March 16, 2017 Page 5 Hawthorne Baseball Begins Regular Season By Adam Serrao Baseball has finally begun and the Hawthorne High Cougars have taken the diamond to try to improve on a season that went horribly wrong in the latter stages of last year. With head coach JC Randolph at the helm, Hawthorne will be returning a team that only managed to lose four seniors from one season ago. With youth and experience now laden throughout the roster, Randolph and the rest of the Cougars hope that this is finally the season that will push the team out of depths of the Ocean League standings and into contention for a playoff spot. Last season left a lot to be desired for Randolph and his squad. At the beginning of the year, the Cougars felt that they could have been among the best teams in the area. With results like the ones that the team was receiving, why wouldn’t they feel that way? At the very beginning of the baseball year, Hawthorne was on fire. The Cougars started the season by racing out to a seven-game winning streak during which they defeated the likes of Dominguez, Leuzinger and Gardena. Senior Andy Monarrez was the spark, providing most of the offensive firepower for Hawthorne, but junior Kealoha Noguchi and sophomore Danny Villareal added efficiency and depth to a lineup that was producing runs on a daily basis. Once league play began for Hawthorne in the middle of April last year, something happened to the team. A group of guys who seemingly couldn’t lose ran into Ocean League competition and got completely battered and bruised. Two losses in a row to Santa Monica were shortly followed by a two-game sweep at the hands of El Segundo and two more consecutive sweeps at the hands of both Culver City and Lawndale. The Cougars, who began the season on fire, suddenly had gone 1-9 inside of league play and eventually saw themselves in the last place position in the final Ocean League standings. The 2017 Hawthorne team is trying to forget all about last year. The loss of Monarrez is certainly not a good thing for the team’s offense, but there are enough talented young players on the roster to replace his production. Noguchi has already picked up from where he left off last season. A senior this year, Noguchi recorded three RBIs and two runs scored in the opening game of the season, which was an 11-8 win for the Cougars over the St. Bernard Vikings. Hawthorne has also gotten great production out of junior Johnny Pacheco and senior Andres Cordova in the early going. The Cougars will be looking to those two and Noguchi to lead their team through a traditionally tough Ocean League schedule. It’s not where you start, but where you finish in the Ocean League standings. The Hawthorne Cougars have until the latter stages of March to figure themselves out as a team before they jump right into a league play doubleheader against the Santa Monica Vikings. It doesn’t get any easier after that either. In an Ocean League that is truly full of talent, the Cougars are up against the wall. With tons of young talent returning to the team this year, though, and plenty of offensive firepower stepping to the plate, Randolph and company should have no problem improving upon last year’s last place finish. Lawndale High The Lawndale Cardinals are coming off of a season that was very similar in nature to the one that the Hawthorne Cougars experienced last year. After a non-league schedule that saw the Cardinals go 8-4 and included a five-game winning streak, Lawndale simply fell apart. The Cardinals had a similar problem to one that Hawthorne faced in the latter stages of the season. That problem was going up against the likes of Culver City, El Segundo, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica throughout an entire Ocean League schedule. Elite teams like the ones that face Lawndale in league play don’t tend to let up very often. That fact resulted in the Cardinals going 2-8 in league play, with the team’s only two inter-division victories coming in the final two games of the season against Hawthorne. Lawndale is back this season and looking to get better under new head coach Jeff Prihode. So far, the team is off to a shaky start, to say the least. An Opening Day 27-1 victory over Hawthorne Math and Science Academy gave the Cardinals a certain sense of optimism. Freshman Wayne Sales had three hits, scored three runs and recorded six RBIs while hitting a double and a home run in the game. Senior Jesus Sanchez also had a home run that led to a five-RBI day and five runs scored. However, the Cardinals followed their massive victory with five straight losses. The season is young and there is certainly a lot of baseball left to be played. With Sales sparking the Lawndale offense, there is still optimism surrounding the Cardinals this season. Lawndale’s true colors will surely begin to show once league play begins near the end of March. Inglewood High Coming into this season, the Inglewood baseball team had played two entire years of baseball action and only managed to win one singular game. This year’s head coach, Kewatta Wade, is hoping to turn the school’s luck around. So far, he has done a great job. In the Sentinels’ first game of the regular season, the team recorded a 26-10 win over Hawthorne Math and Science Academy. The Sentinels had nine runs in the first inning and 22 runs through three innings. Something seems a bit fishy about that kind of offensive production, but Inglewood has already won as many games as it had over the last two seasons