Clutch Pitching Down the Stretch

Adrianna Segura handcuffs another Pirate.



The Lompoc baseball & Cabrillo softball teams both needed and received clutch pitching performances to win, while Cabrillo baseball just needed someone to finally shut the door.

Softball

Cabrillo Varsity [10-6, 3-0]
"This was one of the sweeter ones" Head Coach Doug Meeder remarked after the Conquistadors 5-4 victory over the Morro Bay Pirates, "We've won ten games, and some of those were good teams - but this was a real quality win". It was particularly nice because, as Coach Meeder put it, "We lost to them twice last year. We went up there and embarrassed ourselves, and then they beat us here with a come from behind win".
Cabrillo faced a similar possibility on Tuesday, and errors were the problem. They had staked the visitors to a three run lead (2 unearned), got one run back in the third, and roared to a 5-3 advantage with four runs in the fourth. But in the top of the 5th inning they gave Morro Bay an opportunity by loading the bases with Pirates that shouldn't have been there.
At that point, stalwart sophomore starter Adrianna Segura (now 7-1) took over. She did what she usually does and rose to the occasion, getting out of the inning with only one run scoring, and shutting Morro Bay down in the next two innings. Meeder especially liked her performance in the top of the seventh - " I've seen a lot of situations like that where you get a walk or a blooper and that starts something, but Adrianna went out there and it was grounder, grounder, pop-up, and lets go home." [Story]

Four Cabrillo players went 2-3 at the plate: Alyssa Abayari (run scored), Kelly Brown (double, single, and run scored), Shelby Kuhlman ( a 3-run homer, 2 runs scored), and Levena Linderholm (1 RBI). Alex Pino walked and scored a run. The game represented the first action behind the plate for Linderholm. One of last year's stars, the senior catcher had missed most of the season to date due to injury, with only limited action in the recently completed Arroyo Grande Tournament - including some time at second base!
Cabrillo travels to Templeton on Friday (4:00 pm).

JV The first day of the Cabrillo JV Tournament was held on Saturday. Each of the eight teams involved played two games. Cabrillo defeated Santa Maria & Righetti (who beat Templeton) and Lompoc lost to Paso Robles before beating Carpenteria (who lost to Atascadero). On Saturday, 5 April, Cabrillo will play Atascadero @ 3 pm; Lompoc will play either Santa Maria or Templeton at 11:00 am.

Baseball
[Story - scroll down after jump]

Lompoc Varsity {5-10, 1-1}
The Braves struck early versus the Santa Barbara Dons and held on with some more of that clutch pitching late. They put up a quick three runs in the first inning on doubles by Chris Mallory (1 RBI) and Scott Aguailar (2 RBI), and were up 3-1 in the top of the fifth when the Dons cut the lead to one when a sacrifice fly to left brought home a runner from third. It would be the first of three consecutive innings in which Santa Barbara would get a runner to third base with just one out. Starter Ryan Bower (6 innings, 2 earned runs, 8 hits, no walks, 2 strike-outs) managed to stop the bleeding , and get out of the inning. However, he was called upon to do it again in the top of the sixth. A hit, a steal, and a sacrifice put the runner on third - one out. Bower got out of the inning with a fielder's choice (on a dropped pop-up) and a groundout. Dalton Rouleau, who relieved in the seventh, also faced life with a runner on third base. With one down, he surrendered a walk and a double to short center. An intentional walk loaded the bases, but a strike-out, and a pop-up ended the game. Rouleau went one inning gave up one hit, 2 walks, and struck out two.
Besides the two doubles, Lompoc only had one other hit, a single by Brandon Alonzo, and three walks, two tallied by Kevin Ericksen. Alonzo, C. Mallory, & Ericksen all scored.

[NOTE: Through 100 innings this year Lompoc pitchers have given up 91 runs (59 earned), 120 hits, only 30 walks (but 18 hit batsmen), and struck out 61.]
On Friday, Lompoc heads to Morro Bay, at 3:30 they play.

JV The Junior Varsity went 2-1 in the recent Righetti JV Tournament. They were thumped 10-0 by Righetti, beat Paso Robles 9-7 by holding off a Bearcat surge at the end (5 runs in the 7th), and reportedly defeated Cabrillo by a score of 10-6.


Cabrillo Varsity {7-8, 2-1}
The Conquistadors were cruising, up 13-0 on Morro Bay with Aaron Naputi looking for the complete game shutout. When errors on back-to-back plays (the second easily a double play ball if properly handled), followed by a double over second base, allowed the Pirates to score a run. They put five on the board before the Conq's were able to get off the field at the end of the game. Cabrillo had scored early (7 runs in the 1st), combining some timely hitting with numerous errors, walks, and hit batsmen provided by the Pirates. But a win is a win and the hosts took this one 13-5.

Naputi gave up four hits in his six innings work and was also a force at the plate. He had 3 RBI's while going 3-4 with a walk, single, double, and triple. The homer that would have completed the cycle went instead to Brian Engler (his first) in the 2nd inning, he scored two runs to go with his two RBI's.

