Church, Duffy, the Masters Meet, and the UIFL

Both Danny Duffy (left,at CHS) and Ryan Church have been roughed up recently - Church physically and Duffy on the mound.

Pro Baseball

Ryan Church was supposed to have the day off on Friday to allow his headaches and dizziness to clear, but fate intervened. He was called upon to pinch-hit in the twelfth inning against the Colorado Rockies. He ground out to second in a 1-2-3 inning for Taylor Buchholtz, the other two Mets striking out. Santa Barbara grad and Rockies rightfielder Ryan Spilsborghs drew a remarkable four walks in the game, which Colorado won 6-5 in thirteen. Saturday the Mets won 9-2 but Church did not play.

Danny Duffy's second start for the Burlington Bees was definitely a case of hit or miss. The Beloit Snappers sent 23 batters to the plate in his four innings - seven of them struckout, one walked, another was hit by a pitch, and six had hits.

Duffy struck out two of the first three batters he faced, unfortunately the other one walked, the fourth was hit by a pitch, and the fifth singled to bring in a run, before a groundout ended the inning. In the second inning, Duffy settled down and struck out all three batters he faced - two swinging.

A lead-off double, a sacrifice bunt, and a fielders choice led to another Beloit run in the third, but Danny was able to get out of the inning without further damage despite a wild pitch.

For the second consecutive game, though, it was the fourth inning that did in Mr. Duffy. It was just one of those occasions where the team couldn't get outs. Starting with groundball single to center, a bunt single, and a sacrifice bunt back to the mound, it was suddenly second and third with one out. Back-to-back groundball singles (to center and leftfield) scored two runs, put runners on the corners, with still only one out. A stolen base, first to second, resulted in second and third, one out, again. But this time, Duffy induced a foul pop-up to third base, which scored a run, and registered a strike out to end the mess. Three runs scored and nobody hit the ball in the air out of the infield.

His final line for the game: 4.0 innings, 6 hits, 5 runs (all earned), 1 walk, 7 strikeouts, 9.39 ERA.

All-in-all it was the start of a long day for the Bees as Beloit won 8-0 in the seven inning first half of a double-header. For your collection of odd facts, Beloit has one of the tallest stables of pitchers around - one 6-4, three 6-5, two 6-7, one 6-8, and one 7-1.

Track & Field

The local contingent did not fare as well as they had hoped, but they have all had amazing seasons this year. Weather conditions were cool (high 50's to mid -60's), mostly calm, and scattered rain - perhaps contributing to the small crowd at Cerritos College.

In the Girls Long Jump, Cabrillo junior Diamonne Mitchell finished twelfth with a best of 17-10.75 (wind 1.5) among her six attempts.
[17-09.25 (1.4), 17-10.75 (1.5), 17-05.50 (+0.0), 17-09.50 (2.0), 17-03 (1.7), FOUL (1.2)]

Cabrillo Triple-jumper Kendall Reynolds posted the highest finish of the locals. The junior was sixth with a 38-01.00 (wind 0.3 ).
[FOUL (1.0), 36-08 (+0.0), 38-01 (0.3), 36-01.25 (+0.0), 36-04.25 (+0.0), 37-03 (0.7)]

Lompoc senior Chelsea Cassulo finished her season in twelfth place after a series in which she never was able to get un-tracked, topping out at 36-10.75 . [FOUL, 36-10.75, 36-09, 35-04.25, 33-00, 36-06.75]

Fellow LHS senior Masson Blow also peaked early in the Triple Jump competition posting his best effort on his first leap. A 44-05.75 (wind 1.7)which was good for eleventh place.
[44-05.75 (1.7), FOUL (0.5), 43-06.50 (0.9), FOUL (+0.0), 44-02.75 (0.7), 43-05.75 (1.3)]

UIFL

Jerrod DeGeorgia's Sioux City Bandits suffered the most heartbreaking loss of their current season last week as the Bloomington Extreme kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired in the highest scoring UIFL game in history.

The 76-73 loss was their sixth in a row - the last four by a total of 19 points (4, 5, 6, 3). The first-year coach still believes that the Bandits (3-7, tied for 2nd in the Eastern Division 2 1/2 behind the Express) are on the cusp of a breakthrough and is hopeful since 3 of their last 4 regular season games are at home where they are 2-2.

The coach has had other problems as well this month - collapsing after a 51-46 loss to rival Sioux Falls as Steven Allspach explained in the Sioux City Journal:

Warrior that he was a college quarterback at Wayne State and then in indoor professional football with the Des Moines Barnstormers and Sioux City Bandits, Jarrod DeGeorgia understands stress and strain.

The two caught up to the 32-year-old Sioux City Bandits coach, though, when he collapsed late in a Saturday game in Sioux Falls. Sunday evening, the Bandits coach was resting comfortably at Sioux City home after being released from a Sioux Falls hospital earlier in the day.

DeGeorgia collapsed late in his team's 51-46 United Indoor Football league loss Saturday to the Sioux Falls Storm at Sioux Falls Arena.

"Jarrod had several tests taken, including heart tests and everything came back negative about those,'' said DeGeorgia's wife, Melissa.

"We're so thankful for that. It wasn't his heart that caused the collapse. "Doctors say stress and anxiety caused the problem. Jarrod's not under any medication and just needs to rest as much as possible. He plans to go back to work on Monday, though.''

DeGeorgia is also a sales representative for KMEG.

"Between working two jobs, one very stressful as a football coach, and being a great father, the doctors said Jarrod's body just sort of gave up physically,'' said his wife.

The couple are parents of two children, 20-month old daughter Siena and 8-month old Jayce.

DeGeorgia's road to recovery will also start today when he plans to make a brief appearance at the club's annual golf outing today at Whispering Creek to assure his players and fans he's return to duty as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, his assistant coaches will be given increased responsibilities for a few weeks.

The Bandits hosted the Colorado Ice (4-6) on Saturday, winning 79-60. The game has engendered some controversy, at least from the Ice point of view, since one player was ejected from the contest and two coaches were restricted to the sidelines.--- el stato