PREP SOFTBALL: DAILY NEWS ALL-AREA TEAM AND HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SEASON : BIGGEST SURPRISES.Byline: Compiled by Vincent Bonsignore Staff Writer Westlake: The Warriors transformed themselves from an average team into one that, at times, was the best club in the area. First-year coach Barbara Jordan Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American politician from Texas. She served as a congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979. Early life and career Jordan was born in Houston's Fifth Ward to Rev. took an inexperienced group of youngsters and molded them into a crisp, productive unit. The Warriors suffered a letdown letdown 1. the sudden flush of milk flow that occurs when the calf begins to suck or when milking commences in a properly prepared cow. Depends for its occurrence on the release of oxytocin from the pituitary gland in response to massage of the teats and udder. at the end year, but they shouldn't worry. With no seniors on the team, and with talented pitcher Erin Voelz and freshman playmaker play·mak·er n. A player in a sport with goals, such as a guard in basketball, who initiates offensive plays. play Tiffany Meadows back, Westlake will be one of the best teams in the area next year. North Hollywood: The Huskies qualified for the City Championship playoffs for the first time in recent memory after winning the East Valley League championship. They had a good mix of young and older players, so they'll be a team to watch again next year. Kennedy: The Cougars suffered through a down year last year, and people pretty much forgot about them. But under first-year coach Barbara Jordan and an experienced infield, Kennedy rebounded to win the North Valley League and reach the quarterfinals of the City Championship playoffs. Biggest Disappointments Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. : Nothing went right for the Pioneers, who didn't reach the playoffs for the first time in years. The biggest blow was the injury to pitcher Britney Green, who hurt her foot during soccer season and never fully recovered. Green stopped pitching midway through the year when the pain became too much, and Simi Valley's season pretty much came to a halt. Granada Hills: The Highlanders had through one of their toughest seasons in memory, finishing last in the North Valley League. Figure on the Highlanders reloading Reloading A term lenders commonly use to refer to the habits of borrowers taking out loans to repay the balance on other loans. Often reloading is done to take advantage of lower interest rates offered by other loans, and potential tax benefits. and coming strong next year. But this was one of those forgettable for·get·ta·ble adj. Fit or apt to be forgotten: a movie with very forgettable characters. Adj. 1. forgettable - easily forgotten unforgettable - impossible to forget seasons. Best bets for next year We can't wait to put this season to bed and already we're peeking ahead to next year. Who will be player of the year and what coach will emerge to lead her or his team to a championship? And is there another pitcher capable of doing what LeCocq did? We don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. , but we'll sure try to guess. So here it is, the best of 2000: Player of the Year Oli Keohohou of Newbury Park will walk away with this honor next year. Even though teams will pitch around her, she'll show paitience and poise and make opponents pay when they challenge her. Pitcher of the Year We're not prepared to go too far out on a limb on this one. OK, so we can't chose right now between Crescenta Valley's Meredith Cervenka and Camarillo's Kathryn Nevard. Yeah, like you could, right? It will be a year-long battle between these two talented players for Pitcher of the Year honors. Coach of the Year Barbara Jordan of Westlake turned the Warriors into strong ball club. Next year they'll take another step and become factors in the playoffs. We got game: The area was well-represented in the postseason, and not just in the first round. Eleven teams reached the Southern Section quarterfinals in their respective divisions, seven went to the semifinals, three made the finals and two - Chaminade and Cornerstone Christian - won division championships. That's not bad. In the City Section, El Camino Real El Camino Real (Spanish for The Royal Road or The King's Highway) was the name of a series of pre-automobile highways linking the various New World colonies of Spain:
UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX to win its second championship in three years. And on the second day . . . Rarely do games take two days to be decided, but that is exactly what happened when Quartz Hill and Glendora decided that seven innings just wouldn't be enough in their Division I quarterfinal playoff game Noun 1. playoff game - one game in the series of games constituting a playoff game - a single play of a sport or other contest; "the game lasted two hours" playoff - any final competition to determine a championship . In fact, 16 innings wasn't enough, either. Turns out, one day wasn't sufficient. So after 12 innings on a Friday afternoon, the game was stopped. It resumed the following Monday, and Quartz Hill eventually won the game 3-1 in 19 innings. Jodie Cox pitched all 19 innings - she threw more than 230 pitches the first day - and totaled 30 strikeouts. ``The first day it got to be about 7 p.m. and I was thinking, ``This is a long game,'' Cox said. ``We were out there a long time.'' The bad news for the Rebels was they had to turn around and play Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. the following day in the quarterfinals, a game the Lancers lanc·er n. 1. A cavalryman armed with a lance. 2. A member of a regiment originally armed with lances. 3. lancers (used with a sing. verb) a. A kind of quadrille. b. won 6-3. The day confusion reined Umpires are rarely wrong. (Have you stopped laughing yet?) OK, they do the best they can. But they're human, so mistakes happen. But one glaring misstep this year came in Camarillo's 1-0 loss to Mater Dei Mater Dei is Latin for "Mother of God", referring to the Virgin Mary. The term has been used to name various institutions, often Catholic, including:
