Keppel forfeits wild-card win due to ineligible player.

FULL STORY ON KEPPEL FORFEIT

Keppel’s remarkable baseball season came to a disappointing end Friday when the CIF-Southern Section announced the Aztecs will have to forfeit their wild-card win from earlier this week because of an ineligible player, thus eliminating them from the playoffs.

Keppel (8-17) was set to play at Elsinore on Friday afternoon in the first round of the Division 3 playoffs, but instead rode the long bus ride back to school from Wildomar after the violation came to light. The Aztecs will forfeit their wild-card win against Hawthorne, and Hawthorne moves on to play the first round game today at Elsinore.

Keppel coach Houston Hernandez received a call from his administration just as he was stepping off the bus at Elsinore. About a half hour later, he was informed the Aztecs had to pack up and head home.

“This is probably one of the worst days ever,” said Hernandez before elaborating. “It was definitely an administrative error, period. Somebody didn’t do their job and now we have to suffer for it.”

The CIF-SS sent out a statement Friday evening, alluding that more forfeits is a possibility.

“Mark Keppel is faced with the potential loss of every win this season depending on the number of games their ineligible player appeared in,” the statement read. “Information was received by the CIF-Southern Section office this afternoon of a player who transferred from another CIF-SS school without proper paperwork.”

Hernandez said he was succinct when delivering the message, and players mingled on the field in disbelief.

“They stayed on the field for about 20 minutes and it sunk in that all their hard work had been taken away,” Hernandez said. “It was emotional out there, and I was too. How could everything we did be swept away because someobody didn’t do their job.”

Keppel, which finished tied for third with Schurr in the Almont League, earned its first playoff berth this season for the first time in at least a decade. The Aztecs were 7-93 in the five years prior to Hernandez taking over three eyars ago, and the program had won just two of their 75 league games.

“There was nothing that these boys or myself could have done to make the situation any better,” Hernandez said. “It’s a little hard and a little embarassing the way it ended. There was was nothing that these boys or myself could have done to make this situation any better. It really hurts, but hopefully push us really hard for next year.”

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Baseball 101 with Alhambra’s Steve Gewecke ….

As some of you know I graduated from Alhambra (2001) and some of the coaches I’ve covered in my four-year tenure here at the Star-News also at some point were my teachers, most notably Joe Petralia (former boys basketball coach) who was my history teacher. Moors baseball coach Steve Gewecke taught a lot of my friends, but I never had him. Eleven years later, I asked Gewecke what it is he looks for when watching a pitcher warming up in the bullpen. I listened intently:

“If I see a kid warm up you see arm angle, does the fastball run and what kind of curve ball is it. A 12-6 curveball is something that breaks down, your old-fashion drop ball. An over the top guy would easily have a 12-6 curve. But if it’s a 2-8 that’s a slurve, a half-slider and half-curve. A slurve looks like a lollipop curve; has a big break. Basically when they throw a slurve they want you to hit it but they want you to hit it in the air. You throw it with no count or at 1-0 and you want the guy to get himself out with a pop up. I don’t know what kind of break we’ll see (today), but supposedly he throws a lot of them.”

CIF-SS PLAYOFFS
TODAY’S SCHEDULE
DIVISION 3

Carter vs. Alhambra at Moor Field, 3:15 p.m.
Keppel at Elsinore, 3:15 p.m.
DIVISION 5
Mary Star of the Sea at Gabrielino, 3:15 p.m.
Maranatha at Citrus Valley, 3:15 p.m.

Alhambra coach Steve Gewecke left around lunch time on Wednesday and headed for the desert to catch a CIF-Southern Section wild-card playoff game. He made the 160-mile trek to and from Paloma Valley, which played host to Carter.

Gewecke saw plenty and came back with a lot of useful information after Carter came away with an 8-5 victory. The Lions will play Alhambra (20-3) in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs today at 3:15 p.m. at Moor Field.

Here’s what information is readily available: Carter (18-8) is the fourth-place team out of the San Andreas League, won by Colton with a 12-2 record. The Lions possess some size on the mound. Whatever information one needs after that can only be done through scouting, which is exactly what Gewecke did Wednesday afternoon.

Carter got off to a strong start with four runs in the first inning, thanks to two hit batters and one walk. In that short time, Gewecke was able to make his assessment.

“Carter kind of took the game to Paloma Valley and put some of the pressure on them,” Gewecke said. “Carter really tries to push the envelope in terms of putting pressure on the defense, drag, push, squeeze successfully.”

