March 30, 2017 Page 5 Lawndale Loses Strong Outing from Zambrano By Adam Serrao It’s never easy when you’re the Lawndale Cardinals and you have to open up your Ocean League season with a game against last year’s division champions, the Culver City Centaurs. Despite a valiant effort, that’s precisely what starting pitcher Michael Zambrano and Lawndale was up against. A strong start to the game ended in heartbreak as the Cardinals’ offense simply failed to come alive. With a schedule that doesn’t get much easier ahead, Lawndale is now put in a tough spot if it wishes to compete for a playoff spot this season. As the ace starting pitcher of the Lawndale Cardinals, there is a lot of weight on Michael Zambrano’s shoulders to take the mound every outing and pitch a solid game. So far this season, Zambrano has done exactly that and had another strong start last Thursday afternoon at home against Culver City. Zambrano pitched a complete game while only giving up five hits and one earned run. Unfortunately, the defense behind him was the big question mark on the day as the Cardinals’ bats went cold in the later innings of the game. The game was tied at one run apiece through the fourth inning of play. Zambrano and Lawndale were looking strong before a few key errors reared their ugly heads to bite the team in the back. Senior Leo Cervantes and senior Hermilio Diaz were both credited with errors that led to Culver City runs in the top of the fifth and sixth innings. As it turned out, those two runs would decide the final score in Lawndale’s 3-1 loss on the day. For Culver City, it was leadoff hitter Ryan Weiner who led the charge on offense against Zambrano. Weiner had two hits and one RBI and was also responsible for bringing Jason Zeidman to home plate for one of his two runs on the day. Junior Bobby Capa went 1-3 and accounted for the other RBI that eventually led to Lawndale’s demise. For the Cardinals, not much went right at the plate all day. Junior Jayce Dempsey reached base on an error twice in the game and accounted for the team’s only run of the day. Seniors Leo Cervantes and Jesus Sanchez struggled on offense. Although each player had one of the team’s three total hits of the game, both Cervantes and Sanchez struck out twice to foil any possible comeback attempt that Lawndale could have been planning. Lawndale (2-7, 0-1) will have a chance to get right back into the thick of things as it takes on the Santa Monica Vikings (6-5, 1-0) twice this week before hitting the road for a rematch against Culver City next Thursday. If the Cardinals and head coach Robert Dempsey are looking to make a move in the season-long standings, they’d be best served to do it now while they have a chance against a few of the Ocean League’s elite teams. Hawthorne High Despite winning two of their first three games of the season, head coach JC Randolph and the Hawthorne Cougars have been in somewhat of a slump lately. Three straight losses to Palos Verdes, North High and Santa Monica led right into an Ocean League schedule that is known for not giving any team a break. Luckily for the Cougars, they had a matchup against the Animo Leadership Aztec Eagles before getting right into divisional play. A 4-2 victory at home last Saturday afternoon helped to get Hawthorne back on track in a season that is sure to only get more challenging as it goes on. Things weren’t necessarily looking good for Hawthorne in the early going last Saturday against the Aztec Eagles. Coach Randolph went with a pitching staff by committee that gave up the first two runs of the game, as the Cougars found themselves down 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning with only nine outs left to get some runs on the board. Fortunately for Randolph and Hawthorne, it was in the bottom of the fifth inning that the team would put those runs. Seniors Manny Huerta and Carlos Jacobo sparked the Cougar offense late. Huerta’s double and home run provided the power as the catcher finished the game with two hits, one RBI and one run scored. Jacobo had two hits of his own on the day with two RBIs and one run scored to help propel Hawthorne to a three-run fifth inning. It was in the fifth that the Cougars finally took a 3-2 lead. The team would tack on one more run in the bottom of the sixth inning to bring the game to its eventual final score of 4-2. Now that Hawthorne has had one game to get right again, it will have to stay on track in what is sure to be a difficult inter-division schedule. The Cougars (4-6, 0-1) will get their Ocean League schedule started against Santa Monica before taking on the Beverly Hills Normans next week. Inglewood High The Inglewood Sentinels suffered their first loss of the young season last Wednesday afternoon when they took to the road to play the Leuzinger Olympians. Though Inglewood started the scoring with two runs in the first inning, Leuzinger’s offense simply proved to be too much. A three-run fourth inning and a two-run fifth highlighted a 10-run afternoon in what would be a 10-2 victory for the Olympians. The Sentinels were unable to get anything going after their strong start to the game. Inglewood (2-1) will look to pad its record with games against Centennial and Hawthorne Math and Science Academy--whom they beat 26-10 earlier this season--before beginning Bay League play next week with a two-game set against Palos Verdes. • Ball Doesn’t