Latest news with #Oklahoma-bound
Los Angeles Times
16-06-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Prep Rally: Pitcher Seth Hernandez of Corona is The Times' baseball player of the year... again
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. It's awards time for high school baseball and softball. Pitcher Seth Hernandez of Corona is The Times' baseball player of the year for the second consecutive season. He improved on his performance and put together a two-year run in which he went 18-1. Here's a profile on the impact he made. The Times' All-Star baseball team includes Quentin Young of Oaks Christian. He moved to shortstop and hit 14 home runs. Here's a look at the All-Star team. The coach of the year is St. John Bosco's Andy Rojo, who guided the Braves to their first Southern Section Division 1 championship along with the Southern California Division 1 regional championship and their first Trinity League title since 2017. Here's the report. Here's the final top 25 rankings by The Times with St. John Bosco at No. 1. Oklahoma-bound Kai Minor of Orange Lutheran is The Times' softball player of the year. Here's the report on the impact she made for the Lancers. Here's The Times' All-Star softball team. The Times' coach of the year is Rick Robinson of Norco. He put together a team of young and old and guided the Cougars to the Southern Section Division 1 championship. Here's the report. Dorsey football coach Stafon Johnson used to be a star running back for the Dons and USC. He knows all about running the ball, so there was a little comedy seeing the Dons playing in a seven on seven passing tournament at Western High. Except Johnson has embraced the passing game with the arrival of quarterback Elijah McDaniel, a sophomore transfer from Warren. And Johnson's son, Deuce, is a standout junior receiver. So the Dons will be active this summer in passing tournaments. Not that Johnson wouldn't prefer to run the football. He'll never lose his love for seeing running backs gain yards. City Section coaches had their annual meeting at the Rams' locker room at SoFi Stadium to discuss changes and updates for the fall season. It was announced that View Park Prep won't have a football team this season, leaving Metro League teams scrambling to fill games. Former L.A. Jordan quarterback James Boyd, who was the City Section player of the year, is the new head coach for the Bulldogs. He's 33 years old. Here's a look at more City Section football news. . . . La Serna won the Los Altos passing tournament. Orange Lutheran won the Chargers tournament using three quarterbacks. Schurr won the SGV tournament. Offensive lineman Sam Utu of Orange Lutheran has committed to Alabama. . . . Defensive back Derrick Johnson of Murrieta Valley has committed to Oklahoma. . . . Safety Logan Hirou of Santa Margarita has committed to UCLA. . . . Offensive lineman Cooper Javorsky of San Juan Hills has committed to UCLA. . . . Tight end Beckham Hofland of Los Alamitos has committed to Boise State. . . . Former Gardena Serra defensive lineman Robert James has changed his commitment from Fresno State to UCLA and will play for the Bruins this fall. . . . Former Orange Lutheran linebacker Talanoa Ili, now at Kahuku, has committed to USC. . . . Defensive lineman Kingston Schirmer of Corona Centennial has commited to Cal. . . . Tyler Lee of El Camino Real was chosen the City Section player of the year in boys volleyball. Here are the complete All-City teams. . . . Shalen Sheppard of Brentwood won a gold medal representing the USA U16 national basketball team. He'll be a sophomore. . . . Luke Howe of El Camino Real is the City Section player of the year in baseball. Here's the complete All-City team. Addison Moorman of Granada Hills is the City Section player of the year in softball. Here's the complete All-City team. DeAndre Cole is the new boys basketball coach at Compton Centennial. . . . Jake Tatch of JSerra has been selected the Gatorade state player of the year in boys soccer. He's headed to Michigan. . . . Oaks Christian water polo coach Jack Kocur is the head coach for the USA Junior National team at the World Aquatics U20 Water Polo championships this summer. . . . Deon Green is the new girls basketball coach at Chino. . . . Chaminade has decided to add a flag football team. . . . St. John Bosco closer Jack Champlin has committed to Washington. . . . Former Servite star Max Thomas of USC finished second in the 100 meters at the NCAA track and field championships and helped the Trojans, coached by former Taft great Quincy Watts, win the NCAA title. . . . The Fairfax basketball tournament originally scheduled to be held this week at Fairfax High has been changed to Pan Pacific Park. Thousand Oaks grad Max Muncy, the 'other' Max Muncy, is getting hot in his return to playing for the Athletics. He got recalled from the minor leagues and started showing power. He's playing third base while his former Thousand Oaks teammate, Jacob Wilson, is the shortstop. Muncy graduated in 2021 and Wilson in 2020. Here's a story about Muncy and Wilson being together at Thousand Oaks. Here's a story from 2021 on how Muncy kept improving to become a pro prospect. From the Washington Post, a story on an adaptive tennis program making a difference. From a story on how to start archery as a P.E. program. From the Los Angeles Times, a look back at the life of former Verbum Dei star David Greenwood. Prep Rally will take the next two weeks off and return on July 7. Have a question, comment or something you'd like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer. Did you get this newsletter forwarded to you? To sign up and get it in your inbox, click here.
