The favorites aren't being treated with much respect in the Southern Section baseball playoffs, where Tuesday's second round continued its assault on division favorites.
Nowhere was it worse than in Division III, where the second, third-, and fourth-seeded teams were beaten down like Rodney Dangerfield's ego.
In each case, the winning team was at home: Paloma Valley (Menifee) beat No. 2 Alhambra, 9-0, behind Niko Caramella three RBIs and David Herd's two-hitter;
Lancaster beat No. 3 South Hills (West Covina), 8-7 with three runs in the bottom of the seventh, a two-run homer by Curtis Summers and an RBI single by sophomore Ryan Barker;
Gahr (Cerritos) beat No. 4 Hemet, 5-3, on the strength of reliever Darian Dominguez. That leaves Beckman (Irvine, Calif.) atop the bracket and playing king of the hill.
“We talk about it all the time, on any given day,” said Lancaster coach Tony Holiday. “One of our mottoes is fear no one, respect everyone regardless of their record. On any given day they can beat you. In playoff time, I'm not sure there are any mid-level teams. It's going to be the team that executes, that makes the fewest mistakes and capitalizes on opponents' mistakes. We managed to get that done.”
A lot of times it's about pitching, or conversely, lack of it. A well-placed ace in the bracket may be all it takes. Paloma Valley, Lancaster and Gahr were all the second-place entries from their leagues.
So, too, was Damien (La Verne), which upset third-seeded Redland East Valley, 6-3, as James Guillan pitched a two-hitter against the high-scoring Wildcats in a Division II game. Fourth-seeded Cypress also fell, albeit to another first place team, Mira Costa (Manhattan Beac).
Through two rounds of playoffs, only the two smallest divisions, Divisions VI and VII, have all their seeded teams still remaining, and fourth-seeded Vasquez (Acton) had to go 13 innings to win at Kern Valley (Lake Isabella.), 9-5, in Division VI.
Division I is still hanging tough according to the playoff advisory committee's projections: The top three seeded teams are still alive.
The only casualty so far is Edison (Huntington Beach), but top-seeded Orange Lutheran (Orange) and left-handed pitcher Bobby Wheatley survived with a 2-1 victory over Oxnard, another second-place team from its league, as Willie Shaw hit an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh.
Third-seeded Lakewood) had only four hits, had struck out 10 times and trailed Poly (Riverside), 4-1, when it rallied with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. It got four four walks and a two-run single by Anthony Razo, then won it in the eighth inning, 5-4, on Tyler Leidbolt's RBI single.
Notes from the bullpen
The most impressive baseball result in the first round was the Dana Hills (Dana Point) 2-1 upset in eight innings over fourth-seeded Edison (Huntington Beach) and its outstanding junior pitcher, Henry Owens, who had a no-hitter through four.
Edison (18-9), the defending section champion, lost to the South Coast League's fourth-place team despite Owens (9-3) pitching a three-hitter and striking out 12. The 6-foot-6 junior left-hander finished with 127 strikeouts in 87.2 innings.
A leadoff walk to Scott Kaplan, a hit batter and a double by Trevor Scott brought home the winning run. Credit Eric Hsieh (4-6) with scraping by in a nine-hitter in which he allowed a runner in every inning but the first. He lost the shutout on Kyle Jones' two-out RBI in the bottom of the seventh. Dana Hills had to spend its ace, Peter Tago, in a 7-1 wild-card victory at Hueneme just to get to the first round.
A close runner-up: The Yucaipa first-round Division II victory over second-seeded Crespi (Encino), 3-1, behind Taiwan Walker's two-hitter. The reason this one isn't No. 1 is because anyone familiar with Yucaipa would have expected this potentiality.
Everyone knew Divisions I and II were brutal. Edison and Crespi weren't the lucky ones, unlike second-seeded Royal-Simi Valley, whose Cody Buckel (11-1) pitched a six-hitter and had a run-scoring double in the first inning of a 1-0 victory over Corona in the first round.
City baseball semifinals set
City Section semifinals in baseball continue Wednesday with fifth-seeded San Pedro (23-5) taking on top-seeded Chatsworth (25-4), and third-seeded El Camino Real (Woodland Hills) (17-11) playing at second-seeded Banning (Wilmington) (22-8).
The championship will be played at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, 1 p.m.
Chatsworth, according to the L.A. Times, hasn't lost a home playoff game in 10 years, which makes the Chancellors a favorite for history's sake. In the other semifinal, Jose Cardona of ECR will face Jonathan Hernandez in a battle of junior All-City pitchers.