combined and will look to add even more production and success in this year’s regular season. • Los Angeles Rams Begin Building for Future By Adam Serrao After a crazy day in NFL free agency last Thursday afternoon that saw many big names from around the league on the move, the Los Angeles Rams failed to make a huge splash, though they were busy. Last Thursday was the first day of the new NFL year and also marked the first day that free agents could sign contracts with other teams. It’s no question that the Rams certainly have a lot of needs to address if they will look to improve on their 4-12 record from one season ago. The moves that the team has made thus far should improve the roster a bit, but Los Angeles has a long way to go if it wishes to compete in a perennially tough NFC West. Perhaps the most important thing that the Rams could have done this offseason is beef up their offensive line. Doing so would not only help the prospects of last season’s rookie quarterback Jared Goff, but it should also open up a few more holes for running back Todd Gurley. Neither Goff nor Gurley looked particularly effective last year. New veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth will hope to change that. Whitworth, now age 35, has spent his entire 11-year career in Cincinnati clearing lanes for the likes of Jeremy Hill, Giovanni Bernard and others. The first-team All-Pro in 2015 finished second among tackles in the league last season according to Pro Football Focus. Whitworth will now be tasked with protecting Goff’s blindside while also leading the way for Gurley, who will be looking to rediscover the dominance that he displayed in his rookie season once again. While the Rams lost their leading receiver from one season ago, Kenny Britt, they will be giving a familiar face the chance to say hello to the Coliseum again. Britt went to the Browns, but former Serra High School star and USC Trojans standout Robert Woods has left the Buffalo Bills to play on the grass of the Coliseum once again. Woods is still young, at age 24, and should serve as a nice complement to Tavon Austin--but in all honesty, he’s not the kind of player that is going to turn next season around for the Rams. As a second-round pick by the Bills in 2013, Woods has compiled career stats of 203 catches, 2,451 yards and 12 touchdowns. There is hope that Woods may be hitting his prime and could be poised for a breakout year, but the Rams receiving core certainly doesn’t strike fear into any defense in the league just yet. The most important thing that Los Angeles did this offseason was free up some muchneeded cap space. The Rams traded starting defensive end William Hayes to the Miami Dolphins and released veteran center Tim Barnes, tight end Lance Kendricks, and defensive lineman Eugene Sims. None of those were necessarily impact players for the Rams last season and creating more cap room will go a long way toward giving Los Angeles flexibility in the future. The departures of the players freed up nearly $16 million in cap space, which will likely go toward the acquisition of other key free agents this offseason before the 2017-’18 campaign gets it start. The Rams can still use some help on the offensive line, particularly at the center position. As of last Thursday, the only center on the roster was a seventh-round pick from 2014, Demetrius Rhaney. Pahroh Cooper and Tyler Higbee round out the semi-recognizable names on the wide receiver and tight end depth chart, so L.A. could certainly use some more talent there as well. Help on defense at the linebacker spot and defensive line wouldn’t hurt a group that is now led by defensive guru Wade Phillips. Robert Quinn has continued to be the most impressive player on that side of the ball. Phillips will certainly be looking to add more impact players, especially with the possible departure of cornerback Trumaine Johnson looming. Johnson signed the franchise tag this offseason, meaning that the Rams will owe the five-year veteran $17 million next season. That number may just be too rich for a team that has a plan in place to work toward the future. As of last Thursday, Los Angeles had already been rumored to be shopping Johnson on the trade market. The Rams were certainly active at the beginning of this year’s free agency period with more moves likely to come in the near future. What fans need to keep in mind is the plan that owner Stan Kroenke originally had in place when he decided to move the team to Los Angeles. The new stadium in Inglewood is planned to open for the 2019 season. That’s when Kroenke and the rest of the Rams front office hope to field a legitimate team and compete for the NFC West title and perhaps even the Super Bowl. That means, in the meantime, Los Angeles is destined to rebuild. Creating cap space and making the necessary room for young players like Goff, for instance, to get some real NFL experience is currently the priority in Los Angeles. So far, this offseason has accomplished the immediate needs of the Rams. Don’t expect to see next year’s team win a Super Bowl, but hopefully they can finish with more than just the four wins that they ended with one season ago. • – Asixlion@earthlink.net Every Visit our Website www.heraldpublications.com issue always available online! New Issues/Old Issues • Out-of-town? Read the Herald newspapers online • Interested in an article from a prior date? See it online • Excited about an ad, photo, or article? 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