San Francisco Chronicle
28-05-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
De La Salle to meet familiar foe College Park in D1 NCS baseball final
They trained together all offseason and now the baseball teams at College Park-Pleasant Hill and De La Salle-Concord will face off for the North Coast Section Division 1 championship. De La Salle coach David Jeans frankly didn't want to think about it after his team's 10-1 home win over Foothill-Pleasanton on Tuesday. Antonio Castro blasted two home runs, including a grand slam, and Stanford-bound juniors Tyler Spangler (10th home run) and Graham Schlicht (six-hitter, six strikeouts), did much of the rest as the Spartans (25-4) advanced to their 13th straight NCS title game. They'll go after NCS title No. 15 overall and ninth in 12 seasons at 1 p.m. Saturday against the Falcons (17-10) at St. Mary's College. College Park won its ninth game in 10 tries with an equally dominating 10-0 win over Casa Grande-Petaluma on Tuesday. College Park beat De La Salle 5-2 in the 2015 NCS Division 1 final, also at St. Mary's. 'We're great friends with them,' said Jeans after Tuesday's win. The 14-year head coach recently won his 300th game. 'We work out together in the summer and fall. We played them earlier in the year. They're grinders and tough guys. Their record doesn't indicate how well they're coached. Coach (Andy) Tarpley does a great job.' With that, Jeans excused himself to enjoy Tuesday's victory, which came after Foothill's Jack Fowler led off the game with a long home run. From there, Schlicht didn't allow a single batter even to second base while improving to 10-0. His ERA is 0.75 with 90 strikeouts in 65⅔ innings and just 31 hits allowed. Fowler's homer was the first Schlicht allowed all season. 'Graham was awesome today,' Jeans said. 'He's been that way all year long. He got behind a really good hitter and threw it down the middle. But it didn't faze Graham. He just got back up on the bump and threw pitches for strikes and was consistent. That's the Graham we love.' Schlicht loved the Spartans' first hit — a grand slam by Castro in the second inning off Take Sato-Kreis (five walks in four innings) to go up 5-1. From there, the familiar De La Salle slug was on with Spangler and Castro going back-to-back with homers in the fifth, followed by a two-run double by Niko Baumgartner. De La Salle, whose 33-game playoff winning streak was ended last year by Granada-Livermore, has outscored three NCS playoff opponents 37-6. The left-handed hitting trio of Spangler, Castro and Oklahoma-bound center fielder Alec Blair is a combined 100 for 238 (.420 average) with 96 runs, 96 RBIs and 20 home runs. 'We've never had three (in a row) like that before,' Jeans said. 'These guys are really special.' Spangler said the season-ending loss to Granada last year 'was the worst feeling ever. We were trying to play for our seniors, and seeing them leave the field like that was a terrible feeling. We're trying to get back to that dogpile (to celebrate) at the end. What happened last year can't happen again.' College Park is a red-hot team that got contributions Tuesday up and down the lineup, including TJ Reinhart and Vincent Vasell, who each had two hits and two RBIs. Winning pitcher James Voorhies fired six scoreless innings. The Falcons managed just four hits off sophomore Cooper Barnes in a 5-1 loss to De La Salle on March 26. More baseball results: In Division 3 NCS semifinals, top-seeded California-San Ramon (15-11) got an RBI triple from Johnny Edwards and two hits each by Ethan Rye and Jacob Casiano to defeat 12th-seeded Freedom-Oakley 7-4 and now faces sixth-seeded Marin Catholic (16-12), a 4-3 winner over Northgate-Walnut Creek (18-8). A two-run double from Johnny Greco helped pitcher Carson Davis improve to 5-2 with a 1.83 ERA. NCS softball: Callie Howard fired a three-hitter with 13 strikeouts, leading top-seeded Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa (21-6) to a 7-0 win over Benicia on Tuesday in a Division 2 semifinal game. The Cardinals will now play Carondelet-Concord (15-12), which got three hits by Angela Gates and 11 strikeouts from Maia Scholtens in an 11-4 semifinal win over James Logan-Union City. The championship is scheduled for Friday but the venue had yet to be determined Wednesday afternoon.
