EL SEGUNDO HERALD April 27, 2017 Page 5 Emery’s Surge Leads Eagles to Victories Story and Photos by Gregg McMullin The El Segundo High School baseball team has had one of its most successful seasons in years. The Eagles are 17-6 overall entering this week’s play. With convincing wins over Beverly Hills and a narrow loss to Redondo, the Eagles are setting their sights on a long playoff run. With Jake Palmer set to obliterate the school record books for batting average and Spencer Palmer not far behind, the Eagles will need others to step up as well. Sean Emery has emerged as another big hitter in an already deep offensive lineup. Beverly Hills was leading the Ocean League along with Santa Monica before facing the Eagles. So Emery and his teammates swept the Normans 10-3 and 5-3 to make it known that the Eagles are part of the Ocean League race. Emery was a tough out, going six for eight in the two games including a home run, three doubles, four RBIs, four runs scored and two stolen bases. Emery singled, stole second base and scored on a fielder’s choice in the first inning. In the third inning, Jake Palmer singled and scored on Nico Celestial’s double. Spencer Palmer then singled and Emery smacked an RBI double to make it 3-0. Matt Romero’s sacrifice fly made it 4-0. With the Eagles leading 7-0 in the fourth inning, Emery unloaded a 385- foot two-run home run to make it 9-0. The Eagles would go on to score once more in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Jimmy Galicia tossed a complete game for the Eagles. Galicia was sharp through the first five innings, limiting the Normans to just two hits. But Beverly Hills came alive in the sixth inning by scoring three runs on four hits. Galicia then tossed a perfect seventh inning, including his fifth strikeout, to end the game. In the 5-3 win over the Normans, Jake Palmer was three for three, Spencer Palmer was two four four with two doubles and two RBIs, and Emery was two for four and scored twice. Spencer Long got the win, pitching a complete game with a season-high 10 strikeouts. He gave up three earned runs on six hits to notch his sixth win of the season. In the 4-1 loss to Redondo, the Eagles squandered plenty of opportunities by leaving base runners. Emery went two for three with an RBI and Justin Mostert tossed six innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits and two walks with one strikeout for the Eagles. The Eagles played host to Lawndale on Tuesday and play there today. Next Thursday the program salutes the seniors on Senior Day. The game against Hawthorne starts at 3:15 with the salute to the seniors starting at 3 pm. Swim Teams Doing Well Head coach Riley Brady is certainly proud of how well both the boys’ and girls’ swim teams have done thus far. The varsity boys have continued their undefeated streak as they blew away Ocean League foe Culver City 97-67. Will Schodorf continues his rise as one of the team’s best swimmers. The sophomore sensation took first in the 500 free and has yet to lose in this event this season. Nolan Young swam a personal best of 1:59.5 in the 200 freestyle, while Kyle Crist ran away with the 100 free and 50 free. The varsity girls dominated Culver City 87-59. Bridgette Allison won the 200 freestyle, Freshman phenom Dylan Chen won the 100 freestyle and Savannah Ghale was outstanding in the 100 butterfly. Today, The Eagles travel to league rival Santa Monica to take on one of the top teams in the Southern Section. Boys’ Lacrosse Gets Signature Win The boys’ lacrosse team turned in one of the program’s biggest wins when it unseated Santa Monica 13-9 on the road. For the Vikings, ranked 25th in the state, it was their first loss of the season. The Eagles took a measure of revenge out on the Vikings after losing at home to Samo in a thriller 9-8. This time around, Daniel Ball scored five goals and senior goalie Alex Nolan made three crucial fourth quarter saves to lead the Eagles to victory. It took a five-goal outburst in the third quarter for El Segundo to open up a lead over Santa Monica. The Eagles led 10-6 heading to the fourth quarter, but Santa Monica wouldn’t fold and pulled to within 10-9. Then the Eagles met the challenge with three straight goals. The Eagles’ defense held the high-scoring Vikings to nine goals for the second time this season. Santa Monica has been averaging 14 goals per game and have not scored less than in double digits all season other than the two games against the Eagles. With Nolan in goal, he made just six saves--a testament to the Eagles’ defensive presence. Three of those saves came in the fourth quarter, as Santa Monica made an effort to erase El Segundo’s lead. Santa Monica used a different strategy in slowing down the Eagles; offense by doubleteaming Cory Lund--the Eagles’ top scorer. That opened the way for Ball to have a five-goal game. Rory Cochrane added three Douglass MORTUARY “Our Family Serving Yours Since 1954” B U R I A L - C R E M AT I O N - W O R L DW I D E T R A N S F E R P E T M E M O R I A L P RO D U C T S 500 EAST IMPERIAL AVENUE EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA 90245 Te l e p h o n e ( 3 1 0 ) 6 4 0 - 9 3 2 5 • F a x ( 3 1 0 ) 6 4 0 - 0 7 7 8 • F D 6 5 8 Burkley Brandlin Swatik & Keesey LLP AT T O R N E Y S AT L AW Lifetime El Segundo Residents Living Trusts/Wills, Probate, Employment Law, Personal Injury Trust and Estates Litigation, Business Litigation, Civil Litigation 310-540-6000 *AV Rated (Highest) Martindale - Hubbell / **Certified Specialist Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization Injuries and Inconsistencies Plague Dodgers Once Again By Adam Serrao As of last Sunday, the Los Angeles Dodgers hadn’t won a series since beating the San Diego Padres in three of four games to begin the regular season. Being that it’s only less than a month into the season, it becomes hard to form a concrete opinion about a team that still has over 135 games left to play. So far, a few major weaknesses have been exposed and injuries have already begun to pile up for a team that constantly seems to be plagued by them. If this is indeed the year for the “Boys in Blue,” Dave Roberts and company may have a long way to go before Los Angeles becomes part of the league’s elite. In the very, very young baseball season, the Los Angeles Dodgers have found that playing any team other than the San Diego Padres has proven to be difficult. That’s not saying much, either. Ask any baseball fans around Major League Baseball and they’d be hard-pressed to name even one player on the Padres. The Dodgers beat San Diego in three of four games to start the regular season and L.A. fans everywhere were comfortable with where the team was at after the first weekend. Since that time, however, the Dodgers went 6-9 dating back to last Sunday and were 5-7 against other NL West opponents. In addition to not having as much fun playing baseball against other teams as they have against the Padres, Los Angeles has been exposed against left-handed pitching. Opposing managers know that if they start a left-hander against the Dodgers –even a rookie lefty making his first appearance in the majors--they will have an excellent chance at winning the ballgame. The 2016 Dodgers had the worst batting line against lefties of any playoff team in MLB history. Not much has changed in six months. Opposing pitchers had accumulated a 2.20 ERA and 1.21 WHIP against L.A at the time of this writing. Basically, if you start a southpaw against the Dodgers, you’re going to get a win more times than not. “I think you guys are making it a bigger deal than anybody else,” Dodgers utility man Kike Hernandez stated about the stats. “It’s still April. If we’re still not hitting lefties or righties in September, then it’s a different story, but we’re still in April and we’re not going to make a big deal out of it or get in our heads.” Whether it’s early in the season or not, offense has certainly been a problem for the Dodgers. That fact was no more apparent than in the series versus the reigning World Series champions, Chicago Cubs. The Dodgers were 1-21 with runners in scoring position in the series and seem to continuously miss on key opportunities every time they have a chance to score a run. Granted, the Dodgers do have the ability to get runners on base and even get them into scoring position. It’s only once the team gets ready to score, however, that they fail by either grounding into double plays or continuously strike out under pressure. A team that can’t play under pressure can’t make it deep into the playoffs and that, after all, is what this year is all about for the Dodgers. Injuries have certainly piled up for the Dodgers as well. So far, the team had already put 11 players on the DL only three weeks into the season. Logan Forsythe, Rob Segedin, Andre Ethier, Scott Kazmir, Grant Dayton and most importantly Rich Hill have all found themselves on the disabled list, among others. The Dodgers have some incredible depth on the roster, but depth doesn’t matter when injuries continue to plague a locker room that has been marred by them for the better part of two years now. The “Boys in (Black) and Blue” better get healthy if they want any legitimate shot at playing into October. Not everything has been negative surrounding the Dodgers, though. The bullpen has been mostly solid, the back end of the rotation has really stepped up and Clayton Kershaw is still really, really good. Players like Andrew Toles, Alex Wood and Ross Stripling have all stepped up to bolster a roster that has been plagued by the injury bug. Corey Seager and Justin Turner have proven to be invaluable and the Dodgers have many other skilled players in the minor leagues champing at the bit to get their chance at playing under the bright lights of the MLB (if Cody Bellinger gets a chance, watch out). Also, don’t forget Julio Urias who is still waiting on his call to join the major league club and could do so this week. The regular season always has its own way of playing itself out, especially when there are still over 135 games left to be played. The Dodgers haven’t been left for dead yet, but there is still a lot of work left to be done, as there likely is with most major league clubs at this point in the season. The truth surrounding the Dodgers is that Roberts and the front office occupied by Farhan Zaidi and Andrew Friedman are taking their time in slowly evaluating a team that they are almost certain will be competing for a championship this year. The diamonds in the rough will undoubtedly rise to the top and the weak links will fall off of the chain as the regular season carries on. In the meantime, it sure is fun to dissect a team that may have its best chance at winning a World Series since 1988. – Asixlion@earthlink.net • Our Best Deal Ever! Free Installation! Call Today, Save 30%! 1-855-900-9024 for more information See Eagles, page 7
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