TORRANCE TRIBUNE March 17, 2016 Page 5 Up and Adam Oakland, page 8 Moreno, Lady Tartars Ring in the Softball Season ON MARCH 17 CELEBRATE ST. PATRICK’S DAY AT THE BOWL & PARTY ALL DAY LONG! FOOD SPECIALS GREEN BEER LIVE MUSIC WEAR GREEN & when you buy one game of bowling you’ll GET ANOTHER GAME FREE when lanes are available For more information please call Charlotte at charlotte@pvbowl.com; or 310.326.5120 By Adam Serrao The Torrance Tartars softball team is back and this year, there is only one goal on their collective minds. Head coach Don Glavich and the rest of the Lady Tartars will accept nothing less than a strong defense of last year’s title. A 1-0 victory in 13 innings gave Torrance the CIF championship after an outstanding 27-9 season in which the team went 9-1 in league play. This year, star pitcher Melissa Moreno and the rest of her teammates are out to improve upon that record and capture back-to-back championships. The softball season is already underway this year and Moreno and the Tartars have already begun to make waves. The most remarkable thing about last year’s Tartars softball team was that virtually every player was an underclassmen. Usually, when you get a player with the advanced skill-set of Moreno on the mound, it doesn’t last long before college comes calling. For Moreno, though, it has been different. She’s been dominating the Pioneer League for two seasons now and this year, in her senior year, she’s intent on making it three. Moreno, surrounded by a team of stars that includes CeCe Da Costa, Jade Arslanian, and Katelyn Christian, to name a few, is back. They’ve taken the field to not only make another deep run into the playoffs, but also to defend their CIF Southern Section Division 4 title that belongs to them from just one season ago. So far in the young season, the Tartars have met their highly placed expectations. A 13-0 win against Harbor Teacher in the first game of the season showed the High School softball world that Torrance is back on the map and has not lost a step since dominating the Pioneer League and the CIF last season. That victory, followed by back-to-back wins over San Pedro (5-0 and 9-1) and a victory over host Redondo Union (7-2) in the Redondo Tournament championship game gave the Lady Tartars the tournament title. Moreno had a remarkable 13 strikeouts in just 83 pitches to bring the tournament title home against Redondo. “It’s getting pretty typical,” coach Glavich said of his star pitcher. “We expect that from her and that’s why she’s our ace.” In addition to Moreno’s impressive performance, Asrlanian and Christian hit back-to-back home runs in the game to showcase the team’s power behind the pitching. In the Tartars first four wins of the season, they have outscored their opponents by a total of 34-3. The Torrance Tartars have what it takes to repeat as Pioneer League and CIF champions this year. Naturally, those feats are never necessarily easy to accomplish, but Torrance has the pitching, the power, the coaching and the experience to make yet another run at excellence this season. There is still a lot of softball to be played, which means there is even more time to follow Moreno and the rest of her teammates in what could be a record-setting year for the local Torrance-based club. North High The North High Saxons are the Torrance Tartars biggest competition this season. Not only did the Saxons give the Tartars their lone league-play loss last season, but they also stole a starting pitcher from their cross-town rivals. Alyssa Loza transferred from the champion Torrance Tartars to their rivals, North High, in order to get a bigger role on the team and become a star in her own right. Loza will anchor the Saxons pitching staff and duel against Torrance’s Melissa Moreno all season long to see which adversary can claim the Pioneer League title for their respective team. Loza’s transfer certainly gives the rivalry between the two clubs some added steam, as if it needed that to begin with. Despite Torrance having one of the deepest teams in California this year, Loza’s addition could be just what North High has needed to finally boost themselves into first place, above Torrance High. North and Torrance will square off for the first time this year in a game that you certainly don’t want to miss on April 20. West High The West High Warriors come into this year’s season having lost their best pitcher of a year ago, Natalie Francis. Even with Francis, the Lady Warriors have been seemingly unable to surpass Torrance and North in the Pioneer League standings. Mailee Newman will take over for Francis as the staff ace this season and look to get the Warriors over the hump that has been