The Pipeline

Friday, April 17, 2026

LJ b VB d. Mt. Miguel, 2-0 - pool play - West Coast Challenge @ Granite Hills HS 4/17

Photos by Ed Piper

Moxy Appelbaum (red jersey) drills

a spike home to put LJ ahead, 25-24,

before the second-game win.

Senior Dylan Marshall (6) is the man

behind the set near the close of the

second game in a 2-0 win. LJ coach Dave

Jones played the "second string"

in a very sportsmanlike gesture

out of respect for Mt. Miguel,

which only has eight players.

Junior Leo Caniglia serves.

The Vikes talk in the huddle with Coach

Dave Jones.

Dylan Marshall (center right) and Chase Ostrom

(far right) put up a block.

Jeffrey Bruner (11) hits past the block.

Soph Jeffrey Bruner skies to hit a smash

at the net.

The second-game win, a cliffhanger in overtime,

LJ wins 26-24.

LJ g beach VB vs. PLHS - 4/16

Photos by Ed Piper

La Jolla's seniors on PLHS's Senior Day

Senior Gianna Pulli goes to the sand to try

to dig a ball in the fours' match.

LJ softball 18, Kearny 4 - 5 innings - City League opener 4/16

Photos by Ed Piper

Soph Ella Pearl hurled the first

three innings, gave up two hits,

and went 2-for-3 at the plate with

three RBI's.

The two Charlottes: Putnam (L) and Vargas.

Freshman Ellie Thomson at 3B

Freshman Melanie Smith at SS

Maddie Ehlert gets a basehit.

Ellie Thomson singles. Charlotte Vargas

ran to third on a loose ball, and banged

into Kearny's third baseman, Olivia

Etheredge, who had to leave the game.

Bernice the squishy duck (in Ava Akbarian's

hand) with friends in the dugout.

Beautiful colors on the rebuilt Kearny campus -

reds (bottlebrush) and purplish/yellow.

Thursday, April 16, 2026

The Vikings (2-0 in City League, 8-10 overall) and SDHS played a wild and woolly baseball game on the Cavers' field (144 years of history?) Wed., April 15 (Jackie Robinson Day in the major leagues and Tax Day everywhere else).

It resulted in a 12-4 win for Coach Gary Frank's black-and-red crew, and two-thirds of the way to a series sweep against the Cavers to open league play, atop the City League standings. Presumably, La Jolla has defeated San Diego High's top two hurlers, having taken a big 8-1 win Monday against sophomore number-one Esteban Quintana.

With a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning Wednesday, sprinter (literally) Charlie Martin banged a triple, sliding into third (see photos in previous entry) in a giant cloud of dust (which you'll never see on the Muirlands turf). Centerfielder Landon Black's throw went far past Caver third baseman Jarryd Torres and into the home dugout.

Martin got up, dusted himself off, and trotted home after the umpires declared the ball going out of the field of play. The Vikings led, 3-0.

After that, the wheels started to come off the wagon for Coach Francisco Garcia's home squad. After Ryan Khourajian struck out for the second out, Zach Gergurich smashed a home run over the fence in straightaway right. 4-0. It cleared the fence easily. "He (righthander Henry Siner) threw me an outside-middle pitch (fastball)," said "Snacks".

Viking starter Will Griebe-Arzate, who had been mostly magnificent for four innings, yielding only two hits, then walked two, hit two, and threw two wild pitches to the same batter (Hogan Rohlf)--it all came in twos--in the bottom of the inning as four runs scored. Frank sent senior Andrew Cardenas in to relieve. He got Samuel Cadavid to line out to Harper Lane in center to stem the chaos.

Secondary PE: Discus and javelin introduced

By Ed Piper

Maybe Yoshinobu Yamamato's javelin workouts are having an impact on American culture.

The Dodger pitcher's regimen includes hurling the pointed, imposing piece of metal--which is pretty dangerous, if you think about the average Southern California school campus or park. People get impaled by those things.

I recently viewed disci (what is the plural of "discus"--discuses?) and plastic/rubber sticks with propeller blades set out for a physical education class at a local middle school. I told the instructor who was setting up for the day, "I never saw a discus (or javelin) when I was growing up."

She replied, "It's a new thing."

Andrew Mitchell, an LJHS Class of 2015 graduate and three-time NAIA All-American in the javelin, told me last year how he had never been exposed to javelin-throwing during his high school years, so he had to learn it when he moved to the Pacific Northwest. (He attended and competed for Southern Oregon University in college.)

One factor in the javelin not being a common part of the sports culture in Southern California, Andrew said, was the lack of open space. There are too many people here to be throwing a tipped metal rod safely.

His "PB" (personal best), according to athletic.net, is 67.53 meters, his senior year at Southern Oregon. That was top eight (I think he said he was third) in the javelin, which qualified him for All-American status. At 39.37 inches per meter (a little longer than a yard), that figures out to 2,658 inches, .8561 carried out to four decimals. That converts to 221 feet, 6 inches plus. Imagine an object traveling that far, and how much space you would need to safely hurl it--at high speed! (That would require a lot of open space, like in the Pacific Northwest.)

Anyway, young people's exposure and experimentation with the discus and pseudo-javelin at such an early age could yield good results. How many local proficient javelin throwers (besides Andrew Mitchell) do you know, as opposed to good discus throwers (like our very own Viking, sophomore Janae Stanley-Castillo)? Stay tuned.