San Francisco Chronicle
16-05-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Granada baseball tops No. 1 De La Salle for EBAL championship
If every season is its own animal, as Granada-Livermore baseball coach Corrigan Willis says, 2024 was a whale — a blue whale, mammoth and spectacular. The Matadors won East Bay Athletic League, North Coast Section and Northern Region Division 1 titles, a first for each, while finishing 32-1 and ranking in the top five in every national poll. The odds of a repeat season appeared mammoth, yet host Granada pulled off the first stage Thursday in the EBAL championship game with a 5-1 win over Chronicle No. 1 De La Salle-Concord as winning pitcher Tyler Kennedy allowed just four hits and a run and struck out seven before giving way to Mason Ravera in the seventh. Fresno State-bound third baseman Mikey Boyd drove in four runs, including two on a double, and Joey Marasco and Tommy Brown each had two hits to lift the fourth-ranked Matadors (21-5) to their second straight win this season over the Spartans (22-4) and sixth straight overall. Granada shut out De La Salle twice in the playoffs last year and held the Spartans scoreless until the sixth inning when Alec Blair hit an RBI double. Clearly, the Matadors are far from intimidated by the Spartans, who have built a remarkable resume under David Jeans, winner of his 300th game last week. De La Salle, led currently by the Oklahoma-bound Blair and top junior shortstop prospect Tyler Spangler, a Stanford commit, won six straight NCS titles before Granada's championship last season. De La Salle had won 12 straight this season before Thursday by a 110-13 run differential thanks in part to the big bats of outfielder Blair (.439 average), junior catcher Zach Tchejeyan (.387), Spangler (.385, 34 RBIs, nine home runs) and senior infielder Antonio Castro (.351, five homers, 29 RBIs) and pitching of Stanford-bound junior Graham Schlicht (8-0, 0.52 ERA). Granada has countered with big seasons from seniors Boyd (nine doubles, 22 RBIs), Pacific outfield signee Peyton Richards (.390, 30 doubles, 32 hits), Marasco (.338) and Arizona State-bound catcher Brown (.328, 22 runs, eight doubles), along with the pitching of Kennedy (6-1, 0.95) and Alex Piscotty (8-0, 0.42). 'We have a dedicated group of seniors who work hard and are hungry,' Willis said Friday morning. 'It's a lesson learned from the 2024 campaign and one that we hope will continue on with next year's group.' More impressive on Granada's run is it has done it without USC-bound ace pitcher Jake Sekany, who went 10-1 last season with a 1.85 ERA. He pitched 12 innings early this season, going 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA, but then was shut down. 'Something wasn't quite right,' Willis said. 'We are being extra careful because of his bright future. Literally, we're taking him day by day.' The NCS playoff seedings will be announced this weekend and Granada and De La Salle will no doubt be the top two seeds, and could face off again. 'We're looking forward to NCS and we're playing well,' Willis said. 