City softball surprise
San Pedro, the second-seeded team in the City Section softball playoffs, was stunned by Kennedy (Granada Hills) in the semifinals. Third-seeded Kennedy scored a 3-1 eight-inning victory over the Pirates, the four-time defending section champion, behind the clutch pitching of Christian Carbajal (21-5) and the decisive RBI single by Adrianna Correa.
Carbajal allowed four hits and walked four, but got better defense behind her that allowed her to escape the kind of trouble that doomed losing pitcher Kailee Cuico.
The past decade, San Pedro (23-8) was the most sure thing in the City, having won section titles nine times since the 1990s ended, including the last five in a row. Kennedy (23-6) will play Chatsworth (25-5) May 26 at Cal State Northridge. That was the first meeting between the schools since San Pedro defeated Kennedy, 1-0, in the 2007 championship.
The victory by Chatsworth over top-seeded Carson was similarly stunning as the fourth-seeded Chancellors scored three runs in the seventh inning for a 5-4 victory, highlighted by Chelsea Anaya's four hits and three RBIs
Chatsworth has fashioned this most excellent season despite losing two players and an assistant coach, who quit on April 17. Since that time, Cheyenne Coyle (19-4) has pitched every inning during the team's nine-game winning streak. Coyle, who will play shortstop at Florida, has a 0.93 earned-run average along with 46 runs, 40 RBIs and 13 home runs.
Softball upsets are also in style
The only seeded team remaining in the Southern Section Division I softball playoffs is Valencia, which defeated Valencia (Placentia), 10-1, in the second round. Esperanza (Anaheim) knocked off Mater Dei (Santa Ana), 3-2, in 10 innings in what had to be an emotional loss for the Monarchs; they had been playing this season in memory of sophomore pitcher Bri Matthews, who died 10 days before the season began.
Mater Dei, which walked the bases loaded to set up a force, walked in the winning run on four pitches. Losing coach Doug Myers uncharacteristically gave the home plate umpire an earful after feeling pitcher Carly Wade was squeezed while facing Vanessa Weaver. It's the second year in a row that Esperanza beat Mater Dei in the playoffs.
Also losing was fourth-seeded Simi Valley, which fell to Santa Margarita (Rancho Santa Margarita), which is from the Trinity League, same as Mater Dei, Orange Lutheran (which next plays Valencia) and Rosary (which KO'd third-seeded Santiago-Corona in the opening round). Rosary's ride ended with an 8-3 loss to Hart-Newhall.
Division II lost its top-seeded team, Etiwanda-Rancho Cucamonga, in the first round along with third-seeded Canyon Springs-Moreno Valley. Division III still has all its top-seeded teams, thanks to third-seeded Glendora's 11-6, 12-inning victory over La Habra in the second round.
The only divisions in which the seeded teams advanced through the first two rounds are III, V and VII.
Santiago doesn't press the pepper issue
Santiago-Corona softball coach John Perez said that he possessed video of Rosary-Fullerton playing pepper before its first-round Division I playoff game, but chose not to wage a protest after his third-seeded team lost in eight innings, 5-4.
“Rosary beat us on the field and I don't want to take anything away from them,” Perez told the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Santiago finished 27-2 and Rosary lost in second round. “The pepper rule is there but I felt that enough was enough.”
Shreve in limbo
Tyler Shreve, who allegedly attacked Redlands East Valley baseball coach James Cordes after being dismissed from the team, has had his football scholarship to Utah suspended indefinitely.
Shreve, REV's starting quarterback, has a pretrial hearing on May 27 for a misdemeanor charge of battery on a school employee. According to a statement released by Utah, “Shreve's status will be reevaluated in January 2011.Tyler will not be a member of our football team this fall. We have laid out specific guidelines and expectations that Tyler will need to follow in order for him to receive reconsideration to join our program in January.”
Shreve was expelled from REV and is now reportedly playing baseball for an Inland Valley travel team.
REV, seeded third in the Southern Section Division II playoffs, was beaten on Tuesday by Damien-La Verne, 6-3.
USC has a week, and then some
USC already got a commitment from quarterback Max Wittek and receiver Victor Blackwell of Mater Dei. Now the Trojans got Crenshaw running back/defensive back De'Anthony Thomas to nod toward Troy.
The uber-fast running back committed last week to USC, two days after Blackwell, to give the Trojans a pair of extraordinary skill players. Thomas, nicknamed “Black Mamba,” was considered the top recruit in the Southland.
It didn't stop with Thomas.
Mission Viejo's top player, linebacker Tre Madden, followed suit with a commitment to USC.