The game went to the international tiebreaker tie·break·er n. An additional contest or period of play designed to establish a winner among tied contestants. Also called tiebreak. tie rule, in which each team begins an inning with a runner at second base. The runner is always the last out from the previous inning. But Mater Dei snuck snuck v. Usage Problem A past tense and a past participle of sneak. See Usage Note at sneak. Courtney Betly to second base and had Allison Solis bat leadoff in the bottom of the eighth. The problem with that was, Solis had strcuk out to end the inning. Unfortunately, the umpires got confused when Camarillo catcher Allie Taverner instictvely threw to third base to throw out a stealing Betley. Even though that out was meaningless - Solis had already K'd to end the inning - the umpires never got it straight. Camarillo coach Miki Mangan recognized the mistake when Mater Dei came to bat, but all her pleading with the home-plate umpire did nothing. ``We got cheated,'' Mangan said after the Monarchs scored a few minutes later to win the game. ``They would have had a different batter and a different runner. That may have changed things.'' Who needs sleep? When Maureen LeCocq separated her left shoulder while celebrating Chaminade's 10-0 win over Bloomington to win the Southern Section Division IV final, it wasn't even the most interesting sidenote to the Eagles win. Turns out, LeCocq, Lauren Rousselet, Amanda Pearlman, Erin Taylor and Courtney Whale had been up all night the previous evening. All five seniors spent Thursday night at Disneyland on grad night. They left at 9 p.m. and returned to campus at 7:30 a.m. the next morning - the same time Chaminade coach Steve Harrington was arriving to school for work. That's OK, because the players slept most of Friday before playing, right? ``I got about. . . three hours of sleep,'' Rousselet said, giggling. Well, at least she was honest about it. Girls can be intense Normally El Camino Real catcher Christina Enea is a calm, collected, sweet sophomore. But when she is on the field, watch out. She's pretty focused. Her father Sal got a taste of that during a playoff game when he tried to give Christina some pointers after she lined out to the shortstop. The senior Enea was reminding Christina about a hitch in her batting stance when she finally said: ``Um, dad, I think I know how to play 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' , OK!?'' End of conversation. Overheard Newbury Park coach Pete Ackermann was yelling out names of players, who would then shout out their numbers so he could fill out the lineup card. Ackermann would blurt out Verb 1. blurt out - utter impulsively; "He blurted out the secret"; "He blundered his stupid ideas" blunder out, blurt, ejaculate, blunder mouth, speak, talk, verbalise, verbalize, utter - express in speech; "She talks a lot of nonsense"; "This depressed something like: ``Tawni,'' and the response would be: ``13'' And on and on. Finally Ackermann shouted ``Cindy.'' No reponse. ``Cindy,'' Ackermann said again. No response. ``Cindy, do you still hate me?'' Ackermann said this time. ``Yes'' was the response. It wasn't the only time Ackermann and standout player Cindy Muran had some fun with each other. When Muran was up to bat against Pacifica in the Division III
Division III (or DIII) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association of the United States. semifinals, she foulded a pitch that bounced up and hit her in the knee. Muran fell to the ground and tried to shake the pain off. As she knelt down, Ackermann walked over from the third-base coach's box The coach's box is a term used in numerous sports. In baseball, it is the space where the first base coach and third base coach stands. One quirk in baseball, as stated by the official mlb.com rules 4. and said to her: ``Are you really hurt or just embarrassed?'' The fans who heard the comment laughed. Muran was hardly amused. After Muran collected herself and stepped back in the box, she lined the ensuing pitch down the third-base line, forcing Ackermann to do the Texas two- step to avoid being struck by the ball. The dark side of softball El Camino Real coach Neils Ludlow was sitting on the bench watching his Conquistadores play one day when a ball flew off the bat of a left-handed hitter, curved around the backstop fence and smashed Ludlow in the face, cutting his upper and lower lips. Ironically, Ludlow has been meaning to build a dugout at ECR ECR Efficient Consumer Response ECR European Congress of Radiology ECR Electron Cyclotron Resonance ECR El Camino Real (Kings Highway; California) ECR Electronic Cash Register ECR East Coast Radio (South Africa) to prevent such accidents. ``It's one of the things I want to do before I leave,'' said Ludlow, who toughed out the reaminder of the game. On the move North Hollywood center fielder Tashean Thomas is one of the fastest players in the area - she had more than 40 steals this year. The speed and restlessness isn't limited to the field, apparently. Thomas and her family have changed residences more than a few times over the last few years, although they always remained in the North Hollywood district