'But as a coach, I've learned to take a moment and appreciate winning in this very tough league.' Bellarmine shocker: The only tougher Northern California league than the EBAL is the West Catholic Athletic League, and when Bellarmine started 0-5, the Bells became an afterthought. After losing four more in a row starting on April 25, the season looked cooked. But now the Bells are doing the cooking, claiming a WCAL playoff championship by defeating ninth-ranked St. Francis (4-1), No. 2 Serra (1-0) and No. 3 Valley Christian (3-1) in succession this week. The Bells (17-13), who were fifth in the WCAL in the regular season, became the first bottom-four seed to win the conference tournament. Christian Duarte, a 6-foot-6 commit to Santa Clara, threw a four-hitter Thursday at Valley Christian to clinch the title. He struck out just two, walked two and didn't allow an extra-base hit. Vincent Kim had an RBI double and Dash Knight singled in a run for the Bells. Rohan Kasanagottu pitched 3⅓ scoreless and hitless innings of relief for Valley Christian (23-6-1), which had won 10 straight coming into the game and will likely get a top-two seed in next week's Central Coast Section playoffs. Briefly: From a busy Thursday — No. 12 Livermore (23-11) won the EBAL softball playoff title with a 7-4 win over No. 11 California as Payten Williams drilled a three-run homer and winning pitcher Kaci Norton struck out five. … Northgate-Walnut Creek (Division 1), International (Division 2), Washington-Fremont (Division 3) and Berean Christian-Walnut Creek (Division 4) all won NCS boys volleyball titles and advanced to next week's Northern California regionals with those champions advancing to the first CIF State championships May 31 at Fresno City College. … NCS lacrosse champions crowned: Marin Catholic-Kentfield (Division 1 boys), University (Division 2 boys), Redwood-Larkspur (Division 1 girls), College Park-Pleasant Hill (Division 2 girls).
Los Angeles Times
06-04-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Daleah Cardenas lifts Rosary to Michelle Carew Softball Classic championship win
Given a chance at redemption, Daleah Cardenas made the most of her opportunity Saturday night in the Gold Division championship game of the Michelle Carew Softball Classic at Peralta Park in Anaheim. Relieving starter Ava Phillips, the Rosary senior pitcher got eight outs and did not allow a base runner to close out an 8-4 upset of Orange Lutheran. 'My drop curve is my best pitch and I was using it a lot,' said Cardenas, who shook off a poor outing in the semifinals earlier when she faced six batters, allowed four hits, hit a batter and recorded only one out. 'I feel the pressure when there's a huge crowd like this, but I just lock in and focus like it's just me and my catcher.' Phillips, who was selected Most Valuable Pitcher of the tournament, finally tired with one out in the fifth inning after having pitched 11 innings in two games Saturday — the second of which ended just before midnight. Cardenas got a double play to end the fifth, induced three Lancers lefties to ground out to first base in the sixth, got Kai Minor (Orange Lutheran's Oklahoma-bound center fielder) to hit a grounder back to her, struck out Madelyn Armendariz and got Cate Medvitz to line out to left field. In the Silver Division final, catcher Gia Otani tagged a runner out at the plate to save a run in the third inning, then belted a solo homer in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie as Oaks Christian held on to beat Millikan 2-1. Poway doubled up Riverside King 8-4 to take third place, Eastvale Roosevelt beat Capistrano Valley 12-8 for fifth and Tucson (Ariz.) Canyon Del Oro beat Phoenix Canyon View 6-1 for seventh. Anaheim Canyon edged Great Oak 4-3 to win the Bronze Division title when Sophia Sandoval scored from third base on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh.
