Diamond, Pools

Erica Elenes starts her anchor leg for the Lompoc varsity in the 200 relay.

On Friday, the diamond squads from both local high schools all had the varsity on the road and the JV at home. They both also were scheduled to host swim meets, but the meet at Cabrillo was reportedly postponed due to the failure of the heater at their pool (anyone up for swimming in an unheated pool in the Lompoc valley on a windy April afternoon ? - guess not). Saturday saw the completion of the Cabrillo JV Softball Tournament, with an outstanding Championship game, and a scheduled double-header for the Lompoc and Cabrillo freshmen baseball teams. Next week the diamond squads play LPL foes Templeton (Lompoc) and St. Joseph (Cabrillo) before facing each other on Friday.

Baseball

Lompoc
Varsity [6-10, 2-1]: At Morro Bay (5-10, 0-3), Cody Berryman went the distance for the Braves, striking out six and allowing one run on two hits and two walks. Lompoc bats were not idle as the team scored two runs each in the first, third, and sixth innings. They also tacked on a run in the fifth, and won going away 7-1. Kevin Ericksen hit two doubles (2-4, walk, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI), Brandon Alonzo had a triple (1-3, run scored), Scott Aguailar went 2-3 with a walk,an RBI, and an incredible FIVE stolen bases, Dalton Rouleau (1-3, walk, RBI) scored two runs, and Daniel Mallory drove in two runs. Lompoc outhit Morro Bay 7-2 , but was helped by the Pirate pitchers who issued 7 free passes (6 walks, 1 hit batter) while striking out seven in the error plagued (Lompoc 5, MB 3) game.

Cabrillo
Varsity [8-8, 3-1]: On the road at Templeton (5-8, 1-2), the Conquistadors jumped on the Eagles early with four runs in the first inning, and cruised to a 7-3 victory. Templeton scored solo runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th innings (including a Casey Bogart homer), but Cabrillo added a run in the fourth and two in the seventh to preserve the margin.
Brian Engler allowed 3 runs (2 earned) in his seven innings of work, giving up 5 hits, 3 walks, and hitting two batters. Offensively Cabrillo had four doubles among their ten hits, plus a walk and a hit batter.

Swimming
Cabrillo: As noted above the Santa Maria - Cabrillo meet has been postponed. No reschedule date information is availible yet.

Lompoc
There have been some disrepancies in the scores received from various sources, but the upshot of all of them is that the Lompoc boys won at both levels, while the girls both lost by fairly narrow margins.
Boys Varsity 101-56
Lompoc won all three relays:
Lompoc #1 - 200M Medley Relay (2:07.10)
{Alex Uribe,Kyle Pickles,Robert Macias,Carl Thacker}
Lompoc #1 - 200M Freestyle Relay (1:53.69)
{Alex Uribe, Ryan Lynch, Jack Setti, Mike Ostrander}
Lompoc #1 - 400M Freestyle Relay (4:09.19)
{Carl Thacker,Robert Macias,Kyle Pickles,Ryan Lynch}

Individual Lompoc winners:
Mike Ostrander - 200M Indiv. Medley (2:37.56), & 500M Freestyle (6:02.80)
Robert Macias - 100M Butterfly (1:10.56)
Kyle Pickles - 100M Freestyle (56.99), & 100M Breaststroke (1:14.58)
Alex Uribe - 100M Backstroke (1:11.36)

For Morro Bay, Sam Melloni won the 50M Freestyle (26.71), and Trent won the 200M Freestyle (1:53.38).

Boys JV Forfeit win
Morro Bay did not field a boys JV Team. Only two boys JV events were held, although a JV team also did participate in one of the relays. This may account for some of the scoring differences in the reports, as some may have included points for the JV team in the Varsity totals and others did not.

The Two races were the 100M Freestyle won by Josh Rondash in 1:13.04, and the 200M Freestyle also won by Josh Rondash (2:39.53).

