Softball: Top four spots remain the same in Top 10

This is the best blog I've ever seen in my life! I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to share your this with everyone.

Great wordpress blog here.. It's hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care and see you soon

I appreciate the contribution.

Interesting post. I am anticipating your next one.

That has been a favorite thing to do at this paper for years with softball. Sometimes the photo is put up and you wonder why in the world they would pick that one. My guess is it is an old stock photo from last year or something.

Correction

Sacred Heart 10
Westridge 0

Sacred Heart 10
Westridge

her eyes are probably closed too

that picture is a disgrace to softball. as a player, i am offended.

La Canada 2
West Ranch 6

Good to see the girls come out with a lot of emotion Saturday morning and totally dominating a weaker opponent in MC. That’s how these types of games need to be handled.

Solid pitching from both starters, stellar defense and awesome hitting. Good to see the home runs hit as it has been a while (since someone. other than us) has gone yard.

Now comes the biggest challenge for the team. Can you keep this momentum going through the second half of the season and compete for that League Championship?

Girls, keep your feet on the gas pedal and drive right over all your upcoming opponents and don’t even bother looking back.

Attitude is everything!!!!!

Avid Fan

Temple City 8 - Mira Costa 1
Homeruns by Jessica Loiacano and Lenae Sanchez

Temple City 10 - Mira Costa 0
Homeruns by Lenae Sanchez and Jessica Flores

Poly beats Monrovia 5-4.

Monrovia ...tale of two teams. You always have to watch out for Poly, because they have some talented players and a very good coach.

My deepest condolences for the death in the family...

In terms of the stats, I bet you could get them from St Lucy's. Take your time, though.

Area Fan,

Just as an FYI, the Scorekeeper/Data Entry person for La Canada was out of town for her father's funeral. I would hope you can respect that but wouldn't be surprised if you didn't.

Additionally, the day the St. Lucy's game was played was the day that there was the sig alert on the 210 east and by the time any of us actually got to the game, it was well under way. None of us that even got to the game even attempted to keep stats as we had no clue as to what had played out prior to arrival.

MS,

I mostly have a problem with blogger #1, really, what a jerk! Oh wait... is that me?

I fight very hard for all kids to be treated fairly and I am always chkyrslf or chky. But just as a note, the more I have tried to support any kid, the more that kid's team has been dissed in the polls. Although I could focus on one team, that is not my agenda. My agenda is to promote fast-pitch softball and give props to programs and kids that are doing it right. I have had a problem with the writing staff in the last few years and how they they coddle Arcadia. There is a definite bias. That used to not be a problem a few years ago, because they were that good. Now they are rebuilding and trying to find a way, and I am sure they will, but let them do it before you recognize them. But I am going to stop complaining about that because it is not the Arcadia players' fault. I have also made a couple of comments about Maranantha that could be misconstrued as negative, but most of those comments have been pointed at "areafan", and that is just not the players' fault either.

The writers also hate me and my desire for there to be a sense of detail in their coverage and recognition of the subtle differences in non-league schedules and to have a sense of who is improving as the season goes along and who challenges themselves with their non-league schedule. That requires a lot of work to get that stuff right. Instead they tend to focus on how many games teams have won in a row. That is often meaningless relative to the weakness or strength of a schedule and whether it is a tournament or league game. (There is no equality in the way that teams schedule games, that is just the way it is.) And oddly enough, it seems like very little meaning is given to head-to-head competition between area teams, when that is the only real barometer of these "area teams"that play in separate leagues.

The interesting thing that you will see is that when the season comes to an end and some teams have risen and other teams have fallen, the coverage thins out and very little recognition is given to the teams that have gotten there through adjustments and improvement, and to me those are the most important lessons in high school sports.

rclancy,

Just because I like your commentary, I will not support Mayfield's movement into the top 10. (That should lock a spot for you.)

I do agree with area fan that LaCanada should put in their stats for the St Lucy's game. It may have been a tournament but it wasn't a scrimmage. I also think that Maranantha , Ramona Convent, and Arcadia should put in fielding stats in general (it is easy to make fielders and pitchers look really good if you do not keep track of errors), Monrovia should put in the rest of their stats for their loss to Marshall, and Keppel has put in no statistics at all to this day.

By the way, MS, does this make you blogger #3?