The Hollywood District (originally Hollyrood, after the Scottish Holyrood) is a neighborhood of NE Portland, Oregon renamed for its historic 1920s era Hollywood Theatre. . Huskies coach Frank Galvin likely shares North Hollywood basektball coach Rich Allen's opinion on the subject. ``I told Tashean I don't care
"Don't Care" is a 1994 (see 1994 in music) single by American death metal band Obituary. how much she moves, just as long as I still write North Hollywood on the envelopes.'' Galvin said. In peak form After loading its early schedule with some of the most competitive large schools in the region - including Quartz Hill, Highland, 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. and Notre Dame Notre Dame IPA: [nɔtʁ dam] is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the United States of America, Notre Dame - 731-student Paraclete peaked at the right time. The Spirits won 11 straight before losing to Santa Ana Santa Ana, city, El Salvador Santa Ana (sän'tä ä`nä), city (1993 pop. 129,873), W El Salvador. It is the second largest city in the country and the commercial and processing center for a sugarcane, coffee, and cattle region. Calvary Chapel Calvary Chapel is a non-denominational, Protestant fellowship of churches which began in 1965 in Southern California. The term "fellowship of churches" is used in contrast to a denomination. 5-3 in the second round of the Division IV playoffs. No team, regardless of size, returns players better than Paraclete's hard-throwing freshman Sara Gonzales, sophomore Amanda Wachsmuth and junior Lauren McDonald. It's a small world It's a Small World (formatted “it's a small world” by the Walt Disney Company) is a popular attraction at several Walt Disney theme parks: Disneyland (in California), the Magic Kingdom (in Florida), Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Resort Paris. after all If you're a talented softball player, there's a good chance you have played with, against, or met some of the other top players in California. Chaminade's Lindsey Weinstein takes it a step further, meeting other players then staying in touch with them via the telephone or letters. That's why Camarillo's Alana Mendoza drove with her family to Lakewood to catch Weinstein in action against Bloomington in the Division IV final. The two are close friends. But it turns out Weinstein had another good friend on hand - and this time she was on the other team. Blommington's Tatiana George and Weinstein have developed a friendship, and after the Eagles win, George sought Weinstein out in the press room to offer congratulations. ``Who was that?'' somebody asked Weinstein after she and George hugged. ``That's Tatiana George,'' Weinsteing replied. ``She's one of my best friends.'' ``Everybody is one of Lindsey's best friends,'' said Chaminade catcher Lauren Rousselet, who was sitting nearby. Upset special Plagued by inconsistency through most of the season, Highland came through with the biggest upset of the year. The unseeded Bulldogs shocked third-ranked Rancho Cucamonga Rancho Cucamonga (răn`chō k  'kəmäng`gə), city (1990 pop. 101,409), San Bernardino co., S Calif. 1-0 in the first round of the
Division I playoffs. Rancho Cucamonga had won 21 straight, 19 by
shutout.
``Winning made a long, long bus ride a whole lot shorter,'' Highland's Melissa Rawson said. The Bulldogs might be a title contender next year. Pitcher Nichole Rawson (17-9) and shortstop Natalie Rawson return, along with standout catcher Ashlie D'Errico and third baseman third baseman n. Baseball The infielder stationed near third base. Noun 1. third baseman - (baseball) the person who plays third base third sacker Ashlie D'Errico. Senior leadership One of the surprise stories this year was Canoga Park, which qualified for the playoffs for the first time in four years. Leading the way was pitcher Jenny Pitillo and catcher Carina Carina (kərē`nə) [Lat.,=the keel], southern constellation, representing the keel of the ancient constellation Argo Navis, or Ship of the Argonauts. Carina contains Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky. Leon, two seniors who grew up in the program and helped turnaround its fortunes. Pitillo's father Joe was the coach. He left the program after the season to devote his time to following his daughter's career. She'll play next year at Pierce. Comeback trail Here's a tip of the cap to Mackenzie Vandergeest, La Reina's talented catcher who overcame a lot this year. Vandergeest was involved in a serious car accident and suffered injuries to her back. Although she returned, she never fully regained the form she's shown in previous years. Vandergeest came on strong toward the end of the season. - Staff writer Gerry Gittelson contributed to this report. CAPTION(S): 4 Photos PHOTO (1) Ludlow Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News (2) Jenny Pitillo Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News (3) Quartz Hill Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News (4) Kennedy's Infield Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion