Press Box: Citrus Sports, St. Lucy's & Glendora High School Action

Citrus Softball: The Owls (22-13, 14-4) were on a roll, winners of 12 straight games, when they hit a wall against conference rival Bakersfield College. The Renegades took all three recent games against Citrus, including a 10-0 shutout on Tuesday afternoon, which all but ensured them of the Western State Conference Blue Division title. The Owls concluded their regular season with a doubleheader against Santa Monica on Thursday and they took both games 7-0 and 8-1. Sophomore Kristan Breslau went 6 for 7 with 4 RBI’s and 4 runs scored in the two wins. The Owls now await the Southern California post season seeding to see who they will face in the playoffs.  

Citrus Baseball: The Owls (16-18, 10-9) opened up with a 10-6 non-conference win over host Mt. SAC on Tuesday, then came home for the rematch on Thursday afternoon. At that game, the Owls were unable to complete the sweep of the Mounties who Citrus Freshman Shane Fraijo continued to hit the ball well as he went 3 for 3 with two runs and a pair of RBI’s on Tuesday, but his bat was silenced at home on Thursday by Mt. SAC’s Tyler Garkow in a complete game victory. The Owls conclude their season this week with a pair of games against L.A. Pierce College.

Citrus Men’s Golf: The team concluded their regular season on Monday afternoon at the WSC Event hosted by Glendale College. The Owls shot a combined 403 to place fifth out of six teams in the event despite freshman Etsuyuki Fukaya shooting a round of 78. The Owls are scheduled to take part in the conference Championships this morning at Los Serranos Golf Course in Chino Hills.

In Glendora High School Baseball News: The Tartans (12-5-1, 7-2) continued to roll opening the week with a 4-2 league victory at home against Etiwanda on Wednesday.

“We showed a lot of heart today we played two phases of the game really well, we pitched well, made some key plays, defensively guys ran all over the place, shagged down some things, a couple of double plays so we really played well defensively,” said Tartans’ coach Dan Henley following the win.

Henley praised the pitching performance of senior Sean Beckman who entered the game with five wins, 23 strikeouts and a 2.08 earned run average.

“On the hill, Sean Beckman again did an outstanding job, he didn’t have his best stuff but again made some key pitches in key situations,” said Henley, “They had a second and third situation with one out and you got two outs out of that and brought the game back to 1-0,  I thought that was very important, it could have been 2-0 or 3-0 so that was huge.”

Next, the Tartans traveled to the Rancho Cucamonga’s Quakes Stadium for the rematch and the “battle for the Baseline League” against Etiwanda on Saturday. The implications of the match-up were not lost on Henley.

“We know that they’re a very good team and we know that they’re going to be motivated. This is a game that decides a tie-breaker possibly down the road with them, so we’re not going to take anything for granted,” he said prior to Saturday’s game. The Tartans pulled out the win 5-1 to stretch their winning streak to three games retaining the top spot in the competitive Baseline League.

In Glendora Softball News: After having their game on Monday rescheduled because of weather, the Tartans (12-7, 5-4) got back on their home field on Tuesday and defeated Rancho Cucamonga 4-3 to move to within one game of tying Etiwanda for first place atop the Baseline League standings. Things didn’t go as planned for Glendora the following day as in the make-up game, squandering a solid pitching performance by Senior Carly Argyle.

“I think a lot of it is not physical, I think that a lot of it is mental and emotional,” said Glendora head coach Reese Mitchell in reference to the team’s inconsistent play following the loss.

“You play so well against an Etiwanda club, we played with emotion for seven innings but we haven’t seen that since.”

The Tartans rebounded against Alta Loma with a 5-4 road victory on Thursday.

 In St Lucy’s Softball News: It’s been an up and down season for the Regents (9-9, 4-6), but with a walk-off home run in extra innings.

“Hopefully it will give us some momentum to build on when we play them again in a couple of days and against the rest of the league,” said St. Lucy’s coach Ryan Nuveman.

Nuveman added the Regents still had to work on some facets of their game, mainly communication.

“We need to improve our communication skills amongst the team. Not just on base coverages but backing up and cut-offs and team stuff that we work on all the time. Even though our kids are in position often enough, they're not demanding that attention from their teammates when they talk to each other.”

The Regents will try to continue to improve when they face the Chargers again tomorrow at Charter Oak. The game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.