LJ softball 11, Orange Glen 1 - 10-run mercy rule - LJ goes to title game

Emily Hernandez rounds third base as Viking

coach Anthony Sarain (arm on left) points for her

to keep going and score at home plate. The action

took place in the bottom of the second inning,

La Jolla building a 5-0 lead against Orange Glen.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

La Jolla coach Anthony Sarain said two weeks ago that his Vikings, having won 10 in a row through the Central League season, should go through the playoffs without too many obstacles and keep the streak alive.

Well, on Wednesday, May 27--after a 14-8 bump in the road against Orange Glen the day before--La Jolla returned to form behind the excellent pitching of sophomore Ella Pearl and downed the Patriots, 11-1, on the 10-run mercy rule in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Sarain's squad, led by senior Jacey Taylor and Pearl, now moves to the Division 5 CIF championship game at UCSD Sat., May 30 at 1 p.m.

The Vikings' offense scored three runs in the bottom of the first and two more in the second to regain familiar ground with an early lead. They added three more in the fourth, then, fittingly, on a single by graduating senior Savannah Putnam, ended the game with three runs to reach the 10-run margin (after five innings, it is automatic).

After giving up 22 walks to Orange Glen in an upset Tuesday, requiring another game under the double-elimination format, La Jolla settled into a healthy pattern. Patriot pitcher and captain Addie Bruzzi clubbed a solo homer in the top of the second, but that was the only run the visitors scored.

Several fine defensive plays kept the Vikes on track. Freshman Ellie Thomson was steady at third base. Senior Maddie Ehlert snagged a line drive out in the fourth. Shortstop Melanie Smith and Taylor combined on one play that consisted of good glove work, then Jacey digging out the throw on the other end of the sequence.

LJ baseball 3, Ramona 13 - CIF D3 semis - ends season

Viking Reed Turner (14) scores as teammate

Oliver Obler (6, behind umpire) gives him

the signal to come in standing up. The two

runs put La Jolla on the board in the top

of the fifth inning Tues., May 26.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Just before 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 26, several youth-to-high-school baseball careers ended, as La Jolla dropped a 13-3 decision at Ramona in a double-elimination semifinal situation.

With overcast skies and a 10-mph wind chilling spectators, the Vikings fell into a 7-0 hole. The defense let down starter Charlie Smith in the first and second innings, before catcher Colton Simpson crushed a two-run home run over the left field barrier in the bottom of the third.

But La Jolla coach Gary Frank wasn't giving up yet. In the top of the fifth, four pinch-hitters tallied three runs against Bulldog right-hander Alex Wilson, and the Vikings were on the board.

Oliver Obler, going to the plate for Hunter Durfee, drew a walk. After a fielder's choice moved him to second, Reed Turner got aboard on an error, putting runners at the corners.

Senior Harper Lane sees the pitch and will

drive it into centerfield for a two-run single

in the top of the fifth against Ramona starter

Alex Wilson.

In the one-slot, Carter Strauss got his second walk of the game to load the bases. That set up senior outfielder Harper Lane's two-run single to center.

Fellow senior Charlie Martin hit another ball into the middle of the infield, and that ball's mishandling brought in Strauss.

Luke Cripe, another late insert, walked to load the bases again, but the Vikings couldn't capitalize and failed to score again. Wilson, the Ramona starter, was replaced the next inning, but the hosts, undefeated in the playoffs, punched their ticket to Friday's Division 4 final.

LJ track: Janae takes 3rd in CIF shot put

Photos by Ed Piper

Junior Janae Stanley-Castillo makes

her second throw in the finals of the

CIF San Diego Section championships.

Her put of 39'2" at Mt. Carmel High

placed her third in the section, qualifying

for her first state meet Sat., May 30.

Stanley-Castillo gets input from her throws

coach at LJHS, Darius, before the

competition.

Her dad Ivan (center, in gray shirt) watches

her performance closely from high above

the shot put area on the trail above.

Janae and her coach, Darius, arrive before

8:30 for the shot put, whose first flight kicks off

at 9 a.m. The second flight, with the qualifiers

with longer distances, doesn't begin until 9:40 a.m.

LJ track @ CIF Finals 5/23

Photos by Ed Piper

LJ's Chiara Dailey (L) begins to pull away

on the turn of the fourth and final lap

in the 1600 as second-place Ayanna Hickey

of Bishop's looks back to see who is close

(no one) to the front-runners.

Anchor Leed Smoole (L) takes the baton

from Asher Sternberg in the 4x100 relay.

The Vikings foursome took fourth place.

LJ softball 14, Kearny 0 - 5 innings - 5/22

Jacey Taylor takes a walk in the bottom

of the first inning. Three innings later,

she hit the 28th home run of her career.