With commitments from those four players – if they keep their word – maybe Lane Kiffen is showing he's worth most of that $4.4 million salary before ever coaching a single game.
Legendary coach passes
Jim Brownfield, who won championships at Pasadena Muir as both a football and track coach, has died. He was 81.
Brownfield coached Muir football to Southern Section titles in 1985 and 1986, and the girls' track and field team to four section and two state titles, in 1985 and 1989. He retired in 1996, and was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Assn. Hall of Fame in 1998. He had also coached cross country, tennis and basketball, and was the football coach at Loyola Marymount.
A two-time national coach of the year, Brownfield won six southern section titles in football and compiled a 191-14-1 record. His girls' track team went 91-0 in dual meets, according to the Pasadena Star-News.
Brownfield had major heart surgery 14 months ago. He died Monday at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles.
Former NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Chad Brown had a fond recollection of his former coach, according to the newspaper: “We referred to him as a legend even as we were playing for him. We had such a healthy respect and a little bit of fear that he can walk down the halls and they'd go silent, and the halls at John Muir are not quiet places. . . . I've been coached by some great coaches and great men (such as) Bill Belichick, Mike Holmgren . . . I'd put Jim Brownfield up there with those guys.”
A celebration of his life is tentatively planned for June 25 at Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena.
The transfers among you
* Sophomore Chase Favreau, a left-handed sophomore, has transferred from Mater Dei-Santa Ana to Edison-Huntington Beach.
* Trevor Kanteman, a sophmore quarterback at Simi Valley Royal, has transferred to West Hills Chaminade.
Comings and goings
* Jimmy Nolan has been hired as the new football coach at Centennial-Compton. Nolan was last a head coach at Laguna Beach in 2006 when the Breakers finished 5-6 overall. In the two seasons after going 0-10, Nolan went 10-10-1. He has also been an assistant at Fountain Valley and Mater Dei.
* Jeremiah Ross, who was fired at Encino Crespi, has been named an assistant coach at Western Carolina, and Division I-AA college.
* Tom Roanhaus has resigned as boys' basketball coach at Oaks Christian after five seasons. He cited professional reasons, to focus on his job as athletic director of Oaks Christian's middle school.
* Andre Chevalier has been named boys' basketball coach at Oaks Christian. He had been the girls' coach.
* Roger Holmes, who resigned from Marina-Huntington Beach after 17 seasons, has been named the new boys' basketball coach at Fountain Valley. By doing so, Holmes will remain in the Sunset League and returns to his alma mater, where he set the school single-season scoring record in the 1978 season.
* He replaced Chris Gray, who had resigned. Holmes reportedly pursued the Fountain Valley job after learning that his son, Brendan, would play a Thursday-Saturday schedule at Dominican University in San Rafael that would not compete with compete with the high school schedule.
* Jack Harrison, who was at Arlington-Riverside for all of the school's 36 years, including 13 as an athletic director, has announced his retirement. He had been also been the football and baseball coach.
Recruiting news
Alex Guzzi, an offensive and defensive lineman at Encino Crespi, has signed with New Mexico State.
Notes
* City and Southern Section all-star baseball teams will play each other on June 12, 6 p.m., at Birmingham-Lake Balboa High. The City team will be coached by John Gonzalez of Banning-Wilmington and Edgar Maldonado of Arleta. The Southern Section team will be headed by Jared Snyder of Valencia and Dennis Reitz of Agoura.
* Bill Redell, the football coach at Oaks Christian-Westlake Village, was subject of a roast reportedly in front of hundreds on May 23. Roasters included Joe Montana and Wayne Gretzky, who have sons who played this season for Redell, as well as former UCLA coach Terry Donahue. It was to raise money for an all-weather field. It lasted more than five hours.
Repeat, five hours.
Or about the time it takes to read this notebook.
* Bill Stacy of Roosevelt-Corona and Tony Barile of Summit-Fontana have been selected respective coaches of the Riverside County vs. San Bernardino County football game on Jan. 8 at Corona High.
* The Riverside County all-star baseball game won't be at Riverside Community College after all. It will be at UC Riverside on June 10, 7 p.m.
* The San Gabriel Valley all-star baseball game is slated for Alhambra High, instead of Mt. San Antonio college as it has been recently, on June 6, 2 p.m. Nick Lemas of Arcadia and Kevin Smith of South Hills will coach.
Martin Henderson began covering Southland preps in 1993 for the Los Angeles Times. He contributes to the Orange County Register, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and San Bernardino Sun, and offers up motorsports opinions at Racescribe.com. You can reach him at southlandpreps@yahoo.com.
