SOFTBALL BEAT.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 WHO'S HOT --Victoria Kemp, Saugus The freshman has three home runs in her first nine games, including two in the past two, to account for half of her team's total. --Stacey Milne, Canoga Park The junior pitcher has become one of the area's most feared base stealers. She has 23 SBs in 10 games and is batting .420. ``It seems like she goes 3 for 3 every game and once she gets on base, she (successfully steals) 90 percent of the time,'' Canoga Park assistant coach Earl Roth said. --Shannon Doepking, Highland Doepking is a main reason Highland is off to a good start. In addition to stabilizing the infield, the Tennessee- bound shortstop is hitting .590 (13 for 22). ``She's very talented and right now, she's really playing with a lot of confidence,'' Highland coach Dan Morrow said. --Mounga Misini, Granada Hills When thinking of Granada Hills, most get no further than Kat Walsh, the area leader in strikeouts last season. But when Walsh graduates this year, Misini offers hope for the future. The freshman has a team-best .412 batting average batting average n. Baseball A measure of a batter's performance obtained by dividing the total of base hits by the number of times at bat, not including walks. Noun 1. (7 for 17) and has not allowed an earned run earned run n. Baseball A run scored without the aid of an error, used in computing earned run averages. Noun 1. earned run - a run that was not scored as the result of an error by the other team in 20 innings. She has wins over traditional area powers Hart and Agoura and has struck out 28 and walked one. --Andi Ramirez, Royal: The shortstop is batting .467 (7 for 15) with four RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in . ``She's really got it in her mind that she's going to kick some butt this year,'' Royal coach Bill Dishon said. The biggest improvement in her game, Dishon said, is her aggressiveness at the plate. Last season, Ramirez would fall behind in counts and chase bad pitches, but this season, she's been more aggressive and swinging earlier in the count. --Kristin Gallant, Harvard-Westlake: The junior pitcher has allowed one earned run in 22 innings. --Kacey Garziano, Newbury Park: She is among the area leaders in batting average at .556 (10 for 18) with nine runs scored and two home runs, including a walk-off shot against Harvard-Westlake of Studio City at the Hart tournament. --Samantha Marder, Calabasas: The sophomore catcher is batting .520 (13 for 20) with 10 runs scored. --Lindsay Haig, Calabasas The junior outfielder is hitting .500 (13 for 26). --Shelly Madick, Harvard-Westlake The Harvard-bound senior is batting .368 with five RBI. She also has a 0.47 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 30 innings. --Francesca Enea, 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:
--Daryn Rose, El Camino Real: Rose is looking like a solid complement to ECR's Enea. Rose is batting .440 (11 for 25) with nine RBI, two home runs and three doubles. --Ashley Thomas, Palmdale The junior infielder is batting .524 (11 for 21) with nine RBI in 11 games. --Kelsie Blankemeyer, Quartz Hill: Blankemeyer is batting .400 (10 for 25) with seven RBI and four doubles She is 7 for her past 11. --Breanne Javier, Valencia: She's 10 for her past 11 and 14 for 32 (.432) with 14 RBI and three home runs. LEAGUE UPDATES --Foothill: Hart junior Brianna Bernardi will finish this season but will then move with her family to Flagstaff Flagstaff, city (1990 pop. 45,857), seat of Coconino co., N Ariz., near the San Francisco Peaks; inc. 1894. Lumbering, ranching, and a lively tourist trade thrive in the region, where many ruined pueblos, numerous state parks, several lakes, and large pine forests , Ariz. Her father Gary Bernardi, a former assistant football coach at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX , has accepted a position as offensive line coach at Northern Arizona Northern Arizona is dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the southern border of which in Arizona is called the Mogollon Rim. In the West lies the Grand Canyon, which was cut by the flow of the Colorado River while the land slowly rose around it. . Saugus (6-3) and Canyon are in the High Desert Classic in Lancaster on Friday, Saturday and Monday. Saugus is considered among the favorites. Saugus pitcher Kyla Sullivan earned the victory and went 4 for 4 in a 6-3 win over Highland of Palmdale. But the team is without one of its top hitters, Tiffany Huff, who has a broken foot. --Frontier: Oaks Christian of Westlake Village has extended its winning streak Noun 1. winning streak - a streak of wins streak, run - an unbroken series of events; "had a streak of bad luck"; "Nicklaus had a run of birdies" to 36 games. Amber Peterson leads the team with a .464 batting average and 14 RBI. Pitchers Taylor Schlopy and Ashlee Veilleux are averaging 10.32 strikeouts per game. --Golden: New Highland coach Dan Morrow is having a reunion of sorts with assistant coach Kevin Tantlinger. Both were competitive men's fast-pitch players about 10 years ago. Tantlinger was a dominant pitcher and Morrow said that he ``could hit pretty good, but the fielding was a bit suspect.'' --Marmonte: Some may have been surprised by Calabasas' 8-2 victory over 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. on