EL SEGUNDO HERALD October 7, 2021 Page 5
City Crowns Softball Champions
By Gregg McMullin
The El Segundo Summer Coed City Softball
League season came to a ceremoniously end
with the championship on a brisk evening.
The season, which ran through the summer,
each weekday night, included 28 teams. The
top team from each night advanced to the
championship round. The league is filled with
Team Hype poses after winning the El Segundo Summer Coed City Softball League.
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experienced former high school, colligate, and
professional baseball players. Former Eagle
standouts playing in the championship round
included Scot Nicol, RJ Fuhr, Ethan Burner,
Nigel Nootbaar, Grant Palmer, Ricky Clark,
Seth McKenna, Mike Bundy and Max Mendoza.
One of the rules is if a male hits it out
of the park, it’s an out, but if a female hits
Sports Shorts
Putting El Segundo
on the Softball Map
By Brette Waters
A group of El Segundo 12-year-old girls,
appropriately called the El Segundo Eagles,
have been playing softball together since
the early days of the pandemic. Now that
vaccinations are available and restrictions
are easing up, they are continuing to play
and enjoy the game and one another.
This past weekend the El Segundo Eagles
headed back to St George, Utah, for the
Sliding out of Summer Tournament hosted
by USA Softball.
These girls have come to know and
love this small mountain town and have
continually met with success on the softball
fields here. This time was no different, but
exciting all the same.
Friday started early as the girls arrived
at the Little Valley Softball Complex at 7
a.m. for warm-ups. After a loss in the last
inning of game 1, the 12 U Eagles went on
to win the remaining two pool play games,
placing them in the second seed for the
tournament. Friday evening ended with
a win and a dance-off on the field with a
team from Utah, which was a brief pause
in the competition for some friendly fun!
Saturday morning, the Eagles landed on
the softball field bright and early again.
The sky was clear and blue, the sun was
shining, and it was the perfect morning to
play ball. Game 1 was a win over another
Southern CA team, the Peninsula Breakers
from San Diego. By the later afternoon,
the fields were cooking as temps rose to
90 degrees. The Eagles suffered a disappointing
loss in their second game of the
day, putting them in the loser’s bracket.
But this is where things really heat up for
the girls from the Gundo.
Playing the next three games back-toback
and winning them all led them to the
finals, where they played 702 Elite from Las
Vegas- a team they had already beaten the
day before. But, as a double-elimination
tournament, the Eagles couldn’t just beat the
as-yet undefeated 702 once; they had to win
twice in a row to make it to the end. And
that is just what they did. After securing a
win in the semi-finals, the final game started
at 10 p.m., 15 hours since they had arrived
at the field that morning. The energy was
high, the bats were hot, the pitching was
on fire, and the defense was on point. At
11:30 p.m., the El Segundo Eagles secured
an 8-4 victory and the championship rings.
It was a long and tiresome day, but every
one of these girls loved the game and each
other with a passion. There is nowhere they
would rather be, and El Segundo can be
proud of how well they represented our
sweet little town.
The El Segundo Eagles are Ava Waters,
Brooke Engelhardt, Catherine Reed, Daniela
Benjamin, Ella Sabosky, Grace Linares, Kate
Summers, Kathleen Lane, Layla Yermian,
Madeleine Ferrier, Maya Bonner, Molly
McAndrews, Olivia Galaviz, Sadie Gramajo •
The El Segundo Eagles at Sliding out of Summer Tournament.
one out, it’s a home run. Another rule is the
hitting lineup is staggered with a male followed
by a female hitter. The league is run
by twenty-year veteran umpire John Zello
who keeps the games going at a dizzying
pace. Most seven-inning games are played
in under an hour.
During championship Thursday, fourthseeded
Team Hype defeated fifth-seeded LBS
Daisies 10-4 to advance to the semi-finals
against the Standard Station Swingers. In the
fifth inning, the Standard Station Swingers
took a 7-5 lead on a two-run double by
Jacene Dimson. They went on to score
three more runs for a 10-5 lead. Team Hype
came back with three runs of their own in
the sixth inning on the strength of Grant
Palmer’s two-run triple. Nigel Nootbaar’s
leadoff double led to a four-run inning in
the seventh inning, and team Hype upset
Standard Station Swingers 12-10.
In the other semi-final, Slice and Pint
defeated The Tavern 14-8. Amanda Clark
had an RBI double to put Slice and Pint up
5-2. Ethan Burner extended the inning with
an RBI triple to make it 9-2. In the seventh
inning, Josh McLaughlin’s two-run double
gave Slice and Pint an 11-4 lead and then
held on for a 14-8 win.
In the final Team Hype did the unthinkable
and upset Slice and Pint 12-5. In the
first inning, Slice and Pint took a 2-1 lead
when Ricky Clark singled and scored on
Josh McLaughlin’s two-run single. In the
second inning Team Hype’s Nigel Nootbaar
had an infield single and later scored to even
the score at 2-2. Later in the inning, Max
Mendoza’s two-run single gave his team a
4-2 lead.
In the third inning, Team Hype scored four
runs to extend their lead to 8-4. In the fourth
inning Slice and Pint’s Amanda Clark hit a
deep sacrifice fly cut into the deficit 8-5. In
the fifth inning, Team Hype scored four more
runs and then held on for the 12-5 victory
and claimed the city championship.
Eagles Drop First Game
The El Segundo Eagles entered their Pioneer
League opener against South Torrance
(5-0). Penalties and turnovers doomed the
Eagles, and they fell 34-21 to a team they
once had a nine-game winning streak against.
The Eagles committed eight penalties and
turned the ball over three times. One of the
penalties cost them a touchdown when Dylan
Bucher’s 75-yard punt return was negated by
a holding call. An intercepted pass in the end
zone cost the Eagles another touchdown, and
a fumble that was lost led to a touchdown
for South Torrance.
The Eagles took the opening game drive 68
yards in eight plays, culminating when junior
quarterback Leo Menendez found Michael
Wilson for a 5-yard touchdown pass. South
responded with a 45-yard pass play from
Mathew Espinosa to Kyle Brown. On the
ensuing kickoff, the Eagles fumbled the ball
back to the Spartans. They took advantage
of the turnover with another long touchdown
pass and took a 13-7 lead.
El Segundo responded with another nineplay
drive for a touchdown. The Eagles picked
up four first downs during the four-minute
drive that was punctuated with a 25-yard
touchdown run by Dylan Bucher to give the
Eagles a 14-13 lead.
Trailing 27-14 in the third quarter, the
Eagles found the end zone on their first
possession of the second half. The Eagles
answered a Spartan touchdown pass to start
the second half. Mason Kahn’s six-yard burst
capped a seven-play drive into the end zone.
Nigel Nootbaar helped spark Team Hype’s run to a City Championship.
See Sports, page 16