Girls Varsity 67-91
The girls suffered several bad breaks on the day. Some of them became ill, and there were several notable technical disqualifications, particularly the DQ of the winning #1 unit in the initial race of the day - the 200M Medley Relay.

Lompoc winners were:
Kimly Hoang - 200IM (2:53.98)
Andrea Caballero - 50M Free (28.83), & 100M Free (1:03.74)
and the 200M Relay (2:01.34) team of Kimly Hoang, Suzanne Silva, Shelby Carpenter, and Andrea Caballero.

Special mention should be made of Morro Bay's Laura Clark - who swam on winning relay teams (200M Medley, 400M Free), but also posted CIF Qualification times in the 200M Freestyle (2:01.80) and the 500M Freestyle (5:30.43). If you want to know how good those times are - compare with the boys winning times above.

Girls JV 56-92
Lompoc winners were Stepanie Cardoza - 50M Free (38.57), and Crystal Hutchins - 100M Free (1:25.50)

NOTE: One of these days I'll get complete swimming (& track) results up.

Softball

Cabrillo
Varsity At Templeton the Conquistadores were able to jump out to an early lead by manufacturing two runs in the top of the first, but Eagle star Kat Hicks quickly settled in and shut out Cabrillo for the rest of the game. Hicks, the 2006 SLO County Player of the Year, 2007 All-CIF First Team, and Dartmouth signee, went the distance, giving up 5 hits, walking two, and striking out five. The senior laden Eagles, used help from the local youngsters (4 walks, 2 errors) to go along with 11 hits in erasing the Cabrillo advantage and take the game 7-2. The Eagles scored 1-2 runs in every inning they batted in - except the fourth.
JV The Cabrillo JV pounded the Eagles 11-1.

Lompoc
Varsity Against Morro Bay, the Braves wasted a fine pitching performance by Jeana Carrillo (3 hits, 2 walks, and seven strike-outs). They gave up an unearned run in the fourth inning and had offensive inconsistancy. Lompoc had problems solving Pirate starter Kim Dauer, who walked none and struck-out five, but they did get five hits and left five runners on base.

JV The Braves were clinging to a 1-0 margin over the visitors in the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Pirate ship suddenly sank. Lompoc loaded the bases with 1 out, and then got a double and two thowing errors at the plate - 4-0, runner on third. Sacrifice grounder - 5-0, 2 out. Single, single, throwing error - 6-0, two out, runner on third. A strike-out ended the inning, but the damage was done.
Catrina "CataChill" Chill quickly stopped the Pirates in the top of the fifth, and the Braves onslaught continued. Marissa Brady started things off with a single. She went to third on a wild pitch and a stolen base, as Breanna "the Bruise" Liss battled at the plate before striking out. Monica Gaitan sacrificed Brady home - 7-0. Chantel Frelot walked, and a Megan Maddock single with a throwing error put runners on second & third. Mariah Lashore [picture] came to the plate, batting in her less-than-preferred "lefty" mode, and promptly laced a liner down the line and just over the glove of the leftfielder for an apparent double. The ball and the speedy Lashore both kept going, however. The ball almost to the fence and Mariah all the way to home plate, where she beat the relay throw for an inside the park homer. A strike-out ended the inning and the game as Lompoc's 10 run lead after the fifth inning activated the "mercy rule".

Cabrillo JV Tournament
Both local squads participated in this tourney the last two weekends. Both units went 3-1 losing only to the powerhouse lineup from Paso Robles. Lompoc, unfortunately, did it in their initial game by a 6-0 score. They bounced back by beating Carpenteria (5 ? -0), Santa Maria (18-0), and Templeton (8 ? -5) for the Consolation Championship.



Cabrillo (15-2) pounded Santa Maria 30-4,and beat Righetti 4-1 & Atascadero 6-1 to set up a showdown with the 15-0 Bearcats for the Championship. The 'Cats brought a in 15-0 record, and tournament wins over Lompoc (6-0), 4th place Atascadero (14-1), and third place Righetti (14-0).