The big question had been whether she

would see any pitches in the strike zone

as she pursued the single-season (now 14)

and career (now 28) school records.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

La Jolla advanced in the Division 5 playoffs with a dominating 14-0 win over Kearny Fri., May 22, and Viking senior Jacey Taylor swatted her 28th home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to set a new LJHS record for career homers.

The two recent times the first baseman/pitcher has set the single-season record (three home runs May 14) and career mark have come in "mercy rule"/five-inning shortened games, a hurry-up situation when you didn't know if she would get enough at-bats or enough pitches in the strike zone to have a chance to hit a homer.

Jacey upped her single-season mark to 14, after breaking Emmy Cardenas' record of 12 a week ago. She had tied Emmy for the career record with the three-dinger onslaught, at 27, and sat there for eight days, until Friday's contest at home.

Coach Anthony Sarain's title hopefuls scored five runs in the first, five in the second, and added a pair of runs in each of the next two frames to terminate the game against the over-matched Comets. Coach Aryn Hamilton readily admitted before opening pitch, "We're the underdogs. Most of our girls have never played softball before."

The Vikings extended their winning streak to 12 games. Sarain said last week that "we should continue winning" with that streak well into the postseason, as they are the top seed in a Division 5 that doesn't present a lot of obstacles.

LJ baseball 6, RBV 5 - CIF D3 playoffs - 5/22

A pickoff throw by Will Griebe-Arzate (not in view)

catches RBV's Zach Roe with too big a lead

before Viking first baseman Ryan Khourajian (22)

applies the tag. See the ball upper left, just in the frame.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

The irony of the Vikings' 6-5 comeback win over Rancho Buena Vista Fri., May 22, can't be overstated. It earns them the right to travel four hours to the place they "never wanted to go"--having forfeited only two days before, when the chartered bus didn't show up on time to take them to distant Blythe--on Sat., May 23, as they continue in the Division 3 playoffs.

In reality, the Harper Lane and Carter Strauss-led La Jollans did want to travel to Riverside County, along the Colorado River. They just couldn't get a ride to get them there.

So, with the forfeit chalked up as one of the two losses they are allowed in the double-elimination postseason tourney, La Jolla battled back from a 5-4 deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the Longhorns on Lane's double to right, driving in pinch-hitter Oliver Obler.

Then, in extra innings, the just-hitting-enough red-and-black tallied for the 6-5 victory when Strauss got hit by a pitch, forcing in the winning run with the bases loaded. It was a dramatic way to survive in the playoffs, but a sad one for RBV, who played four games in five days this week to get this far.

Hunter Durfee, who Coach Gary Frank inserted into right field last week "to get an extra bat in the lineup" in the struggles against Lincoln, tripled just inside the first base foul line with the bases loaded to put La Jolla ahead, 3-2, in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Junior Zach Gergurich followed with a sharp single up the middle, scoring Durfee. The lead was now 4-2.

After Viking starter Will Griebe-Arzate tired and gave up three runs to RBV in the top of the fifth on four singles, that set up the hosts for the late-inning comeback.

In the bottom of the seventh, La Jolla facing elimination, Obler, batting for shortstop Brady Wilson, hit a dunker into right to lead off.

Strauss, in the first slot, sacrificed him to second. Harper: "It was a fastball, middle-in. I was looking for it." Lane lined a rocket to right-center, bringing Oliver around. Tie ballgame.

Harper was thrown out at third base trying to advance on Charlie Martin's groundball to short, and the Vikings could do no more in the seventh inning.

In the first extra inning, Andrew Cardenas, called to pitch in another must-win game (6 2/3 innings versus Lincoln last Friday in the title decider), got the Longhorns out in short order, allowing a walk.

In the bottom of the eighth, after Durfee struck out, "Snacks" Gergurich walked. He was singled to second on Reed Hunter's infield hit gloved by shortstop Noah Lowman.

An intentional walk was issued to Brady Wilson, loading the bags. Strauss was hit by pitch by Collin LaVigne, RBV's third pitcher, and the Vikings had the walk-off win.

LJ baseball: The bats woke up

By Ed Piper

Every spot in the lineup got a hit except Harper Lane, who contributed plenty as the ballhawk he is in centerfield and two walks he contributed, the first leading to the Vikings' first run, in La Jolla's play-in victory Tues., May 19.

It was a welcome sign, after freshman righthander Sebas Estrada throttled the offense last Mon., May 11, then two different hurlers did the same in the Wed., May 13 game--both against Lincoln in the regular-season-ending series.

Catcher Carter Strauss had two RBI's, one in the fourth inning and another in the seventh when the Vikes added two runs for insurance. It gave them a little bit of a mental cushion when Vista came back with two runs in the last of the seventh.

Joseph Crudo, moved over to second base, had the two-run double that started things off in the top of the first, plating Lane and Charlie Martin.