Tri Park takes a long loss to Wiseburn; all sports for June 23

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HOT BAT—Amir Lee went 3 for 4 with two runs batted in and two runs scored but Tri Park lost in the first round of the District 37 Junior Little League All-Star Baseball Tournament to Wiseburn 14-7 on Saturday. Photo by Joe Snyder

Last Saturday’s District 37 Junior Little League (age 13-14) All-Star Baseball game was long and dragging and especially for Tri Park at Jim Thorpe Park in Hawthorne.

In a seven-inning contest that lasted nearly three and a half hours, Wiseburn rolled over Tri Park 14-7.

Last Saturday’s District 37 Junior Little League (age 13-14) All-Star Baseball game was long and dragging and especially for Tri Park at Jim Thorpe Park in Hawthorne.

In a seven-inning contest that lasted nearly three and a half hours, Wiseburn rolled over Tri Park 14-7.

Wiseburn started out taking advantage of Tri Park errors to grab a 3-0 lead after the first inning. Tri Park managed to rally to tie the game at three in the bottom of the second inning. In the third, Wiseburn grabbed a 6-3 lead on a two-run home run by Cameron Lan and it let the air out of Tri Park. A rash of Tri Park errors enabled Wiseburn to take a 10-3 lead in the fifth. Tri Park scored three times in the top of the sixth, sparked by a two-run double from Matthew Chavez. In the bottom of the sixth, Tri Park just could not stop Wiseburn, as it added four more runs for a 14-6 advantage. Tri Park managed just one run after two out in the top of the seventh for the final score.

“We made a lot of errors,” Tri Park manager Oscar Aguilar said. “It cost us five or six runs.’

A bright spot for Tri Park was Amir Lee who went 3-for-4 with two runs batted in and two runs scored.

Keying Wiseburn, located in Western Hawthorne, were Danny del La Luz who was 3-for-5 and two RBI’s and winning pitcher Julian Garcia who pitched five strong innings.

Tri Park played Lennox in a loser’s bracket game last Sunday but the results were unavailable. Lennox lost its first round game to Lawndale 8-7 Saturday at Thorpe Park. Lawndale played Wiseburn in the second round of the winner’s bracket on Sunday. The tournament lasted through Wednesday if the champion went unbeaten. An extra game will be played Friday at 7 p.m. at Thorpe Park, if needed.

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Prep Football Divisions

Major Division Changes begin in CIF-SS beginning fall

By Joe Snyder

Sports Editor

Over the past several years, individual enrollment was used in certain sports, such as basketball, track and field and cross country for the CIF-Southern Section playoffs, while most others were based on leagues that included their strengths and average enrollment of the schools.

Beginning in the 2016-17 school year, it will apply to all sports. The Southern Section will go by the strength of the high schools for certain sports, instead of the leagues, like it was in sports like football, water polo, soccer and baseball in the past.

The Southern Section already decided on football and other fall sports. Since Serra moved into the much more highly competitive Mission League for football, it played in the PAC Five, which is also regarded as Division I. The Cavaliers will remain in Division I with the likes of defending champion Corona Centennial and other powers such as Bellflower St. John Bosco, Santa Ana Mater Dei, Orange Lutheran, Anaheim Servite and Long Beach Poly. Serra will still play in the Mission with Mission Hills Alemany, La Puente Bishop Amat, Encino Crespi, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and West Hills Chaminade. Last season, the Cavaliers were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Mater Dei 28-27.

North Torrance, which tied cross town rival West Torrance for the Pioneer League title and advanced to the Southern Section Western Division (now Division VII) quarterfinals before falling to Manhattan Beach Mira Costa 35-21 last fall, will stay in Division VII. West, which won the Pioneer and made it to the Southern Section Western Division semifinals before falling to Bay League power and eventual champion Palos Verdes in 2014, moves up one division to Division VI, which will also include Mira Costa and Lawndale. Torrance will move down to Division X and South Torrance will be in Division IX. Bishop Montgomery, which won the South Catholic League but lost to Pasadena Maranatha in the first round of the CIF-Southern Section Division X playoffs, moves one notch down to Division XI. The Knights will seek to go further in the playoffs next season.

There will continue to be 13 divisions in football but in some of the lower divisions, third place and even a few second place teams may not advance to the playoffs.

Divisions are also expected to be added in soccer, baseball and softball going from seven to 10 divisions. Boys’ volleyball will go up from five to seven.

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Sports Scoop

North swimmer gets top South Bay honors

By Joe Snyder

Sports Editor

North Torrance High standout senior swimmer Ryo Kagawa was named as the South Bay Boys’ Swimmer of the Year by the Daily Breeze, announced last week.

Kagawa’s top event is the 100-yard breast stroke where he swam as fast as 56.81 seconds to tie for fifth place in the California State Championships earlier this month in Clovis. That is a school record that was broken by his own a few weeks earlier in the Pioneer League Championships at 57.21. Kagawa also placed third in the CIF-Southern Section Division III finals at the event and was seventh in the 200-yard Individual Medley clocking 1:58.53.

West Torrance sophomore William Ngo was first team all-area. He was Pioneer League champion in the 100-yard butterfly in 55.7 and the 100 backstroke timing 55.41.

Local second team all-South Bay swimmers included senior Kenny Garcia (Torrance), senior Jason Gottschalk (Torrance), junior James Lee (Torrance) and senior Markus Mackintosh (West).

Long Wait in Cleveland: When the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied to defeat the Golden State Warriors 93-89 in the seventh game of the National Basketball Association Championship last Sunday in Oakland, Cleveland fans were in a big celebration.

Not only was it was the Cavaliers’ first ever NBA title but the first since 1964 for any Cleveland major professional sports team. The previous Cleveland team to win a championship was the Browns who won the National Football League title. That dates back before the Super Bowl began just over two years later; in the 1966-67 season.

For many who live in Cleveland, it was the first time they ever saw a local pro sports team win a championship.

Behind “King” LaBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, the Cavaliers rallied from a 3-1 game deficit to outlast the powerful Warriors, who ended up with the NBA’s best regular season record ever at 73-9.

Cleveland is the “Rock and Roll” City and the Cavaliers and their fans are really rockin through the celebration.