By Fred J. Robledo, SGVN, twitter@sgvtribpreps
The area’s top three high school softball teams were amongst the top four seeds when the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 playoff pairings were released on Monday.

All wild card games are today and first-round games on Thursday. All games are scheduled to start at 3:15 p.m.

Chino Hills earned the top seed in D-3 after going undefeated in the Sierra League. The Huskies have been the top-ranked team nearly all season and will open first-round at home against the winner wild-card winner between Nordoff and La Salle.

St. Lucy’s, which finished second to Chino Hills in the Sierra League, earned the third seed.

The Regents are under the direction of new coach Laura Macias, who replaced Ryan Nuevman the final week of league play after Nuevman left for personal reasons.
Whatever the case, the Regents ended the season with back-to-back shutouts for Macias and will face the wild card winner between Lakewood St. Joseph and Righetti in the first round.

Bishop Amat capped an undefeated season in the Del Rey and is hoping to go a step further after getting blown out in last year’s semifinals to South Hills.
Bishop Amat was seeded fourth and will face the wild-card winner between Ayala and Lancaster. (To continue click thread).

CIF-Southern Section softball playoff pairings

Division 2
Tuesday’s wild card games
Arroyo at West Covina
Rialto at Diamond Bar
Thursday’s first round
Canyon Springs at Bonita
Carter at Los Altos

Division 3
Tuesday’s wild-card games
Lancaster at Ayala
Charter Oak at St. Paul
Thursday’s first round
La Salle-Nordoff winner at No. 1 Chino HIlls
Lancaster-Ayala winner at No. 4 Bishop Amat
Rigetti-St. Joseph winner at No. 3 St. Lucy’s

Division 4
Tuesday’s wild card games
San Marcos at Covina
Wilson at Hawthorne
Thursday’s first round
Loara at San Dimas
Northview at Ocean View

Division 5
Tuesday’s wild card games
Gladstone at Lompoc
Sierra Vista at West Valley
Magnolia at La Puente
Thursday’s first round
St. Monica-Marymount winner at Duarte
Arroyo at Nipomo
Ramona Convent-San Jacinto winner at South El Monte
Azusa at Godinez

Continue reading “Softball Pairings: Chino Hills, Bishop Amat and St. Lucy’s all seeded for the Division 3 playoffs” »

CIF-SS baseball at-large berths

Click here for baseball and softball pairings this afternoon.

This will be the fifth straight year we name a boys and girls athlete of the year and would love your thoughts on who should be considered. This award recognize’s the best boys and girls athlete with participation in at least two sports. Specialization has ruined the two and three-sport athletes, but there are still a lot of quality throwbacks that play multiple sports and excel.

The Tribune’s first athletes of the year were named in 2008, Northview’s Hannah Fraijo and Glendora’s Michel Edwards. Who should take the picture this year?

The CIF-Southern Section Ford Baseball and Softball playoff pairings are released Monday. Softball is released at 11 a.m., and Baseball at 12:30 p.m.

Photo Gallery at CIF-SS Division 2 swim finals

Video of the final race of the meet, the 400 meter relay. Damien, a heavy underdog, almost pulled it off to win the team title. Damien’s in the fourth lane and winner Crescenta Valley (above them in lane five), battle it out, especially over the final two legs and 200 meters.

By Fred J. Robledo, SGVN
twitter@sgvtribpreps
RIVERSIDE — Without any individual champions at Saturday’s CIF-Southern Section Division 2 swimming finals at the Riverside Aquatics Center at Riverside Community College, Damien coach Andrew Gates knew the stars had to align for the Spartans to win their first team title since 2001.

And they almost did.

Damien trailed huge favorite Crescenta Valley by two points heading into the final race, the boys’ 400-meter relay, and they nearly pulled off a shocker behind the incredible performance from Carson May, Michael Forbes, Austin Miller and anchor Jason Haney.

Damien momentarily took the lead on Miller’s speedy third leg and Haney regained the lead and led with 25 meters to go, but Crescenta Valley’s super junior Young Tae Seo, who already had won two races earlier, overtook Haney in the final moments in a record-setting performance for both teams.

Crescenta Valley broke La Canada’s 2009 meet record (3:06.39) by winning the 400 relay in 3:05.50, ahead of Damien’s 3:05.92, which also would have broke La Canada’s record and set a Damien school record.

Crescenta Valley won the team title with 301 points. Damien, which would have won the title with a victory in the final race, finished second with 293 points. Los Osos was third with 203.

“It’s no fun to lose, but we gave it all we got,” Miller said. “You can’t do much better than your best ever (in the 400 relay). I’m proud of our guys.”

Gates, whose voice was barely audible, almost choked up talking about the final race.

“I have never seen four kids show that much heart in Damien school history in any sport,” Gates said. “That was all guts and all heart. We just lost to an amazing Crescenta Valley team. It would be nice to win, but we lost to a great team and the way we competed with the meet on the line was incredible.”

It was only fitting that Damien’s lone win came in one of the three relays.

The Spartans’ 200 freestyle quartet of Forbes, Miller, Haney and Adam Nelson rallied over the final two legs to touch home first in 1:25.30, ahead of second-place Los Osos (1:25.49). The Spartans’ Nelson, May, Corey Maier and Chad Cooper finished fourth in the 200-medley relay in 1:38.26. (To continue click thread)

Continue reading “Damien nearly pulls off shocker at Division 2 swim finals, finishing second to Crescenta Valley” »

A pitcher’s duel is the last thing anybody who saw Wednesday’s slugfest between Nogales and San Dimas high schools expected in a showdown for the Valle Vista League championship.

But that’s exactly what San Dimas’ Shawn Kennedy and Nogales’ Caleb Rodusky staged Friday. With neither starter willing to budge, the game fittingly was decided on a sacrifice fly by Jorge Manzo that scored Adrian Guzman and gave Nogales a 1-0 win in eight innings and outright ownership of the league title.

DUARTE SPOILS SIERRA VISTA’S TITLE HOPES
As usual, the Montview League baseball race wasn’t decided until the final day of the regular season.

Duarte High School knocked off first-place Sierra Vista 6-5 on Friday with a game-winning single in the bottom of the seventh inning by sophomore Sergio Garcia.

San Dimas’ incredible come-from-behind 9-8 win over Nogales on Wednesday set up today’s Valle Vista League title game at Nogales at 3:15 p.m. Nogales is 20-6 and 9-2 and San Dimas is 17-7 and 9-2 for a winner-take-all. Covina is at Northview in a battle for third, but both teams are expected to make the D-4 playoffs. In the Montview, Sierra Vista (16-5, 11-2) is tied with La Puente (15-10, 11-2). Sierra Vista finishes today at Duarte while La Puente is home against Azusa. If both teams finish in a first-place tie, Sierra Vista owns the league tiebreaker to enter the playoffs as the league’s top representative.

“I don’t need tell our guys anything,” Nogales coach John Romano said. “You guys (Tribune) have called them a surprise all year and have written that they’re (not very good). My guys are going to come back and play hard, I know that. They’re not supposed to be here. The guys who know everything about this, the sportswriters and coaches, they didn’t expect us to be here fighting for the title, so what the big deal? We’ve lost games before. We lost six games. But we’re going to come back Friday and play for the league championship.”