Another beautiful day in the neighborhood

The blog took off on Tuesday, we had more hits than Scott Wolff’s USC blog, and were within a few hundred of Brian Dohn’s newspaper-group leading UCLA blog, and those are pretty-much national blogs with a huge Southern California presence. We do it right and we do it proud in the San Gabriel Valley, so thanks to all of you for making me look good. I was tweeting as many games as I could, getting updates from Northview-St. Paul, Bishop Amat-La Habra, Bonita-Alhambra, San Dimas-La Canada softball, as well as the game I was at, Glendora-Knight softball. It was compelling, Bonita, Bishop Amat and Northview all trailing early, then hearing about Bonita’s grand slam, Amat’s huge rally in the seventh, then finally learning that defending champion Northview is no more, losing to St. Paul. It was an incredible day, and with so many teams left, seven in baseball and yes, eight in softball, we have got a lot more tweeting to do. You want surprises, how about three Miramonte league baseball teams in the quarterfinals, thanks to Los Altos’ magical playoff run. You want matchups? How about South Hills and Bonita on Friday. You want momentum, how about Damien’s 20-3 win over Dos Pueblos. You want predictions, I’m standing by mine that San Dimas will keep going and win the Division IV title. You want tough, how about Los Altos and Glendora softball moving to the quarters along with, um, West Covina, Bishop Amat and Arroyo. I’m telling you, we’re just getting started.

Coaches comments …
“Hey, sometimes you have to battle and sometimes you have to tip your cap and that’s what we had to do with La Habra. They played a great game and we had to make a great push at the end to win. We’ll play any team anywhere, whatever the challenge. Look at our schedule, we’re not afraid to play anyone.” — Bishop Amat coach Andy Nieto.

“There is no shame in losing to St. Paul. The shame is for a group that has accomplished so much (over the past four seasons) and has been more successful than any class in Northview history, this is the last day they played. This is not indicative of what kind of team this. And that’s the shame – that we played so poorly.” — Northview coach Darren Murphy.

“We have had big hits from everybody in the lineup all year. Our offense and defense has carried us.” — Damien coach Al Leyva

“We were very concerned. We were getting the feeling that it was getting away. We were doing everything right and just not getting it. I was concerned about getting a bit panicked. I think we showed our composure. Jason (Plowman) gets that grand slam. He’s a gamer.” — Bonita coach John Knott

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email