Bounce Bruins’ Way By Adam Serrao There was nothing sweet about UCLA’s 86-75 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats last Friday night in the Sweet 16. Kentucky was able to advance to the Elite Eight to later take on the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Bruins, however, were left wondering what went wrong on a night that was supposed to go their way and belong to freshman sensation Lonzo Ball. Instead of Ball, it was De’Aaron Fox and the youngsters on Kentucky who showed up in the spotlight as an 11-point loss officially put an end to UCLA’s season. Perhaps the moment was just too big for him, or perhaps the freshman star simply had an off night. Whatever the reason was, though, Ball picked his team’s biggest moment of the year to struggle. Ball finished the game with 10 points and eight assists, but he also had four turnovers and missed five of six three-point attempts while trying--and failing- -to get his team back in the game. In all, UCLA turned the ball over 13 times while being outscored 14-2 off of those mistakes. In the end, the Bruins found themselves outsmarted by a Fox. De’Aaron scored a career-high 39 points to help his team win its 14th game in a row and advance to this year’s South Regional final. “I scored like the first eight points of the game, and after that I was like you know it’s going to be a good night for me,” Fox said. Fox’s performance was the best by any freshman in tournament history and best by any player in the tournament since Tayshaun Prince put up 41 against Tulsa in 2002. Along with Ball, Isaac Hamilton, TJ Leaf and Bryce Alford all scored in double figures. Leaf and Hamilton led the way with 17 apiece, but in the end, Kentucky’s all-around game was simply too much for the Bruins to handle. The loss marked the third time that the Bruins would make it to the Sweet 16 under head coach Steve Alford without being able to advance to the Elite Eight. “We just got beat by a very good team that played very, very well tonight,” Alford said, giving all of the credit to Kentucky. Before the game was played, all of the credit was being given to Lonzo Ball for the season that the freshman had been having for UCLA. Ball has already been ceremoniously placed on the Los Angeles Lakers roster, even though there is still the whole routine of an NBA draft to go through. Though it remains to be seen where the Lakers will have the opportunity to pick, there is no doubting the fact that Ball will be at the draft. When asked about his future with the Bruins after his team’s loss, Ball did not hesitate to make his intentions clear. “That was my final game for UCLA,” he said with the same calm and cool demeanor that the freshman always has on the basketball court. “I appreciate all the fans and all the support.” Alford wasn’t surprised of Ball’s decision. “Guys can make a good living sooner than what it was two decades ago, three decades ago,” the coach said of his guard’s decision. Coach Alford had a decision to make of his own. The Indiana alumnus was rumored to be the front-runner to take over as head coach of his alma mater once this season ended. As soon as UCLA’s loss was in the books, however, Alford shot down any speculation that he would be leaving the Bruins. “I’m absolutely, 100 percent, not going to Indiana,” Alford said moments after UCLA’s loss. “I am happy here. I love it here. We have a great recruiting class coming in and a brand-new practice facility. Obviously, I love my alma mater. But I’m committed to UCLA. I am not going to talk to Indiana. I am staying a Bruin.” The next morning, Indiana hired Dayton’s Archie Miller as its next head coach. Ball’s 4-10 shooting night couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Bruins or for the guard who has high hopes of playing in the NBA. With Magic Johnson and new Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka sitting in the front row, Ball was outshined by Fox, who certainly has expectations of going off of the board early in this year’s NBA draft as well. Coming into the game, the Bruins were the nation’s top-scoring team, averaging 90.2 points per game. It wasn’t only the offense on display by Kentucky, but defense as well, holding UCLA to just 33 points in the first half and an eventual total of just 75. “We really picked it up defensively,” Fox said. “That’s why we won. Not because of our scoring. That team averages like 90 points a game and we held them to 15 less than their average.” Everything was quite average for the Bruins except for their scoring on a night that saw the last team from California get bounced out of the NCAA tournament. UCLA was outplayed in every aspect of the game as Kentucky’s excellent young stars took center stage and stole all of the headlines. Now, the Bruins will head into a long offseason that should see the team bring in another excellent recruiting class. For Lonzo Ball, the NBA awaits. Will the 19-year-old Los Angeles product live up to all of the hype, or simply fade into the background as he did against Kentucky? • – 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? Refer your friends, family and associates to the website, so they can see it too • Want to read the Torrance Tribune or other Herald newspapers not in your area? All available on our website! Check it out! www.heraldpublications.com
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