on the mistake of moving high school pitchers to 43 ft. As stated, the pitchers with great ball movement would be even more dominant while pitchers who are getting away with just throwing hard would pay the price. But the scary thing would be those teams with only average or even weak pitching being forced to throw from the further distance. Imagine the scores with some teams being mercied game after game.
I'd also like to follow up on a post by MS yesterday. MS it appears as though you are harboring some sort of chip on your shoulder that needs to be released. Your description of gold level travel ball pitchers needing to be challenged by a higher level of high school competition is a joke. Girls such as Parada, Escamilla and Ferri pitch every weekend at the highest level of Junior Olympic competition facing national championship caliber teams on a regular basis. Facing a team with better players may test the competive level of their teammates but not them.
It also seem that your love for South Pas runs deep with the passion that you describe last years need for a South Pas/Alverno showdown. Check your facts though, I believe South Pas needed to reschedule the first game. MS please try to make an effort to move on from last year. When I was in third grade my dog ran away but I got over it, I moved on, you should too. Let me know if I can help you. The Truth can show you the way.
CHKYRSLF is on the money! all in favor say I.."I"
First of all it is nice to see softball continue to develop its popularity with the dynamic ratings that it received for the World Series. And in a way I am glad to see another weak journalist try and tell softball how to make its game better while it comments with no disdain toward baseball that regularly has three hour games with dominant pitchers being the highlight of their day. Knowing that if their were no physical limitations on baseball pitchers you would rarely see more than one in a game, but the overhand throwing motion rightfully stops that from happening.
I very much support moving the rubber back to 43', mainly because it is being done on every other level and pitchers have to work backwards to pitch at 40'. But I wouldn't expect it to make dominant pitchers less dominant. Most pitchers who do well, move the ball, and in college and 18 Gold competition it has been shown that the best pitchers start to move their ball around 40' making it often times harder to hit them at 43'. In other words the "curve" curves more, the "screw" screws more, the "drop" drops more, and so on.
As far as limiting innings, I think the dominant pitcher argument is overstated. There are very few dominant pitchers and you can see that by checking the college and high school era stats, only a few really have dominant stats. This makes them more valuable as players and they should not have to compromise their talent.
The arguments against limiting innings for pitchers is similar to why you would not limit the innings of a dominant power hitting short stop. There are no physical limitations prompted by chronic injury, so you would ultimately be putting competition limits on a player and coach because of the depth of their success, essentially saying that "this player is too good to play all of the time so we are going to force a substitution." That would be unprecedented in any sport above the rec ball level, and in my opinion unnecessary and damaging to the game.
Just imagine a player like Kobe Bryant being told that he can only play a limited amount of minutes because he is making his team disproportionally good and we need to develop some players to be like him. That would change the game for the worse. That is the same effect that pitching limitations would do for softball, make you beg for the great pitcher to be back in the game. And since there are no physical limitations, like in baseball, let them live up to their potential as players.
If it aint broke don't fix it.
chkyrslf,
I am sure you are up to speed on all these points, but I thought pasting them in might fire you up one last time before softball coverage wanes...enjoy
Softball in need of a change, maybe two ...
By Roger Murray on June 4, 2008 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) |
Isn't time for high school softball to limit pitchers to 10 innings a
week, same as baseball?
Watching a pitcher dominate game after game doesn't determine which is
the best team, but rather it often merely means one team has the best
pitcher.
Of course, limiting how much a coach can use a pitcher would mean
coaches will have to develop a second pitcher. And some coaches appear
hesitant to take that responsibility because of the specialization
involved. Many pitchers have their own pitching coach.
And how about this: Consider moving the pitching rubber, now 40 feet,
back a couple of feet, or maybe even make it the same distance from the
plate as in college (43 feet. There has been speculation for several years about this).?
Changes like these would make the game more competitive, and make a sport
already enjoyable even more so. Put the ball in play more. Involve
the defense more. Make it truly a team game instead of just the pitcher and
catcher playing catch.
Sounds good from here.
Very exciting season that was pretty typical for the area as of late. Neither down nor up, just less hype from the start. The same sort of turnout as in CIF last year. Excellent inidividuals but a lot of work to do to match up against the best teams in other leagues. North (Torrence)), who Poly and SP both lost to 5-0 in CIF won the DV champioship.
Still it was very nice to see all of the seniors play the game well in the senior game.
Yeah, there were some good schools announced, but I got the impression in most cases, they weren't going to play softball, just attending school.
