EL SEGUNDO HERALD May 20, 2021 Page 11
Eagles from page 3
Croxall (Weber State), Leah Abitante (San
Diego State), Kelly Carignan (UC Davis), Isa
Gomez El Camino CC) and EB Steinbacher
(UC Santa Cruz) were escorted by their
families through the tunnel, of non-senior
players, that led to home plate.
Each of the seniors will remember the Senior
Day game when they each had at least one
hit and scored at least one run apiece during
the Eagle’s 14-4 win over Lawndale. In the
first inning, Mya Bennett had an RBI triple,
Katie Croxall had an RBI single, and Kelly
Carignan had an RBI double Laila Phillips
had an RBI single and also scored in the
first inning. Shanai Owens was 2-for-4 and
scored twice with two RBIs, Leah Abitante
was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, while EB Steinbacher
was 1-for-3 with an RBI single and
scored twice.
El Segundo fell to North Torrance 2-0 in
a game that the Eagles could not get any
rally going. They had just four hits, including
two by Bella Gridley, a double by Croxall,
and a single by Owens. Bailey Gertsch and
Maiya Anderson split the game in the circle
and threw well enough to win, giving up
two runs (one earned) on six hits and gave
up one walk.
The Eagles were at home on Tuesday and
travel to West Torrance today. They finish off
their regular season next week with a home
game on Monday at 4 p.m., at Lawndale next
Wednesday, and at home next Thursday against
City Section powerhouse Venice at 3:15 p.m.
Eagles Showtime Fun to Watch
The Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s were
called ‘Showtime Lakers’ because of their
fast break offense. The 2021 Eagles could
fit into that category, with CJ Hardy leading
the team’s up-tempo transition on offense.
The result has been a (7-0) start in Pioneer
League play, heading into this week’s games
after defeating Torrance 57-35 and then
overwhelming West Torrance 52-33.
In the matchup against the Torrance Tartars,
the Eagles stretched a short lead into a tenpoint
advantage at halftime. Preston Engle
and CJ Hardy ran the offense to perfection
with their passing and unselfish attitude. JJ
Chaikovsky hit a key three-pointer, and Leo
Cagan led the offense by scoring ten first-half
points and led all scorers in the game with
17 points. Another reason for El Segundo’s
success is their free-throw shooting. They
converted 9-of-13 attempts, including Tyler
Murray, who made five of six attempts.
El Segundo’s biggest test, according to
head coach David March, would come from
West Torrance. The end result was a 52- 33
win over the Warriors and a two-game lead
in the standings.
West took an early 9-5 lead, but the
Eagles outscored the Warriors 13-0 to end
the first quarter. CJ Hardy showed off his
Magic Johnson-like passing that included a
behind-the-back no-look pass to Engle for an
easy layup. El Segundo stretched the lead to
34-11 at halftime, highlighted by Engle’s 12
first-half points. In the third quarter, Hardy
led a fast break, and instead of taking an
easy layup attempt, he fed Engle for an
uncontested layup and a 45-16 lead.
The Eagles traveled to West Torrance on
Monday, hosted South Torrance on Tuesday,
and finish their regular season on the road
against Lawndale tonight at 6:30 p.m.
Lady Eagles Struggle’s Continue
The move from the Ocean League to the
Pioneer League this season has not been so
kind to the Eagles. Their losses to Torrance
65-38 and to West Torrance 57-35 may
have doomed their CIF Southern Section
playoff hopes.
El Segundo kept the game close against
Torrance when Bo Takehara sank a threepointer,
and Nicole Ungaro’s layup off a
missed shot attempt made it 21-21. The Tartars
held a five-point lead at halftime before
outscoring the Eagles 35-13 in the second
half. The Tartars sank 13 three-pointers for
the game and stymied the Eagles on defense.
The Eagles were never in the game against
West Torrance, and they trailed by as many
as 16 points in the first half. Leila Sugimoto’s
15 points and Story Noble with 12 points
were bright spots for the Eagles. The Eagles
were at home on Tuesday and are on the
road today at Lawndale at 5 p.m.•
but then mix in windy conditions, and the
Eagles were at a disadvantage. The Eagles
would overcome deficits in the first and
second half and win the first-round game
3-2 in overtime.
Granite Hills scored first on a high attempt
by Samantha Grantham that the wind
ended up pushing in for a Cougars 1-0 lead.
El Segundo tied the game on Trinity Parascandola’s
twenty-three-yard free-kick. The
Cougars’ Mackenzie Bohn found an opening
and powered in a go-ahead goal ten minutes
into the second half. Later in the second
half, Chelsie Charles found a bouncing ball
in front of the Cougar’s goal and knocked it
in off a Cougar’s defender to tie the game
and eventually send it into overtime. Five
minutes into the “Golden Goal” period,
Chelsie Charles beat two defenders before
slotting a low shot into the left corner for
the game-winner.
In the second round, El Segundo hosted
Hacienda Heights Wilson in front of nearly
three hundred spectators. In a highly contested
game, the Eagles came away with a 2-1 win.
The Eagles found themselves trailing 1-0
in the first half when Wilson scored in the
twenty-fourth minute. The Eagles evened the
game a minute into the second half when
Bella Munoz drove a high shot attempt from
twenty-five yards out and into the net. As
time was winding down, in stoppage time,
Trinity Parascandola fed Chelsie Charles
downfield. Charles caught up to the pass,
and the Wilson goaltender was caught off
balance when Charles kicked it in for the
eventual game-winner.
The Eagles faced Temescal Canyon (Lake
Elsinore) on Tuesday in the third round of the
CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs. A
win would propel the Eagles into a semi-final
matchup on Friday at home at 3:00 p.m.
Baseball Team Swept
by West Torrance
It’s been an up and down season for the
Eagles, who dropped two close Pioneer League
games to the West Torrance Warriors and
dropped to( 1-5) in league play. They could
be in danger of missing out of a post-season
berth for the first time since 2008 when they
were 18-12 overall but just 5-5 in league play.
In the first game, El Segundo’s bats had no
answer for West pitcher Tyler Lumbao and
fell 5-2. He limited the Eagles to four hits,
including Cooper Stolnack’s pinch-hit solo
home run in the seventh inning. Trailing 2-0
in the third inning Jack Stoker singled and
later scored on Evan Smith’s RBI single to
make it 2-1. In the fifth inning, the Warriors
tagged on three more runs, highlighted by
Tim Horsey’s two-run double.
In the sixth inning, Brian Pham made his
first appearance on the mound this season for
the Eagles. Pham, who had been sidelined
with an arm issue, took over for starter Jake
Stolnack. He ended up striking out three and
gave up two hits in two innings of work.
The second game was a pitcher’s duel
between El Segundo’s Kenny Chung and
West High’s Nico Bhattachan. The game went
ten innings and was decided on an error the
Warriors capitalized on and won 1-0.
Those watching the game were treated to
some of the best pitching in the South Bay.
Chung has been a workhorse for the Eagles
this season and threw 9.1 innings. He got
out of jams in innings where the Warriors
had runners in scoring position, including the
second, fourth, eighth, and ninth innings. In
the tenth inning, Alex Mendez and Cameron
Uszler each singled with one out. Dylan
Newmeyer hit a ground ball to Brendan
McAndrews for what would’ve been a sure
double-play, but his feed to Evan Smith at
second base was wide, and Mendez came
around to score.
The Eagles face South Torrance at home
today and host Grace Brethren on Saturday
at 10 a.m. and wrap up their regular season
next week against Lawndale.
Softball Team Honors its Seniors
The softball program paid homage to its
2021 seniors in a brief but memorable ceremony
prior to their game against Lawndale.
The eight seniors and their intended college
are Mya Bennett (Santa Monica CC), Shanai
Owens (Bethune-Cookman University),
Laila Phillips (Cal State Northridge), Katie
Chelsie Charles gets set to kick the winning goal in El Segundo’s 2-1 win over Hacienda Heights Wilson in the CIF-SS second-round
playoff win.
Michaela Turner gets a steal late in El Segundo’s win over H.H. Wilson in the second round of the CIF-SS playoff win
On Senior Day Laila Phillips, Leah Abitante, Kelly Carignan, Mya Bennett, Katie Croxall, EB Steinbacher, Esa Gomez, and Shanai
Brendan McAndrews laces a single in the tenth inning in the Eagle’s 1-0 loss. Owens were honored