PS- Those people reading MS comments about me should take out these words and the comment will be spot on:

he
mainly
promotes
1
team
league
reasonably
at times
some

rclancy, the only thing you are guilty of is being a genuine fan of Mayfield. Also, along the way you make many entries in support of the good performances of other kids and their teams too. You should be applauded, instead you are insulted. What you are guilty of is being a little naive. Don’t you recognize that the contributions to this blog are at least 80% to 90% written by a couple of bloggers:

Blogger #1 who anonymously under a couple of anachronism names (but mainly uses one name), he mainly promotes 1 team and the 1 league that team is in. However, at least that blogger is respectful of other kids and teams, and he recognizes top performers on those other teams. That particular blogger is reasonably knowledgeable about softball, and at times offers some interesting softball insight along the way.

Then there is the other blogger, Blogger #2, posts anonymously under a couple of anachronism names too. They try to disguise their agenda and who they support but they also mostly promote 1 team (a different team than Blogger #1) and only certain kids on that team. That wouldn’t be so bad but they use this blog as a forum to question things like why one kid is pitching over another on that team. Blogger #2 has an obvious personal beef with the coach of that team (legitimate or not, wish they’d take their beef elsewhere). But worst of all, they arbitrarily call out other teams, who are having legitimate successes, by questioning odd things like the scorekeeping or missing stats. of those teams. Also, they have some weird vengeance against certain specific area players from other teams who they blindly criticize if some dares say anything positive about that player. It is obvious that they know nothing about softball beyond their very limited and low level perspective. It’s somewhat interesting (interesting like a train wreck) to see them repeatedly put in their place in the blog and then they crawl back into their anonymity for a while, but they always resurface eventually with their same old negativism.

Unlike Blogger #1, Blogger #2 possesses some weird bitterness that’s difficult to understand. Blogger #2 obviously doesn’t care about embarrassing themselves, but the saddest thing is they embarrass everyone they identify as who they are a so called "fan".

rclancy, now you’ve done it! By legitimately supporting your daughter’s team, and by her team beating the team Blogger #2 primarily promotes, somehow that threatens them. They always make excuses for the non-performance of the kids and team they support … no doubt they were never an athlete themselves ... maybe that explains their bitterness. But no need to fret … each time Blogger #2 is proven wrong they move their negativism on to someone else and pick a new fight.

You are right, Mayfield does deserve some love. “Top 10” love? … I’m not sure but it’s certainly worth considering. Truth be told, Prep League, competition is relatively weak and winning that League doesn’t have the same significance as other Leagues which are far more competitive in this area. If Blogger #2 truly thinks that the Mayfield team last season was heading in the right direction and that their new coach this year isn’t a dramatic improvement over the coach last year, they are more ignorant than previously recognized.

Mayfield 4 - Chadwick 3
Emily Balfour homered, Juliana Zovak was 2 - 3 including a lead-off hit in the 7th and scored the winning run on a single by Anneliese Luck.

Hey La Canada:

Why haven't' you put your team stats on Maxpreps for your 11-0 BLOWOUT LOSS against St Lucys?

Dear Maranatha People:

Why are you using Kimmie Sommers so sparingly in the circle? Is she hurt? She is one of the best around but you choose to throw what most believe to be your #2 and it is costing you games!

One more point I would like to make. I am not suggesting that Mayfield replace Maranatha in the top 10 or that Mayfield should be higher than Maranatha in the top 10 - I don't think either should be the case.I just think Mayfield should receive some consideration.

I haven't see all of the top 10 teams play this year, but it seems to me that Mayfield is better this year than most people expected.

sorry, lots of typos

Shouting isn't necessary - I am a parent at Mayfield - My daughter plays on they team? I have never been anonymous on this blog, if you look at Mayfield's roster it is obvious who I am.

And you? Do you coach one of the top 10 teams that Mayfield would knock out?

I do not agree with your assumption that if Sommers started Mayfield would not have won the game. Maranatha scored only 1 run and they almost didn't score that one. Solid triple by Hillier and then a hit up the middle that the pitcher almost fields and makes the play at first - which would have been the 3rd out and the run would not have scored. The ball was hit hard and went off the pitcher's arm - a better throw to first and it is 3 outs instead of a hit and an error.

Sommers did pitch the last part of the game and was very successful, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't have gotten any runs against her.