Friday because Calabasas was 1-13 in the Marmonte League The Marmonte League is a high school sports league primarily made up of schools from Ventura County. The Marmonte Leauge is part of the CIF Southern Section. Click here to view the league schedule. last year. But the Coyotes are working hard at not being the league doormats. ``Everybody was all surprised that we won, we were actually afraid people would think it was a misprint mis·print tr.v. mis·print·ed, mis·print·ing, mis·prints To print incorrectly. n. An error in printing. in the newspaper,'' sophomore catcher Samantha Marder said. ``But hopefully teams won't take us lightly anymore, like they did last year when they thought we were just a pushover push·o·ver n. 1. One that is easily defeated or taken advantage of. 2. Something that is easily done or attained. See Synonyms at breeze1. . ... It's cool to know that people think we can be a threat in the league now.'' --Sunset Six: For the first time in four years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time league doesn't have a clear favorite. Verdugo Hills lost one league game over the past four years but graduated three players to Division I colleges after last season. Among the strongest contenders to unseat Verdugo Hills are Poly of Sun Valley, which upset Sylmar 1-0 on Monday, and Canoga Park, with Milne and shortstop Rianne Johnson, who's batting .380 with 14 RBI, including eight RBI against Cleveland on March 8. TALE OF TWO ANKLES The biggest story at Westlake High has to do with ankles. The first, belongs to senior Ashley Jones Ashley Jones (born September 3, 1976 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American television soap opera actress from Memphis, Tennessee She rose to fame on the long-running CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless , who injured hers during soccer season and hasn't been able to play with the team. The second belongs to Megan Ackerman, who played with the injury during basketball season and the first few games of softball season, but she will require season-ending surgery in the coming weeks. As Jones is set to come back from her ankle injury, Ackerman is going out in style. She was 3 for 4 with two doubles in a 7-6 victory over Royal of Simi Valley in a critical game last Thursday. ``I said to her, `It's your last game, leave it all out on the field,' '' Westlake coach Garry Fetman said. Jones, who played her freshmen and sophomore years before sitting out last season to concentrate on soccer, is expected to make an immediate impact. ``She's just such a great athlete,'' Fetman said. ``She'll really help us out.'' - Gerry Gittelson contributed KEEPING TABS The U.S. Olympic softball team will play an exhibition 2 p.m. Sunday at UCLA. The game has been sold out for more than a month. Jessica Mendoza Jessica Mendoza (born 11 November 1980) is an American softball player who won a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. She was a four-time first team All-American at Stanford University from 1999-2002. Mendoza was named Softball player of the year in 2006. (Camarillo High/Stanford), Nicole Giordano (Saugus High/Arizona) and Crystl Bustos (Canyon High) are on the team. Local players on UCLA's team are Jaisa Creps and Ashley Herrera of Valencia High. SEVEN DAY FORECAST Game of the Week No. 5 Westlake at No. 2 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. , Today at 3:30 p.m. Westlake has three tough games to begin the Marmonte League season and if it can upset Thousand Oaks at home, in the Lancers' beautiful new stadium, Westlake will be in good shape in the league standings. This game should come down to defense. Thousand Oaks has been solid, and Westlake has been inconsistent. Bound to Happen Highland, 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 of Sherman Oaks, 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 and Harvard-Westlake of Studio City should win their first games Friday at the High Desert Classic in Lancaster, setting up a tough bottom half of the bracket for Saturday afternoon. Quartz Hill and Saugus look to be the strongest teams in the top half of the bracket. Potential Hero Katie Cornelison, Lancaster Lancaster and Saugus need to win their first games for their teams to play each other. But both have games they should win in the first round and if they meet Saturday, it could be a good one. Saugus is one of the tournament favorites, but Lancaster has won four games in a row and Cornelison is a dangerous hitter. Potential Upset Village Christian of Sun Valley against any of the top-flight teams in this weekend's Foothill tournament. The Crusaders come from a small school but have a big-time pitcher in Stanford-bound Lauren Nydam, and they played best last season against bigger teams. CAPTION(S): 3 photos, box Photo: (1) Westlake's Megan Ackerman doesn't make tag in time on Royal's Andi Ramirez but went 3 for 4 in a victory last week. Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer (2) Megan Ackerman injured her ankle playing basketball and now must have season-ending surgery. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer (3) Shannon Doepking' 13-for-20 start is a big reason Highland is 6-2 this season. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer Box: DAILY NEWS TOP TEN |
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