Jessica " Big Red" Rucinski pitched two strong games Saturday for the Conquistadors. Why "Big Red" for the diminutive Jess - because she is slightly larger than fellow freshman and shopvac-like shortstop "Lil' Red" Colby Edman, who is almost an optical illusion, and because she has truly played big for the Conq's this season. She proved it again on Saturday when she allowed 2 runs in 14 innings of work.


The Championship Final was one of those tense, 'anything- can- happen -at anytime' affairs. They almost needed oxygen and defribulators in the stands for the parents, and some other fans, in attendance. Seriously, it was one of the best games I've seen this year - any sport, any level ! Cabrillo lost the coin toss before the game - so they were the visiting team. They were, it is true, a hundred yards or so from their normal digs and were playing on the varsity field.
The fireworks actually began before the game, however, when the umpire informed Paso Robles Head Coach Tina Kratz that they were in violation of certain somewhat obscure rules concerning the coaching staff which though very correctable, were irritating. The two women had a bit of a verbal exchange and Kratz was not a happy camper.
Cabrillo, then, led off the top of the first with emotions and expectations high. They quickly established a pattern they would repeat throughout the day. Leadoff hitter Ashala Marin bunted and reached safely on a throwing error. After a strike-out, one of eight recorded by Paso pitcher Amanda Searcy, Marin stole second, and moved to third on a groundout sacrifice. Unfortunately, she was stranded there as the next batter ground out to 2nd base. Cabrillo would put runners on base in 6 of the 7 innings, including getting runners to third base four times - but could not push one in.

In the bottom of the first, following a groundout, Rucinski would surrender a walk after working to a full count. Katie Hartman then stole second base, but was cut down at third on a fielder's choice comebacker to the pitcher. The runner left on first also attempted to steal second, and according to the umpire was sucessfull in beating a great throw by Shyann Morrow. The next batter, Alexa Munoz, drilled a laser beam through the wind into right field for a single, and Kratz, coaching at third, sent the runner home. Morrow completely cut off the plate, the throw was right on the mark, and the runner was called out - ending the inning.
Coach Kratz was incensensed and let her feelings on the matter be known in no uncertain terms. This resulted in her being restricted to the dugout for the remainder of the game. Over the next four innings, Cabrillo allowed only two baserunners. One got on and reached second base on an error at first in the 2nd, the other singled over second, stole second, and was cut down trying to steal third. The next baserunner for Paso was in the sixth inning, on the seventh comebacker to the pitcher, she knocked it down but was unable to control it and the second baseman's throw to first was not in time. Rucinski ended the threat with a strikeout on one of the prettiest change-ups you'll ever see.
And so to the seventh. Shyann Morrow nailed a shot to right field, which was different because she had been drilling them, mostly fowl, down the third base line all day. This one was the same in one regard - in was right at someone for an out. A strikeout, a hit batter, and a grounder to short ended the Cabrillo half of inning with people wondering about the tie-breaker rules.
But it was not to be. Munoz slammed a ball into the wind and the small gap between short and third - it got maybe five feet onto the grass. A walk put runners on first & second, and a perfect bunt to the right side loaded them up. There followed a quick strikeout and the Conquistador faithful thought about breathing again. But Cassie Ortega came off the bench and dropped a really nice bunt down on the right side, but it looked like it might just have enough speed to go foul. With the runner racing home from third, the firstbaseman had to decide - wait and see if it goes out or try and get the runner. She tried to get the runner. The throw was just..a.. tad ..... late.
It was a great afternoon at the ballpark, the snackbar was open, the sun was shining, some people were mad at the ump, the game was a classic between two good and evenly matched teams, there were plenty of things to discus (argue ?) about, and .....there were three more games at the Little League fields across the parking lot. -- el Stato