Covina rallies to knock off Northview 4-3 in VVL opener; Charter Oak upsets South Hills 8-7; San Dimas, Nogales win, Glendora loses

Posted on by

Covina-Northview photo gallery

By Steve Ramirez
twitter.com/SteveRRamirez

COVINA – All the talk about the chase for the Valle Vista League baseball title this season has centered on Northview, Nogales and San Dimas.
Covina showed Tuesday it’s ready to enter the fray.
Brian Maag, Adam Valdez and Jesus Perez had RBIs and pitcher Joseph Wills got the last four outs in relief as the visiting Colts rallied for a 4-3 victory over rival Northview in the league opener.
The Vikings (6-2) had the tying and winning runs in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings before Wills closed to the door for Covina, which improved to 5-3.
Covina, trailing 3-1, rallied for a 4-3 lead after an error, a bunt single by Daziel Rodriguez, two walks and two hit-batters.
Northview, following a lead-off double by Anthony Amaya, had runners on second and third in the seventh. But Wills closed the door with back-to-back strikeouts.
Covina coach Terence DeWan: “We know this league is tough from top to bottom. We just try to focus on pitching and playing one inning at a time. We’ve played some good teams, both in the fall and in preseason, so we felt good coming into today. The kids stepped up and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Northview coach Darren Murphy: “We had plenty of opportunities. It’s frustrating, but their pitchers stepped up and got outs.”
Covina’s Joseph Wills: “You just have to have faith in your defense. You have to have confidence they are going to make the plays. This was a big game. All of our guys were excited. As a team, we just rallied.”
Tuesday’s results
Sierra League Baseball
Charter Oak 8, South Hills 7
Damien 10, Claremont 4
Chino Hils 4, Ayala 3
Valle Vista League Baseball
Covina 4, Northview 3
Nogales 2, Baldwin Park 1
San Dimas 9, Wilson 3
Baseline Leauge Baseball
Los Osos 6, Glendora 2

Facebook Twitter Plusone Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Tumblr Email
  • reality

    Coaches not posting baseball stats for fear of being scouted is pure paranoia. If you got a team, you say bring it on. If another team wants to scout you they are gonna find a way to do it. Also posting bogus stats does not help either, the truth comes out eventually So for the sake of kids having the good year they practiced all their lives for post some stats you ego-centric coaches. It’s not about you but the kids.

    • http://twitter.com/SGVNSports Fred J. Robledo

      Area coaches over the years have given me two reasons they don’t post stats, and some cases, rosters. 1: They don’t want to be scouted and 2: Parents complain and bicker over the accuracy (of stats) and that it’s not worth the headache. Both explanations are ridiculous. Almost all of the top teams in Orange County post stats, either on Maxpreps or with the Register. It doesn’t stop them from being good and if coaches in Orange County can deal with parents, why can’t coaches here. We do a disservice to the kids and teams in our community when we don’t promote what they do. Baseball is by far the most competitive sport in the San Gabriel Valley and too many of our top coaches hide the top teams from the public. It’s ridiculous. We can cover games from time to time, but there is no way of tracking player progress when coaches hide it from everyone. You start to wonder, who’s it about, the coaches or the kids? What’s also bothering is these teams that do not post stats benefit from opposing teams that do take the time to post stats.

  • http://twitter.com/sgvtrib_Mike Mike Robledo

    its more important that rosters are accurate…

  • sgvpride

    Hey Fred, former coach of the area now video coordinator for a local D1 program. College teams have all there stats posted as well as NBA teams. I think without the stats teams can still scout. If they are purely scouting by only looking at max preps then they aren’t doing a good job scouting.

    I would not go as far as to say posting stats is for the kids. It should be for the media to help them out. And maybe for parents if they are interested. But mostly for the coaches and the media. I actually think that coaches should be mandated to post stats.

    If I was a area coach Fred I would have a roster and program ready for my media guys and post stats. Coaches just have to believe in themselves and stop being so naive.

    • http://twitter.com/SGVNSports Fred J. Robledo

      Imagine if Bonita didn’t post Justin Garza’s stats last year. He was a great story to follow, his winning streak, his ERA, his strikeouts, clutch performances. Imagine if coach Knott was so paranoid about teams scouting them, he didn’t post a roster or share any stats until the end of the season? What a great story the entire Southland would have missed. The only reason publications outside the SGV know anything about area players is because coaches post stats and share information, otherwise there is no way Garza would have received all the due attention and accolades he deserved last season. There are great stories of players having incredible seasons out there, especially in the Sierra League, but who’s going to know about them. South Hills, Charter Oak and Damien do not post stats and Charter Oak and South Hills do not even post rosters. Two of the best teams in the Valle Vista, Northview and Nogales, where are their stats? It’s a shame, because baseball more than any sport, you need stats and game-by-game updates so you can share how a player did a in a week. We’ll cover games and do the best we can with the information we have, but the only players I’ll profile week to week are players whose information is shared with everyone. Transparency is important. I don’t want a coach calling me for a story after four weeks of posting nothing to suddenly say I’ve got a kid batting. 560 with 10 home runs and 30 RBIs. That’s shady.

      • http://twitter.com/SGVNSports Fred J. Robledo

        You will find that outside the SGV, players of teams who do not post stats get little or zero attention. Teams will get ranked outside the SGV in state rankings, Maxpreps or other news publications because of win-loss record.

        • sgvpride

          Let me correct something, I would say it also is for the players. To get your players noticed. I just meant that it shouldn’t be for the kid to glorify over stats, staring down maxpreps all day.

  • GP AKA Green Machine

    Baseball is one sport where you are not going to go undefeated overall and rarely in league. I have said that SGV baseball is great across the board and here is more proof. You may see 2 or 3 loss champ coming out of the VVL, RHL, and Hacienda,

    Northview goes down

    South Hills goes down

    Monrovia went down

    Nogales squeaks by BP.

    All of these teams will do well in playoffs being that these leagues have 3 playoff caliber teams.

  • Valley Athletics

    Stats would be nice . Would love to see how kids that I have seen play since they where 8 years old are doing . Can’t go to all games .

  • Pingback: msn