BREAKING NEWS: La Salle’s Forillo throws a no-hitter

La Salle’s Allie Forillo flirted with a perfect game until the seventh inning. That’s when St. Monica’s Jackie Dansky, the penultimate batter and a substitute in the game, drew a walk to end Forillo’s bid for perfection. She got the next batter to pop up, ending the game and giving the Lancers a dominating 9-0 win over St. Monica in the Camino Real League opener Thursday afternoon at Latter Day Saints Church in Pasadena. It’s really been two great days of softball for me. First, I got to see Arcadia and Maranatha battle in an intense nonleague game Wednesday, and now La Salle. I asked Forillo how important was it for the Lancers to make a statement in the league opener. “It was really important because we wanted to show how good we really are,” she said. “We had redemption on our mind because of the way we played in the Duarte Tournament.” Forillo struck out 15 batters. She also went 2 for 4 with two RBIs to help her cause. La Salle takes part in the High Desert Tournament beginning tomorrow. They’ll spend the night and play a doubleheader Saturday before coming back that night, and return again Monday to finish the tournament. I’ll be off Friday and through the weekend. (I’m running on fumes after covering Pasadena boys basketball throughout the playoffs; covered their last four games in seven days and traveled over 700 miles in that run. It was fun, but also exhausting). I’ll post some threads Friday and Sunday to let you guys have at it, and we’ll get right back into it in full strength next week when Keith Lair also returns.

THURSDAY’S BOX SCORE
Camino Real League
La Salle 9, St. Monica 0

St. Monica 000 000 0 — 0 0 3
La Salle 103 203 X — 9 11 0

Alex Wolansky and Alex Villa; Allie Forillo and Stephanie Ferri
3B: Katie Smither (LS); 2B: Colleen McWilliams (LS); RBI: McWilliams (LS) 3.
Records: St. Monica 4-1, 0-1; La Salle 3-2, 1-0

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Baseball: Pitcher in coma after getting hit in the head

A Northern California high school pitcher is in a medically-induced coma after getting hit in the head by a line drive. The incident is re-igniting the call to ban metal bats in youth baseball.
(Video from The Associated Press).

The Monterey Herald is reporting that pitcher Gunnar Sandberg was taken to the emergency room at the hospital where he was assessed overnight, and was put in a temporary coma last week because of swelling of the brain. He underwent several CT scans before medical personnel determined the course of action.

The Marin Independent Journal also has a story on its Website.

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Baseball: Let’s clear up what happened in Elks Tourny

There’s been a lot of “he said, she said” as to why Arcadia and Monrovia didn’t play in the third-place game of the Elks Tournament. I wondered about it, too, and thought if they played it would have made for a really good game. It didn’t happen, and there is a reason to it. Arcadia expressed interest in moving the time to 3 p.m. at Monrovia. The Wildcats declined. Arcadia suggested moving it to 7 p.m. at Arcadia. The Wildcats declined. “We had some kids who were going to take the SATs,” Arcadia coach Nick Lemas said. “I wanted to play the best team out there, and Monrovia was the best team available. But we weren’t able to get our whole team. What’s the point if I don’t have my guys. I don’t think the kids should have been punished for taking the SATs.” Jeff Kim and Haram Park were two of the kids taking the SATs that morning, and Kim was salted to pitch in the third-place game. “I think the fans and kids would have enjoyed it,” Lemas said. “We got Pasadena Poly, who is a quality opponent, so it all worked out.” Monrovia also had some kids taking the SATs, but despite that there was no sense in moving the time of the game for a few players, given the schedule is made out since November and game officials are told ahead of time the final Saturday games are played at 11 a.m. “If you have a team like St. Francis or Arcadia or somebody else that can play at night, they ask us if we can move it and if the officials say yes, then they can move the game,” Monrovia co-head coach Brad Blackmore said. “Once Arcadia lost and we lost, we’re playing (Arcadia) at our place at 11 a.m.” So, because Monrovia is one of three host teams (Temple City and Alhambra are the others) the game is at Monrovia at 11 a.m. by default. There’s no budging there. Monrovia felt it didn’t have to move the game, no less its site. Both coaches agreed that at this point if they couldn’t come up with a resolution, then both teams would play teams that were available for their schedules. Monrovia played and beat Western Christian and Arcadia played and beat Pasadena Poly. Both teams got their fifth game in and worked their pitchers before the start of league. Monrovia opens Friday at home against South Pas. Arcadia opens on the 23rd at Hoover.

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Baseball: La Salle in St. Patty’s spirit, gives valiant effort

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF WEDNESDAY’S LA SALLE-BISHOP AMAT GAME

By Fred J. Robledo, Staff Writer

LA PUENTE — Forgive La Salle High School baseball coach Harry Agajanian for being so blunt, but he acknowledged competing with Bishop Amat for several innings before falling, 8-3, in Wednesday’s Del Rey League opener was somewhat of a moral victory.

Just last week Bishop Amat (5-1, 1-0) advanced to the championship game of the prestigious Newport Elks tournament, where it lost to Orange Lutheran after four impressive wins that earned the Lancers a brief stay atop MaxPreps’ state poll.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Agajanian said. “They were on the road against a team that could potentially beat us up pretty good, but we hung in there and battled. We weren’t afraid to go pitch to pitch with those guys.

“This wasn’t a loss to us. This was a competitive fight and another step in our journey.”

With firepower such as catcher Jerry McClanahan, shortstop Rio Ruiz and outfielders Jay Anderson and Jordan McCraney, Amat unleashed a new weapon for opponents to think about in the form of junior Sebi Zavala, who was 3 for 3 with a double, single and two-run triple in the fourth inning. Last week Zavala hit three homers in a 7-2 win over Mater Dei.

Bishop Amat jumped to a 2-0 lead in first inning after Anderson led off with a triple to center. He was doubled home by Joe Eusebio, who advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on McClanahan’s ground out.

It stayed that way until the fourth inning when Zavala tripled in two runs and scored on Jonathan Velasquez’s squeeze to make it 5-0.

“That triple to lead off the first was a catchable ball, our center fielder just misplayed it,” Agajanian said. “If we had kept the first inning to 0-0 it might have changed the complexity of the game.

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Football: You gotta love Mid-Valley Div. adding Almont

Click here for the division realignments for all sports starting in the fall

The Mid-Valley Division already is fun with the Rio Hondo League and Valle Vista’s battling it out for a spot in the finals, but now we get the likes of Alhambra and San Gabriel from the Almont and Maranatha out of the Olympic League. The new division realignments are good news for our side of town, but not so much for the guys over on the East. The move to send Charter Oak, South Hills and Damien was so bad that our Freddie Robledo was compelled to say as much to CIF asst. commissioner Rob Wigod in a heated debate over the phone on Monday. But what does this mean for the Mid Valley? Alhambra, San Gabriel, Schurr and Montebello get a chance to compete in a division they belong, but we’ll still have a San Dimas-Monrovia reunion come December.

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