Boys Tennis

Cabrillo

Varsity The strenth of the Conquistadors this year has been doubles - a fact never more in evidence than on Tuesday when they used a 9-0 sweep in doubles to offset a 3-6 deficit in singles and defeat Santa Maria 12-6 at thwe CHS courts.
The Andrew Shewell / Ryan Anderson duo lost only 3 games (6-2,6-0,6-1) in sweeping three sets. Jordan Daniels / Arjun Ayyer (6-4,6-3,6-2) and Casey Owens / Jose Flores (6-1,6-3,6-0) also swept.
In singles,the Saints German exchange student Daniel Borcharding dominated, sweeping all three of his sets 6-0. Eric Wang (2) and Ben Brady won sets for Cabrillo.
JV At Santa Maria, the formula was different but the result was similar - Cabrillo won 10-8. Alex Hibbs, Ray Moreno, and Franky Calderia each won two singles sets. The doubles struggled a bit. Ricky Cummings / Ryan Brady won a set. Matt Stumreitter / Dan Garmendia won one set and lost another in a tiebreaker. The big news, however, was that the David Terrones / Jeff Rodriguez pairing lost their first set in league play (6-4). The loss improved their focus apparently - they won the next two 6-0, 6-0 .

Lompoc

Varsity The St. Joseph Knights rode roughshod over the Braves at the Dave Bickmore Courts on the LHS campus. In the midst of the 16-2 shellacking, the lone bright spot for the Braves was Alex Jensen - and even he faltered. Jensen dropped a set he had led to Jake Ezez 5-7 , before scoring Lompoc's only two points with 6-1 and 6-0 wins over Joseph Fisher Ortiz & Rafa Ferriera respectively. The doubles teams of Anthony Yang / Kyle Thumm [6-7 (8-10)] and Joel Martin / Jesus Abrego [6-7 (2-7)] each lost tiebreakers to the combo of James King / Broderick Cooper.

JV From Coach Jim Steffey:

"St. Joe's clearly had more match experience and it showed in the final results. Out of the 12 matches contested, we won three. Both of my singles players, beat a very good number three singles player from St. Joe's. The good news is my JV players are winning the matches that they should win (if that makes any sense). They continue to show improvement, and are starting to hit 'winning shots,' vs waiting for the opponent to make mistakes.

My number one doubles team of Gabriel Hernandez and Edgar Solis won vs. the number three team from St. Joe's, and were competitive against the number two team (unfortunately, Gabriel suffered a knee injury early in the set, and St. Joe's exploited that weakness for the remainder of the match. . . I'll have to wait for later today to see the extent of Gabriel's injury, after he visit's the trainer, Coach Blanco).

It looks like we will be finishing the season with only 6 (out of 9) players. Winning matches will be difficult because of the points that we have to forfeit. I told my players, however, that I am going to be looking at the matches that we actually compete in to determine our success. I will keep you posted. I am looking forward to a much more competitive second round."

Wyatt Peterson 4-6,0-6,6-2
Carlos Diaz 2-6,3-6,6-3
Hernandez/Solis 1-6,3-6,6-2
Chris Aldama/Devin Day 2-6,2-6,2-6

Golf

Lompoc The Braves boys golf squad had contests on successive days to start the week. They traveled to the Morro Bay Golf Club on Monday for an LPL dual match which they lost 212-247, and then defeated the Coast Union Broncos 243-272 on the front nine at home (La Purisima Golf Course) on Tuesday.

The lone senior on the unit, Brent Van Dyke, led Lompoc on both occasions firing a 45 on Monday, and a 43 on Tuesday. The Medalist on Monday was Eric Olsen of Morro Bay with a 39, while on Tuesday Van Dyke tied with Coast Union's Chris More for the Honors. Abie Luna was just off the pace with a 45.

Individual scores at Morro Bay were:
Lompoc-
Brent Van Dyke (45), Alex Stone (54), Brian Magann (49), Abie Luna (47), Tyler Grossi (58), & Tyler Grossini (52).
Morro Bay-
Eric Olsen (39), Casey Weiss (41), Jeff Dzaughber (40), Lucas Meisinger (49), Tony Breska (47), Austin Peters (45).

Julia Heath
Things did not quite go as expected (or hoped) for LHS alumnus Julia Heath and her Cal-Poly (SLO) compatriots at the NCAA Western Regional Preview hosted by Sacramento St. University at the Lincoln Hills Golf Club in Lincoln, CA .
Heath the mainstay of the squad the last two years, finally suffered her 'sophomore slump'. She posted two of her worst rounds (84, 80) of the season before recovering her form with a two over par 74 on Tuesday.

In competition last year Julia shot in the 80's in 8 of the 22 rounds in which she played, including rounds of 84, 85, and her worst - 87. This season she only had one round of her 12 in the 80's - an 80 posted last fall. Her third round 74 was the 6th time she carded a 75 or lower as a sophomore.
The adventure began on Monday when, after consecutive pars, her shotgun start position dumped her on the back nine of the Orchard Course. She ran off a string of three bogeys in a row and then celebrated with a triple bogey on the 13th hole. She never could get untracked and later added double bogey on the fifth hole.
The young Mustangs finished tied for 14th out of 19 schools. They had been in 11th place after two rounds (305, 308), but fell because just when Heath recovered her stroke - the others on the team posted rounds of 80, 84, 80, and 83 for a third round team score of 317.
They will next compete at the Wolfpack Invitational in Reno on the 14 & 15 of April. --- el stato