ALL-STAR SOFTBALL NOTEBOOK: EAST: FOR THESE TWO PLAYERS, GAME MEANS BUSINESS.Byline: Ramona Shelburne Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. Staff Writer All-star games An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league. The players are often chosen by a popular vote of fans of the sport and the game often occurs at the halfway point of the regular season, although this is not the case for some all-star games usually are laid back and geared toward the players having fun with old teammates and rivals from their high school career. But for Laura Hovestreydt of Verdugo Hills of Tujunga and Danielle Mellin of La Canada, there's a bit more at stake in the 17th annual Daily News All-Star Softball softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, kitten ball, and, because it was also played by women, ladies' Game on Monday at 3 p.m. at Glendale Sports Complex. ``I didn't sign early anywhere, but I think the Cal State Northridge coaches are coming out to watch me and Laura in this game,'' said Mellin, who went 15-5 and led La Canada to the Southern Section Div. IV quarterfinals. Mellin got a bit of a late start on the recruiting game because she had to wait behind Kelly Kalish, the Daily News Pitcher of the Year last season. Hovestreydt originally had committed to Nevada but said the school reneged on its scholarship offer when another player signed. Hovestreydt, who led all area players with 13 home runs, recently returned from a recruiting trip to Western Kentucky and is trying to set up another trip to Louisiana Tech in the next few weeks. --Village Christian connection The Christian Connection religious movement began in several places and were secessions from three different religious denominations during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. : Many of the players on the East team know each other from a travel-ball team called the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Sliderz, but Verdugo Hills catcher Dena DePompa and Crescenta Valley The Crescenta Valley is a small inland valley in Los Angeles County, California. Its name derives from its crescent-like shape, with the convex portion facing roughly northeast and the concave portion southwest. of La Crescenta pitcher Sarah Sherman have an even stranger connection. Both played as freshmen at Village Christian of Sun Valley before transferring to their respective schools. DePompa said she transferred after her sophomore year because Verdugo Hills had more Advanced Placement courses. The Hawaii-bound catcher has a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and said she's received only one `B' in high school, as a freshman at Village Christian. ``I got a `B' in a math class at Verdugo once, too, but that was at the 10-week grade period,'' she said. ``My mom (1) (Messaging-Oriented Middleware) See messaging middleware. (2) (Microsoft Operations Manager) Software that monitors and captures system and application events throughout the network. got so mad at me, but I was able to bring it up.'' --Hamasaki has broken nose: Glendale pitcher Heather Hamasaki broke her nose while playing travel ball over the weekend but should be cleared to play. |
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