In short, Carter resembles Alhambra, which is making its 12th consecutive playoff appearance in Gewecke’s 16 seasons at the helm.

Carter’s size on the mound is evident. The Lions started 6-foot-6 junior Richard Brotzman against Paloma Valley.

He recorded his sixth win of the season in 12 appearances and went the distance. Gewecke was hoping to catch a glimpse of who the Moors will face today, and that would be 6-2 junior Mark Alvarez.

Gewecke said Brotzman was teetering in the seventh, prompting Carter to send Alvarez to the bullpen. Brotzman held it together to record the complete game, and though Alvarez never entered the game Gewecke wanted to catch Alvarez in the bullpen, but to no avail.

A storage container made it nearly impossible to watch Alvarez, so all Gewecke can go on is what he gathered from Paloma Valley coach Chuck Kemp. Arcadia also faced Carter earlier this year in the Rancho Cucamonga tournament, but the Apaches also faced Brotzman in that game. Kemp told Gewecke that Alvarez has a pretty good curveball, good breaking ball, but not an overpowering fastball.

If not for that storage container, Gewecke could have evaluated Alvarez and known what to expect today.

“If I see a kid warm up you see arm angle, does the fastball run and what kind of curve ball is it,” Gewecke said. “A 12-6 curveball is something that breaks down, your old-fashion drop ball. An over the top guy would easily have a 12-6 curve. But if it’s a 2-8 that’s a slurve, a half-slider and half-curve. A slurve looks like a lollipop curve; has a big break.

“Basically when they throw a slurve they want you to hit it but they want you to hit it in the air. You throw it with no count or at 1-0 and you want the guy to get himself out with a pop up. I don’t know what kind of break we’ll see (today), but supposedly he throws a lot of them.”

And as far as height on the mound goes, it’s an advantage, too.

“I think it does (help) because if they use their height the ball comes out of the hand with more tilt,” Gewecke explained. “It’s harder to hit a ball that’s thrown on a downward tilt than a ball that’s flatter.”

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Baseball: Temple City’s Calvin Copping leads way.

By Miguel A. Melendez, Staff Writer

TEMPLE CITY – Kaiser High School pitcher Christopher Mathewson made 16 throws to first base the entire game, six in the fourth inning.

Perhaps he should have paid a little more attention to the batters.

Temple City’s Ben Arrue and Gabriel Juarez connected for consecutive RBI singles in the fourth and Calvin Copping proved too strong on the mound with 12 strikeouts as the Rams ran away with a 5-1 victory Thursday in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division 4 playoffs.

Copping made 93 pitches (69 for strikes) and gave up just six hits in going the distance for Temple City (21-3-1), which advances to Tuesday’s second round.

Kaiser (18-9) found no rhythm at the plate, and squandered a golden opportunity in the third with two on and no outs. Copping showed poise despite an unearned run on a Arrue throwing error that allowed Erik Ascencion to score and give the Cats a 1-0 lead.

Copping came back strong, striking out the next two and recording the third out on a groundout, and it wasn’t long before Arrue came back with a little payback.

“You can’t give up so I just cut the tire and let the error go,” said Arrue of his mentality approaching the plate in the fourth. “I felt good that I redeemed myself.”

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Baseball: La Salle’s Derby pitches way to victory.

By Keith Lair, Staff Writer

GLENDORA – Bowdien Derby was able to turn a corner on the Laguna Beach High School baseball team.

The La Salle senior pitcher faced a first-and-third situation in the opening inning of the Thursday afternoon’s CIF-Southern Section Division 4 first-round playoff game at Citrus College.

Derby got back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat.

The senior then had three consecutive at-bats with runners on the corners. He had a base hit, walk and a ground out.

But stopping the Breakers, the third-place finisher from the Orange Coast League, and getting the game’s first RBI were the two important corner shots that Derby made in a 6-2 victory.

“When you’ve got a leadoff guy getting on and the second guy can bunt for a hit or sacrifice him over, you’ve got runners in scoring position right there,” Derby said. “My guys are doing their job. I’ve got to come through for my team, too.”

The top four batters for the Del Rey League champions and tournament’s No. 2 seed got on base 11 times in 16 tries.

“We have a lineup that if we throw names on a board, however they land, that could be our lineup,” La Salle coach Harry Agajanian said. “We feel that strongly about our whole lineup.”

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