Page 4 April 20, 2017 Back-to-Back Games to Normans By Adam Serrao The Hawthorne Cougars baseball team has the perennially tough task of competing in the Ocean League. Naturally, head coach JC Romero and the rest of his team don’t have to worry about their stringent competition until about halfway through the regular season. That halfway point has officially come for Hawthorne in the 2017 season and the Cougars are struggling to keep their heads above the salty water in Ocean League play. Back-to-back losses to the Beverly Hills Normans highlight just how tough inter-division play can be for a Hawthorne team that remains winless in league play and only has six more divisional games remaining on the schedule to try and scratch out a win. Struggling to be competitive in Ocean League play isn’t something that comes as a surprise to the Hawthorne baseball team. Last year, the Cougars only managed to win one game within their own league and it came against the very same Beverly Hills team that Hawthorne was just swept by last week. Coming away with a win against the Normans isn’t necessarily an easy task, though. Beverly Hills consistently plays at a level that has the team seeking out a third place finish or better in the Ocean League standings--a division in which the Normans currently hold a first place standing this season. That’s why when Zachary Geller took the mound for the Normans in the first of the two teams’ matchups, coach Romero learned that his Cougars would be in for a long afternoon. Hawthorne wasn’t able to score a run off of Gellar until the fifth inning. It was then that Hawthorne’s do-it-all junior, Johnny Pacheco, came around for his team’s first run of the game. Later in the inning, senior Andres Cordova came across the plate to tie things up after being hit by a pitch. It didn’t take long, though, for the Cougars starting pitcher, Bernardo Robles, to give those runs and more right back to Beverly Hills. Robles would give up three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as Beverly Hills’ third baseman, Grant Gaon, continued to enjoy what eventually became an excellent game for the senior. Gaon tripled and knocked in two runs on the day for the Normans while going two for three at the plate. As the sparkplug on offense, it was Gaon that led Beverly Hills to a three-run fifth inning and eventual 6-2 victory in the first of the two-game set. Hawthorne had four errors in the game, which certainly didn’t help their cause. Game two was much closer for Hawthorne, but unfortunately for Romero, Pacheco and the rest of the Cougars, the outcome was more of the same. Each team scored a run in the first inning, as Gaon struck first again for Beverly Hills--this time against Hawthorne pitcher Andres Cordova. Cordova only pitched two innings before giving up four hits and three runs while striking out two. Pacheco and Carlos Jacobo both came on in relief and held the Normans scoreless from the third inning on. As a team that consistently struggles on offense, the Cougars are lucky if they ever get anything going on the base pads. Last Thursday night, though, Charles Phelps was the one willing his team to victory at the plate. Phelps was two for three with a run scored and a double. His strong offensive effort wasn’t enough to overcome a stronger pitching performance from Victor Noval. Hawthorne went on to take a 3-2 loss to remain winless inside of league play and lose its third game in a row. The Cougars (4-9, 0-4) will continue league play this Tuesday when they take on the Culver City Centaurs in the first of back-to-back games. With only six games remaining in the regular season, Hawthorne will have to start winning now if it wishes to stay out of last place in the final Ocean League standings of the year. Lawndale High Robert Dempsey and his Lawndale Cardinals baseball team were recently able to come away with their first league victory of the season. Two weeks ago, the Cardinals took to the road to take on the Culver City Centaurs in the two teams’ second meeting of the year. While the Centaurs were able to pull out a 3-1 victory in the first game, Lawndale was out for revenge in the second contest. Culver City led the game off by scoring three runs in the first inning of play. At that point, it looked like Lawndale was destined for another horrible loss. Pitcher Leo Cervantes didn’t give up, though. Cervantes eventually settled in and held the Centaurs scoreless the rest of the way while the Cardinals offense finally got going in the fourth. Cervantes and Michael Zambrano each doubled, walked, scored a run and knocked in an RBI to spark their team. Junior Julian Diaz was two for three on the afternoon with an RBI as Lawndale put together three two-run innings en route to a 6-3 victory. The win marked the Cardinals’ second win in a row as Dempsey and company attempt to finish off the stretch run of the season sizzling hot. Inglewood High After beginning their regular season campaign with a remarkable 4-1 record, the Inglewood Sentinels hit a snag in the road when they took on the Palos Verdes Sea Kings in back-to-back games to open up divisional play within the Bay League. The Sentinels were outmatched and overpowered, to say the least. The Sea Kings put up 34 runs across the two games to Inglewood’s meager one. A 23-0 shutout in Game 1 was followed up by an 11-1 route in Game 2 as the Sentinels learned the hard way that divisional play in the Bay league is never something to be taken lightly. The Sentinels will move on and attempt to steal another win or two when they take on the Redondo Union Sea Hawks this week in a two-game set. Is the MVP Race Even a Race at All? By Adam Serrao Now that the NBA’s regular season is officially over, it’s time for an entirely new set of storylines to begin. Not only will basketball fans everywhere begin to focus their attentions on the playoff race, but