After being shut out by defending CIF-Southern Section Division III champion Bishop Amat 2-0 on April 28, Serra High’s baseball team traveled to the La Puente-based school and rolled to a 10-0 victory last Friday.
The Cavaliers improved their Del Rey League record to 2-5 and overall mark to 11-12 with the win.
Serra continued to have a fine all-around game by sophomore pitcher Cardinal Fernandezees. Fernandezees allowed eight hits but they were scattered and he pitched a complete-game shutout. He struck out five batters and walked two.
After being shut out by defending CIF-Southern Section Division III champion Bishop Amat 2-0 on April 28, Serra High’s baseball team traveled to the La Puente-based school and rolled to a 10-0 victory last Friday.
The Cavaliers improved their Del Rey League record to 2-5 and overall mark to 11-12 with the win.
Serra continued to have a fine all-around game by sophomore pitcher Cardinal Fernandezees. Fernandezees allowed eight hits but they were scattered and he pitched a complete-game shutout. He struck out five batters and walked two.
Senior Mateo Brambila went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two stolen bases. He drove in three runs and scored two. Tyler Morrison was 2-for-4 with one RBI.
At Serra, the Cavaliers never were able to get much going. They ran into an outstanding sophomore pitcher in Isaac Esqueda who held Serra hitless over six innings and he and closer Xavier Chavez combined for a no-hitter.
Esqueda struck out 10 batters and walked four. The Cavaliers, in fact, threatened with runners at second and third in the bottom of the fifth but failed to score.
Serra, though, had a fine outing by junior pitcher Tommy Bothwell who allowed two runs on nine hits. He struck out five batters and walked two.
“We’re young and struggling,” Serra head coach Wilmer Aaron said. We’re not doing some things right. We have to play smarter. We made some base running mistakes.”
Bishop Amat scored one run apiece in the top of the first and sixth innings. It got insurance on Jayson Gonzalez’s run-scoring double in the sixth.
The Cavaliers hope to pull off a playoff berth as they host Cathedral High from Los Angeles in a league game Friday at 3:15 p.m. Serra, then, hosts Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in its Harvard-Westlake Tournament final in a rematch of the 2013 Southern Section Division III championship game which Serra won 8-1 for the title at Dodger Stadium. The Cavaliers resume Del Rey action at La Salle in Pasadena next Monday at 3:15 p.m.
Gardena, meanwhile, got to play San Pedro, a team involved in a bench clearing brawl on April 23 against Carson that forced the double forfeit in that contest, forfeits for both teams in San Fernando Tiger Classic games on April 24 and the Colts (with their second brawl in less than a year with the other being late last season against rival Banning) being punished by the CIF-L.A. City Section further by having to forfeit the rest of the season that includes being barred from the playoffs and being placed on probation through next season, although the contest at home was switched from April 28 to last Thursday and at San Pedro on Friday. Unfortunately, the Panthers did not get any breaks as the Pirates shut them out twice 10-0 on Thursday and 7-0 with a no-hitter last Friday.
The Panthers closed the Marine League with two games against Banning. After visiting the Pilots last Monday, Gardena hosted Banning Wednesday.
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Serra splits softball games
By Joe Snyder
Sports Editor
Serra High’s softball team lost its Camino Real League showdown to St. Anthony from Long Beach 9-1 on April 28 but came back to rout rival Inglewood St. Mary’s Academy 14-1 last Friday at Serra.
Against St. Mary’s, the Cavaliers scored in all four innings with four runs in the bottom of the first, two in the second, seven in the third and one in the fourth in the five-inning mercy rule contest.
Tamia Bates led Serra, which improved to 4-1 in league and 12-7 overall, going 3-for-4 with three runs batted in and three runs scored. Leslie Bacon was 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs. Nina Roebuck went 2-for-2 and scored three runs, and Leslie Cooper had a hit, drove in two runs and scored two.
Winning pitcher Nina Roebuck pitched a one-hitter with four strikeouts and six walks.
Roebuck drove in Serra’s only run in its loss to the Saints. Cooper scored on Robuck’s single.
Five errors plagued the Cavaliers in the loss. “We made a ton of errors,” Serra head coach Calvin Spencer said. “We hadn’t had errors like this all season.”
Serra visits St. Genevieve in Panorama City today and will host Pius X-St. Matthias Academy from Downey next Monday in 3:15 p.m. CRL games.
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Warrior softball team sweeps Fullerton; moves to Super Regionals
By Joe Snyder
Sports Editor
El Camino College’s softball team swept two games from Fullerton College to advance to this week’s Super Regionals beginning on Friday against Citrus College from Glendora at Palomar College in San Marcos (San Diego County).
At ECC on Saturday, the Warriors shut out the Hornets 2-0. On Sunday, El Camino finished off Fullerton with an 8-3 win.
Former Torrance High standout Reina Trejo was the winning pitcher and had complete games in the two contests. Trejo recorded a six-hit shutout on Saturday.
On Sunday, Gabby Fordiani helped put the game away for the Warriors on a bases-clearing three-run double. That gave ECC a 7-1 lead.
El Camino scored four runs in the top of the first behind run scoring doubles by Danielle Bonsky and Marissa Padilla. The other two runs were scored on errors.
The Hornets scored a run in the top of the fourth before Fordiani’s hit helped the Warriors pull away.
On Saturday, El Camino scored both of its runs in the bottom of the third on an RBI (run batted in) triple from Kriesten Romero and an error that brought home Romero.
Trejo allowed six hits and was able to get out of jams.
“Today, we came out wanting to win; that was our goal,” Romero said. “We did real well as a team.”
The Warriors face the Owls Friday at 2 p.m. ECC is seeded fifth, while Citrus is No. 4 in Southern California. Palomar and Cerritos are also in the Super Regional.