Also, I think it was fine that there was one pitcher that pitched the entire game for the private team (I think that happened last year too).
But I hope it wasn't to prove some bizzare point or to resolve some blog debate.
That would be pretty sad!
First off “Truth”, I’m plenty “happy”, and the event last night was tremendous. On that same vein, to bring up the posts earlier in the season, an early season tournament sponsored by the PSN, amongst their start of the season “Top 10” would be great. Also, “Bob” no need to apologize for your comments which were balanced and positive.
Now to my main point, I don't remember anyone ever saying that, “the Alverno pitcher wasn't that good because she pitched in the Horizon League”. On the contrary, I think that everyone always recognizes that she is good. The statements in the past were that her talent and skill was seldom ever challenged with more true competition. I recall that the commentary was always factual in stating that the Horizon League is in a very low CIF division and that the competition was in no way indicative of her talent and skill. I can’t imagine that anyone would deny that as anything but very true.
There is nothing she could do with what league her school was in, but the criticisms were that for the past 3 years her obvious talent and skill was seldom challenged with competitive non-league play. I think that criticism was further fueled when last season there was a very apparent avoidance by Alverno to play their scheduled game with a very good South Pas team and that avoidance eventually resulted in its cancelation. Very unfortunate because that was sure to be a tremendous pitchers showdown between Parada and Escamilla, both are fine pitchers. I for one, love seeing great athletes challenged more times than not challenged. That not only builds better athletes, it also builds personal character which lasts long after the athlete leaves the field of play. In a sense, I think a student/athlete is cheated if they are not given the opportunity to be challenged at least occasionally at the highest level of appropriate competition.
Relative to previous years, this season (Escamilla’s 4th), Alverno played some better non-league games and fared very well, but it would have been fun to see their pitcher play more than a couple of these competitive games. Just my opinion, but I think she would have fared pretty well against a more consistent level of competition ... but I guess we’ll never know. Others have in our area and I think they are better for it, and not just athletically. Nevertheless, it will be great to see them all progress beyond high school.
“Truth”, don’t you hate it when impressions, get in the way of the true facts.
Wow Scott, are the people who are complaining about the private team leaving their pitcher in too long the same people who said the Alverno pitcher wasn't that good because she pitched in the Horizon League? You just can't make some people happy.
Scott, Is their anyway you can post the colleges some of these players will be attending? I was able to hear a few and they were impressive. I heard USC, UCLA, STANFORD, VILLANOVA, UNLV, etc etc.. That is a feel good stat.
Sorry, I did not mean to be negative, but in reading back my comments they definitely were negative.
Yesterday's game was very exciting and everyone involved should be very proud.
SFBFN, SB momma & bob, You three need to relax and enjoy the moment. Other pitcher from SG Mission hurt her arm earlier in the week, but she played out field and bunted lake in the game. For the record, I yelled out "Woooooo" at the end of the game. Good luck to all and I wish could hear postive blogging here. The girls read this stuff too.
In my opinion, if the other Private school pitchers had gotten into the game, then it would not have ended in a 0 - 0 tie. If you look at the enrollment of the Public schools vs. the Private schools it is not out of line to think there is only 1 top quality pitcher at the Private schools vs. 4 or more at the Public schools. Michelle Escamilla is far and away the best pitcher eligible to play in this game (a Senior). If this game were open to Juniors and Seniors then there would definitely be more pitchers from the Private schools - at least Jessica Ferri from Sacred Heart.
I thought both coaches did a great job of showcasing all their players. Both teams batted everyone and there was definitely quality fielding.
Great game - both sides should be extremely proud.
Amy Vergel De Dios proved why she should be on the all-area team winning the home run derby.
Scott - Could this game be setup as a charity event? Charge $5 - $10 admission and make some money for a worthy cause. Attendance was great last night, and I doubt you would scare many people away with a few bucks admission. Just a thought.
sfbfn, I can't agree with you more. I saw that game and it's unfortunate that other private school pitchers didn't get the opportunity to show their stuff. Kudos to public for showcasing their girls. And I have to say that the Keppel SS did have an amazing play!
Did anyone tell the private side that it was an exibition game for all the girls? I guess not since they kept the same pitcher in the whole time. Did they not put another pitcher on the team just for that reason.. You can tell it meant that much to their parents since they didn't even cheer at the end of the game because of a tie.. MVP should have actualy gone to the SS from Mark Kepple who saved the game with the best play of the night...