R CLANCY ARE YOU THE COACH OR PARENT ? THE WAY YOU TALK SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE THE HEAD COACH. WHAT HAPPEN TO MAYFIELD AT THE DOWNEY TOURNAMENT (1-3) ONLY WIN ST. MATHIAS ARE YOU KIDDING?YOU HAVE SOMMERS START FOR MARANATHA, MAYFIELD DOESN'T WIN GAME.MAYFIELD COULDN'T BEAT PREP, JUST SQUEEZED BY ALVERNO AND POLY WITH 3 WINS COMBINED.IT'S A SHAME THAT THEY GOT RID OF THERE FORMER COACH RUDY NAJERA,WHO WAS BUILDING SUCH A GREAT PROGRAM.FIRST YEAR AS HEAD COACH AND HE WINS LEAGUE FROM POLY AFTER OVER 20 YEARS THAT POLY HAD WON,VERY IMPRESSIVE.I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT'S WHY THE RETURNERS DIDN'T COME BACK.TO THINK THEY GOT RID OF HIM BECAUSE HIS DAUGHTER IS ON THE TEAM,AND MAYFIELD HAS A NEW POLICY THIS YEAR THAT NO PARENT CAN COACH.GOOD LUCK

R CLANCY ARE YOU THE COACH OR PARENT ? THE WAY YOU TALK SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE THE HEAD COACH. WHAT HAPPEN TO MAYFIELD AT THE DOWNEY TOURNAMENT (1-3) ONLY WIN ST. MATHIAS ARE YOU KIDDING?YOU HAVE SOMMERS START FOR MARANATHA, MAYFIELD DOESN'T WIN GAME.MAYFIELD COULDN'T BEAT PREP, JUST SQUEEZED BY ALVERNO AND POLY WITH 3 WINS COMBINED.IT'S A SHAME THAT THEY GOT RID OF THERE FORMER COACH RUDY NAJERA,WHO WAS BUILDING SUCH A GREAT PROGRAM.FIRST YEAR AS HEAD COACH AND HE WINS LEAGUE FROM POLY AFTER OVER 20 YEARS THAT POLY HAD WON,VERY IMPRESSIVE.I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT'S WHY THE RETURNERS DIDN'T COME BACK.TO THINK THEY GOT RID OF HIM BECAUSE HIS DAUGHTER IS ON THE TEAM,AND MAYFIELD HAS A NEW POLICY THIS YEAR THAT NO PARENT CAN COACH.GOOD LUCK

Mayfield should be in the top 10 if you look at how they are playing now vs. how they started the year. In the beginning of the year, there was no "team" at all - we had 5 or 6 girls at practice and no one was really sure who was going to play where except for pitcher and catcher. The early games reflect a lot of part time players playing out of position or in positions they did not really know how to play.

The Mission game can't be counted, it was a scrimmage. They weren't trying to win, they were playing girls in different positions to see if anything worked. Anneliese Luck pitched for the first time in 9 months and gave up 7 runs in one inning with many errors behind her. To her credit she came back in 2 innings later and gave up nothing.

Gabrielino was early in the season. St. Matthias we beat with 8 girls in the line-up playing without a left fielder. (Started with 9 but had an injury in the top of the 1st).

The top 10 is not about who was better in the beginning of the season, it is about who is better now. Yes, Mayfield lost to Sacred Heart 3 - 0, but it really was a very close game. We gave up 1 in the first and the game was 1 - 0 until the top of the 7th. We then beat Poly, Alverno and Maranatha. So are Maranatha and Sacred Heart not tough enough competition? They why are they in the top 10?

no... Mayfield should not crack the top ten.. they got worked by Ramona, beat 8-1 by Mission(pre-season),and just barely defeated St. Mathias and Gabrielino, a couple of pretty horrible squads. Congrats on your pitcher having a great year , really, but you have to face tougher competition in your non league schedule just to even be considered being named in the top ten. That goes for Ramona and Keppel, a couple of over rated div 6 schools that have no business being mentioned with the likes of LaSalle, Arcadia and La Canada.

So does that mean that Mayfield should crack the top 10?

I should also point out that Arcadia's record as of 4/2 (it was 4/7 when this poll was released) is 4-6 (not 3-4). On 4/2 they lost to Glendale who, because of that win, is now 2-6. That was a league game.

Well, that should move Maranantha up in the polls. Thats how it works right?

Wow, it is awful quiet in here today - I guess everyone is out on Spring Break.

Mayfield 4 - Maranatha 1 -

I am very proud of the whole Cubs team and the coaches for a great victory over the 4th ranked Maranatha Lady Minutemen.

Kaitlin Fitzpatrick did an awesome job both at the plate (3B,1B - 2 RBIs - 1 Run scored) and behind the plate as the catcher. Defensively she made a great block and tag at home to save a run and kill Maranatha's momentum. She also threw out a runner stealing at a critical point in the game.

Katie Clancy had 10 k's, but none bigger than in the first inning. Maranatha's lead off got to first on a bunt and stole second. The second batter was walked and then both runners stole, so Maranatha had 2 and 3 with no outs. Clancy struck out the 3, 4 & 5 hitters to end the threat and shift the momentum back to Mayfield.

Big win for a non-league game.