there is another race of particular importance that has been garnering headlines as of late. This season may be one of the most hotly debated in basketball history as it relates to the NBA’s Most Valuable Player. Four of the league’s superstars are involved in the conversation, but only one can walk home with the hardware. Will it be LeBron James? The Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard may be the best two-way player in the league. Then there are James Harden and Russell Westbrook, who are facing off in an epic first-round battle in this year’s playoffs that will most likely have just a little bit more riding on the outcome than any usual playoff series. In the end, though, there can only be one winner--but when it comes down to it, this year’s race really isn’t even a race at all. There may not be any one player in the league who is better at both ends of the court than Kawhi Leonard. Leonard has led a consistently great Spurs team for years now and has improved his game consistently year after year. In the final five games that Leonard played in the regular season, he averaged 23 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, proving just how much of an all-around player that he can be. When it comes to the national conversation of MVP candidates, though, Leonard simply falls short. As quiet and reserved as they come, Leonard and the Spurs are labeled as boring, year after year. Head coach Greg Popovich embraces that label, as he keeps his players out of trouble and on top of the standings as consistently as any other head coach has done in the history of the league. Leonard, despite his talent and ability (particularly on the defensive end) to lead his team to 61 wins this year, doesn’t impact the game on a national level enough to gain the votes necessary to win the award. There is a certain group of fans around the league whose easy (and lazy) choice to win MVP is LeBron James. Sure, James is always a candidate to take home the MVP award because as he proved in the Finals last year, he is, in fact, the best player in the entire NBA. Unfortunately for James and his supporters, the MVP award isn’t about who is the best player in the league right now. It’s about who is having the best season this year. Westbrook and Harden have both had better seasons than James this year. Even still, that doesn’t mean that either Westbrook or Harden will start next year’s regular season as the best player in the league. That designation will clearly still go to James. In a season when the Cavaliers have struggled down the stretch in the second half, though, it is almost impossible to give the award to James, despite the fact that he is putting up some of the best all-around personal numbers of his career. The Heat, Nuggets, Bucks and the Thunder, to name a few, all have better records than LeBron’s Cavs in the second half of the season. He may be the best player in the league, and may even take home another title at the end of the postseason, but LeBron is not the MVP of the 2016-’17 NBA season. There might not be any more efficient player in the NBA than James Harden. After new head coach Mike D’Antoni came in and Harden switched positions to point guard, “The Beard” has simply been able to do it all. Harden scores, gets assists, and his team finished with a better record than Westbrook’s Thunder. Houston, however, was built around Harden so that he could accrue the kind of numbers that he has averaged this season. The Rockets were built for Harden to succeed and even still, Westbrook has the better season-long averages in virtually every major category this year except for assists (10.4 for Westbrook, 11.2 for Harden). Harden certainly deserves recognition for his accomplishments and should maybe even be in the running for the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award. Unfortunately for Harden, there should only be one winner of the MVP. There hasn’t been a player to average a tripledouble in the NBA since Oscar Robertson 55 years ago. If your vote is for any other player to win the NBA MVP, then naturally you’ll dispute the triple-double as being a major accomplishment. No matter how you want to twist the numbers, though, there is no disputing the fact that Westbrook has made history in a season in which everyone expected the Thunder to fail with the departure of Kevin Durant. Not only has Westbrook willed his team to victory and back into the playoffs almost singlehandedly, but he has made this NBA season one that will be looked back on and remembered as the one in which the Oklahoma City star simply went crazy. One of the main reasons Westbrook doesn’t get his due from certain people around the NBA is because he makes it look so easy. The point guard has been so consistent this season that he has made what was once a spectacular feat look commonplace. Everyone who wishes to root against Westbrook is simply wishing to be different and have their own, unique opinion. But ask yourself this: If your favorite player in the NBA had the same exact season as Westbrook has had this year, wouldn’t you expect him to win the MVP? Unfortunately for fans of the game, you’ll have to wait over a month to see the results of the season-long MVP race when they will be announced live for the first time ever on an NBA awards show held June 25 in Manhattan, New York. Filling out a ballot will certainly be an unenviable task for members of the media who are entrusted to do so this season. Those ballots should be cast before postseason play begins in what is one of the more thrilling MVP races that the league has ever seen. At the end of the day, voters can’t ignore history. That’s Every Visit our Website why Russell Westbrook will be named this year’s NBA MVP. • – Asixlion@earthlink.net 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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