Five and counting ...

Elicity Fabing hit a two-run double to help propel the Braves to their sixth consecutive victory.

Softball
The Braves Jeana Carrillo had her streak of consecutive scoreless innings broken at 39, but the Lompoc girls preserved a more important streak - they have now won six in a row. By defeating the Morro Bay Pirates 3-2 Tuesday afternoon, they maintained pace with St Joe's for second place in the league and preserved their slim hopes for an LPL title.
Meanwhile the Conqs made the Eagles look good. Numerous errors and other mistakes not only cost them the ballgame but also put their postseason hopes on life support. [Story] Now 5-5 in league they are battling with Morro Bay for the fourth LPL slot in CIF. A win would have put them up half a game on the Pirates but they are now a half game back with two to play .
The remaining LPL games:
(Santa Maria & Santa Ynez are both 1-8 in the LPL)
5/2/08
Lompoc [12-9, 6-3] @Templeton [15-3, 8-1]
Cabrillo [12-10, 5-5] @St. Joseph [13-10, 6-3]
Morro Bay [14-9, 5-4 ] @Santa Maria
5/6/08
Templeton @Santa Ynez
Lompoc @Cabrillo
St. Joseph @Morro Bay
5/9/08
Morro Bay @Templeton
Santa Maria @St. Joseph
Santa Ynez @Lompoc

Lompoc
Morro Bay pushed across solo unearned runs in two of the early innings, but Lompoc tied it up when junior Elicity Fabing belted a two-run double in the third. The score stayed that way until the bottom of the sixth when sophomore Shandee Berryman hit a double over the head of the charging left fielder and Jeana Carrillo, helping her own cause, slapped a single right over the 2nd base bag to score Berryman. Carrillo took 2nd on the throw to the plate, but the Braves could advance her no further than 3rd. Not to worry though, she mowed down the Pirates in the top of the seventh for the victory.
Lompoc, who began this streak with a win over league leading Templeton, faces those same Eagles on the road Friday.

JV The Braves JV played at Morro Bay on Monday due to transportation conflicts. Lompoc won 7-0 with freshman Brianna Vickery, temporarily on loan from the varsity, on pitching duty. She posted 6 strikeouts in 7 innings, and received solid defensive help from her teammates. The Pirates best scoring opportunity came in the fifth inning when they loaded the bases with no one out. A ground out, an infield pop-up, and an easy dribbler back to the circle erased the rally attempt. The Braves, meanwhile, were consistently scoring 1-2 runs every few innings.

On Saturday, at the Santa Maria Tournament, they lost 5-4 to a very good SLO team that will face Morro Bay in the final, before beating Pioneer Valley 6-0 to earn a berth in the Consolation Final [Sat, 1 pm].

Cabrillo
The LLR Report from Dan Aldridge:
Cabrillo – 1 vs. Templeton – 10
This game certainly didn’t turn out the way Cabrillo hoped it would. Templeton jumped out with 2 runs in the first inning and followed with 5 runs in the second. Cabrillo’s defense settled down a little holding the visiting Eagles scoreless the next two innings. Templeton then added 1 run in the fifth and 2 more in the seventh to cushion their lead.

Kiley Shae Aldridge pitched the complete game giving up 4 hits, collecting 3 strikeouts, and walking 8 batters.

On offense Cabrillo scored in the fourth inning with a lead off hit by Adrianna Segura. She moved to 3rd base after a shortstop throwing error from a grounder hit by Lindsie Holloway deep in the 5-6 hole. Shelby Kuhlman then knocked Segura in with a single up the middle. Cabrillo had only one more hit, that came in the bottom of the seventh when Bethany Radabaugh led off the inning with a double to right field, but the Conq’s couldn’t knock her in.

Baseball
The Braves [11-12, 7-2] closed within range of the elusive .500 mark again on Tuesday with a 9-3 win over Morro Bay [8-15, 2-7]. More importantly, they maintained a one game lead over St. Joseph [11-9, 6-3] and Santa Ynez [13-8, 6-3] in the LPL title race. Cabrillo [11-12, 6-4] drops to fourth with their loss to Templeton [9-10, 5-4], and Santa Maria [2-19, 0-9] rounds out the league.

The remaining LPL games:

5/2/08
Cabrillo @St. Joseph
Morro Bay @Santa Maria
Lompoc @Templeton
5/6/08
Lompoc @Cabrillo
Templeton @Santa Ynez
St. Joseph @Morro Bay
5/9/08
Morro Bay @Templeton
Santa Maria @St. Joseph
Santa Ynez @Lompoc

Cabrillo

The Conqs lost 7-5 to Templeton. They allowed the Eagles 'the big inning' with five runs in 3rd. Offensively, Ryan McGinty doubled and Zach Pecyna went 3-4.

Lompoc

The Braves received a complete game from Cody Berryman. The 5-10 175 lb junior won his second game in a row after a 1-5 start with one no decision in nine starts despite a respectable 3.46 ERA. He allowed 3 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits, 1 hit batter, and a wild pitch but did not give up a walk. Berryman also helped himself at the plate with a 2-4, double, 2 runs scored, RBI performance. It was a good day offensively for Lompoc as they scored nine runs on 9 hits (3 doubles), five walks, 7 stolen bases, with 8 RBI. Six Braves hit .500 or better on the day.
Lompoc trailed 2-0 after one inning, but got 2 runs in the 2nd and 4 in the 3rd to take the lead. They were up 7-3 in the top of the sixth when the Pirates threatened after a double to the fence, but they couldn't get a run in.
The Braves decided that they needed extra insurance, so they pushed across two runs in the lower half of the inning. Morro Bay threatened again in the top of the seventh, when two runners reached base - the first on an apparent catcher interference call and the second hit by a pitch, but Berryman had two of his five strikouts and retired the side by inducing a infield grounder.

Boys Tennis

Lompoc
The Braves affirmed their third place position in the LPL by losing 5-13 to Santa Ynez for the second time this season. The Pirates were never seriously chalenged in this one, taking an early 8-1 lead. Santa Ynez's veteran coaching staff of Larry Popkin (since 1961), and Walter Seemann (21 years with the program-19 years as the JV coach, & 28 years as the tennis pro at the Alisal Ranch) stressed to their kids the importance of coming out of the gate strong. They not only did that, but they were particularly tough at the top of the order, going 11-1 in the number 1 & 2 spots.
In singles for the Braves Alex Jensen won two sets (4-6, 6-2, 6-1), Robert Rodriguez (0-6, 1-6, 6-1) & Anthony Yang (0-6, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5)) each won one. Jensen's lone loss came against Juan Ferrer who concludes his LPL regular season at 36-0. Jensen is 32-4. The lone point in doubles came from the #2 unit, Cooper Barrick / Joel Martin (4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5)), also in a tiebreaker.

Lompoc finishes at 8-4 in LPL play (now 10-6 overall), placing them behind the tied Pirates (13-5, 11-1 LPL) and St. Joseph Knights (17-1, 11-1). Santa Ynez gets the number 1 seed, however based on the total sets won in the two tussles between them. The league individual / doubles finals are Friday and CIF play starts next Tuesday (6 May).