It was just two days before last Saturday’s Gardena City championship Bantam baseball final between his Braves and the Athletics at Rowley Park that Malachi Garcia lost his 20-year-old uncle, Ricky Compeau, who was killed while swimming in a cave below Inspiration Point in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Despite the death in his family, Garcia went ahead and played in the championship game and was a key in the Braves’ 5-3 victory over their Mas Fukai Park rival A’s.
It was just two days before last Saturday’s Gardena City championship Bantam baseball final between his Braves and the Athletics at Rowley Park that Malachi Garcia lost his 20-year-old uncle, Ricky Compeau, who was killed while swimming in a cave below Inspiration Point in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Despite the death in his family, Garcia went ahead and played in the championship game and was a key in the Braves’ 5-3 victory over their Mas Fukai Park rival A’s.
Garcia pitched three strong innings and was the winning pitcher, and he drove in a run with a base hit.
Tony Camles added a home run and Jonathan Pitman hit a two-run double.
“I was proud of the team,” Braves manager Joe Aguilar said. “Everyone contributed.”
The Braves surged out to a 4-0 lead after four innings, but the A’s cut the Braves’ lead to 4-3 in the top of the fifth with all runs scoring on bases loaded walks.
The Braves added a run in the bottom of the fifth.
Compeau was a 2013 graduate of Serra High who had finished his second year at Cal State San Marcos in North San Diego County.
He was the second person to die in the accident at the sea cave at Sacred Cove. Last year, an 18-year-old Long Beach man died.
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Sports Scoop
Special Olympics features lesser known sports
By Joe Snyder
Sports Editor
Last week was a busy week but I was able to see a little of the Los Angeles 2015 Special Olympics.
The Games, designed for intellectual disabled athletes, included such sports as bocce and team handball.
Bocce was held at the L.A. Convention Center and many sports fans wonder what the sport is. Bocce is like a smaller version of lawn bowling. A few of the rules, according to an official, are a little different.
In the United States, fans think of handball as being mostly a recreational sport in which players hit balls to the wall, but it is more like the hand version of soccer that is played, mostly, indoors.
Team handball is mostly popular in Europe. It is a real summer Olympic sport.
After nine days, the Special Olympics ended with the closing ceremonies at the Coliseum.
It shows that these athletes can excel, despite their handicaps.
Week loaded with activities: The Special Olympics were definitely not the only things happening in the L.A. area.
During the same nine-day period, from July 25 through last Sunday, was the Vans United States Pro Surfing Championships in Huntington Beach.
In the South Bay beach cities from last Thursday through Sunday was the 54th Annual International Surf Festival. Starting Thursday with the Charlie Saikley Memorial Six-Person Beach Volleyball Tournament in Manhattan Beach, other top events included the lifeguard competition at Hermosa Pier on Friday and Saturday, Junior Lifeguard events, Sunday’s Dwight Crum Hermosa Beach to Manhattan Beach Pier Two-Mile Ocean Swim, Saturday’s Two-Mile Beach Run in Hermosa, surfing, paddleboard races, a California Beach Volleyball Tournament in Hermosa and the first ever Saikley Six-Person Youth Beach Volleyball Tournament in Manhattan.
Last weekend was filled with Major League Baseball’s Freeway Series between the Dodgers and Angels at Dodger Stadium.
Behind ace pitchers Zach Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers ended up sweeping the Angels for the first time since 2008. Last Sunday, the Dodgers topped the Angels, 5-3 in 10 innings on a walk-off two-run home run by Andre Ethier.
The Dodgers (60-45) lead the National League Western Division by 2 ½ games over the rival San Francisco Giants (57-47).
The Angels currently have a six-game losing streak and fell to 55-49, four games behind the American League Western Division leading Houston Astros.
The Angels were swept back-to-back series on the road by the Astros and Dodgers.
Serra wins own summer league: After a rare miss in the CIF-Southern Section playoffs last season, Serra High’s boys’ basketball team has hopes for the return after capturing its own summer league.
The Cavaliers captured their league by downing defending Marine League champion Harbor City Narbonne 54-39 last week.
Serra’s league included two other premiere squads in CIF-L.A. City Section power Westchester and traditional power Inglewood. Manhattan Beach Mira Costa and North Torrance were other local squads involved.
The 2015-16 of the Cavaliers is expected to be led by forward Leonard Murray, point guard Mason Chipley, guard Terrence Mitchell and Dartmouth University-bound Ian Carter.
Last year, Serra ended up 11-15 overall and 2-6 in the highly prestigious Del Rey League, led by CIF-Southern Section Open Division champion Bishop Montgomery, L.A. Cathedral and Montebello Cantwell-Sacred Heart. The Cavaliers should continue to have it tough as their rival Knights should be one of the top squads in California and the Phantoms return their top players.
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Team Fletch captures Saikley Volleyball Title
By Joe Snyder
Sports Editor
For the past 20 years, Team Fletch, with players decorated with uniform numbers of the National Basketball Association Los Angeles Laker legends, enjoyed success and was one of the most popular six-man beach volleyball teams in the International Surf Festival’s Charlie Saikley Tournament.
In last Thursday and Friday’s 54th annual event on the south side of Manhattan Beach Pier, Fletch, whose sponsor is Gardena Valley News co-owner Dan Verdugo, captured its fourth men’s title but first since 2006, by downing Pancho’s from Manhattan Beach 15-6.
Fletch was star-studded that included former NBA players Luke Walton (who spent most of his career with the Lakers) and Richard Jefferson, ex-National Football League and University of Southern California quarterback Matt Leimert, along with current pro beach volleyball standouts Casey Patterson (who, with partner Jake Gibb, are currently ranked sixth in the world FIVB beach tour but are the top ranked American duo) and Casey Jennings. Today, Walton, also son of former legendary head coach John Wooden-era UCLA standout and NBA star Bill Walton, is assistant coach for the recent NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
Verdugo took sponsorship of Team Fletch in 2010. “It’s a total pleasure to be with these guys,” Verdugo said. “We’re not going to stop anytime. This is the 20th anniversary of the team. We have new blood and old blood.”
Fletch went through the tournament unbeaten that included key wins over always tough Team Simzy’s and Pancho’s.
“It’s our 20th anniversary and is the greatest team in sports history,” Leimert, who retired from the NFL after the 2012-13 season, said. Leimert spent most of his career with the Arizona Cardinals.
“This was our first title in nine years,” former United States national indoor volleyball player Ben Biembodipo said. “I was more looking forward to our 20th anniversary and playing with these guys. It’s great to be part of this team. There are a lot great young and old guys.”
Biembodipo, a 45-year-old resident of San Rafael, played on the U.S. national indoor volleyball team in 1993.
In the women’s division, it was 900 Club Bacchus that rallied out of the loser’s bracket to defeat Soho Yoga 15-8, 11-4, and Century Club also came out of the loser’s bracket to capture the Masters (age 40 and over) Division over the Wrestlers, 15-13, 11-6.