keeping them out of the spotlight lately. After coming over from the Bay League, it will only be West’s second season in the Pioneer League, but be assured that the team is firmly aware of the rivalries that exist within the city of Torrance. There is nothing that head coach Jason Belcher and his group of returning players that includes Bella Estrada, Mia Wyatt, and Becca Chung would like more than to ruin both North and Torrance’s seasons. South High Things didn’t look so good for the South High Spartans softball team at the outset of this season. Back-to-back losses to Westlake and Port of Los Angeles gave the Spartans Up and Adam, page 7 Oakland Ready to Raid AFC West By Adam Serrao If you’re a fan of the National Football League and you hear the name, Raiders, you probably laugh. The Raiders have been the laughing stock of the league since they were destroyed in Super Bowl XXXVII by their ex coach, Jon Gruden and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002. Well, you won’t be laughing for long. Now, that’s not to say that the Raiders are going to make it to the Super Bowl next year. That would certainly be a lofty expectation. But it’s been just over one month since Super Bowl 50 and the balance of power in the AFC West has already drastically shifted. Sure, the Broncos just won the championship and as we all know, they’re from the AFC West. Not only has the landscape transformed since last season’s Super Bowl, though, but the Raiders have also quickly gone from dysfunctional, to a power that will now have to be reckoned with. This offseason has already been a productive one for the Oakland Raiders. While General Manager Reggie McKenzie and the rest of the Raiders front office continues to accumulate talent, the rest of the AFC West continues to lose it. Take the aforementioned Broncos as an example. The Super Bowl champions have already lost Peyton Manning (who’s record against the Raiders was 9-2, lifetime) to retirement, of course, but they also lost his backup, Brock Osweiler, defensive end and Super Bowl star, Malik Jackson, inside linebacker Danny Trevathan, and right guard Louis Vasquez, among others. An exodus from Denver has begun just as Manning retired and just in time for the Raiders to take advantage. Denver’s not the only one hurting lately, though. Oakland’s other division rival, the Kansas City Chiefs, lost the best cornerback on their team, Sean Smith, to the Raiders. A move that weakens their enemy while simultaneously making their own team stronger. The San Diego Chargers haven’t lost a great deal of talent this offseason, but while the Raiders keep getting younger, Philip Rivers and company continue to get another year older. Youth always reigns supreme in the NFL. While all of Oaklands rivals are becoming weaker, the Raiders continue to get drastically stronger. “They have a bunch of young talent who’s ready to take the next step,” the newly acquired Sean Smith said of his team. Oakland’s new cornerback continued, saying that the balance of power in the AFC West “has definitely switched.” While the Raiders needed secondary help badly, they also needed help on their offensive line. For that, they brought in this free agent classes most prized possession, lineman Kelechi Osemele. Osemele can play at either left tackle or right guard and is sure to boost an offensive line that could now easily considered as one of the best in the division, if not the entire league next season. Quarterback Derek Carr and running back Latavius Murray like the sound of that. But so does Osemele. “They have a really up-and-coming young team,” he said excitedly. “We definitely have more than enough pieces where there can be no more excuses as far as there being a gap. We definitely have what we need. We just need to put it together, build the chemistry, and execute on Sundays.” One last player who will be extremely beneficial in helping the Raiders execute on Sundays is ex-Seattle Seahawks linebacker, Bruce Irvin. Irvin will pair with young stud Khalil Mack to form one of the most vicious linebacker duos in the entire league. “I feel like we’re really on the verge of really taking off and turning this thing around,” he said. There is optimism in Oakland for the first time in a long time and now, players are wanting to be a part of a team that has the ability to be special. It’s been a long ride for the Raiders. A team that was once tough, gritty and mean in the days of Jack Tatum, George Atkisson, Gene Upshaw and Bo Jackson, went to being dysfunctional, laughable, and a joke of the league. No one feared the Raiders like teams once did. Now, however, McKenzie and
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