TORRANCE TRIBUNE June 2, 2016 Page 5 Up and Adam Dodgers Failing Early Season Report Card By Adam Serrao It seemed like only yesterday that Dodgers fans were clamoring for the beginning of a new baseball season, with hopes of more success for their hometown team in Los Angeles. After all, the Dodgers had won the NL West division for three straight years heading into this season. Nothing was going to stop that from becoming a fourth, right? Well, Don Mattingly hit the road and so did Zach Greinke and with that, a change to the structure of the team took place. The Dodgers, who were once front-runners, winning division titles only to stumble in the playoffs, have now seemingly become a team constantly rallying from behind. A recent winning streak over the Cincinnati Reds and partly, the New York Mets, has padded the teams current standing in the division, but at almost one third of the way through the season, it looks as if getting back to the division winning team that they were only one year ago will be much more than just a struggle for these Los Angeles Dodgers. The first thing that most people think about when they think about the Los Angeles Dodgers is Clayton Kershaw. A perennial beast on the mound, Kershaw may just be the greatest pitcher the game of baseball has ever seen when all is said and done. This year, he is currently sporting (stats as of last weekend) a 1.56 ERA to lead the league, 1,055 strikeouts, to lead the league, and a 0.65 WHIP, also to lead the league. There certainly looks to be another Cy Young Award in the lefties career and maybe even another Triple Crown this year, but Kershaw alone will not make for a great pitching staff. Subtract him from the roster, and you’d struggle to come up with a name who would be the new Dodgers ace. Kenta Maeda had a nice start to the regular season, but teams have quickly begun to figure him out. Scott Kazmir was signed to be the Dodgers No. 2, a role recently relinquished by the aforementioned Greinke, but he has the highest ERA of any pitcher in the rotation. Alex Wood and Ross Stripling have come through for the team at times, but behind Kershaw, this team’s rotation is certainly not of the caliber that is going to win you games in the postseason, let alone get you there in the first place. The Dodgers bullpen has been another area of concern early in the season. If the starters do, in fact, get the team into the later innings with a lead, the bullpen, aside from Kenley Jansen, almost always gives that lead away. While Jansen is dominant, the trouble has been getting the ball in his hands. Only Cincinnati has blown more saves than the Dodgers and Jansen has only blown two all season. The problem really lies in manager Dave Roberts love affair with reliever Chris Hatcher. Every single time Hatcher takes the mound, he gives away a run, yet he still gets the call from the bullpen, time and time again. Hatchers ERA is a stifling 6.05. Only Luis Avilan is worse. J.P. Howell is almost just as bad, sporting a 5.28 ERA. Adam Liberatore and Joe Blanton have been the best in relief, yet seemingly see the least amount of innings. Maybe they should move into the starting rotation, or maybe more people should turn their eyes to Roberts and the way that he is managing, or mismanaging his pitching. As bad as the pitching has been, the offense has been almost just as bad. “Inconsistent” is the main word that accompanies the Dodgers offense, wherever they go. While some of the youngsters, like Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Trayce Thompson have been better than expected, it’s the middle of the order that has had the biggest problem striking fear into opposing pitchers. Justin Turner, Howie Kendrick, Yasmani Grandal and Yasiel Puig have all severely underachieved to this point. Not one player on the Dodgers roster is batting over .300. Adrian Gonzalez is the closest, batting in the .299 range, while Chase Utley, who just stuck it to the Mets, has also hovered around the .290’s. Pitcher Alex Wood has a better batting average than Puig, Kendrick, Turner, Crawford and any catcher on the team whether it be Grandal or A.J. Ellis. The pitching can be the best in the league, but if your team can’t put runs up on the scoreboard, they aren’t going to make the playoffs. The Dodgers will get Andre Ethier back at the midway point of the season, but even Ethier isn’t enough to get this stagnant offense turned around. If the Dodgers want to compete offensively, they need to acquire another big bat before they drop too far behind the San Francisco Giants the standings. The Dodgers currently sit in a battle for second place with the Rockies in the NL West, hanging around five games behind the suddenly revived Giants. The team’s record is lingering right around the .500 mark, which after all has been said, seems to be about exactly what the team is. Average. Dodger fans don’t want to hear it, mostly because they are some of the most loyal fans in all of baseball, but the team that is taking the field right now is not a playoff team. The season is still young and changes could and should be made to the roster, but those changes better happen soon, before the team falls even farther out of the divisional standings and wild-card playoff chase. • Are You Still Paying Too Much For Your Medications? 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Lady Tartars, Saxons Keep on Rolling By Adam Serrao At this point, it seems like nothing can stop either softball team from Torrance High or North High, except maybe, themselves. To make things a little more clear, if Torrance and North keep winning, the two Pioneer League rivals and inner-city competitors would be on a collision course to meet each other in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Final. The way that things look now, everyone may get their wish. After a 14-4 win at Ramona of Riverside for the Tartars and a 4-0 victory at San Marcos of Santa Barbara for the Saxons, both teams advanced last Thursday afternoon to this years’ semifinals. One more win each, and we’ll get an all-Torrance match-up between the two rivals in the final. Torrance got the winning off to a start in their usual way: behind great pitching and hot hitting. Marissa Moreno has been solid for the Tartars all season long and has certainly not disappointed in this postseason. Last week against Ramona, she was up to her usual tricks. 13 strikeouts, including three in the first inning, all with the bases loaded, highlighted Moreno’s affair. CeCe DeCosta provided her usual offensive push to the team, hammering two home runs over the fence, the first of which led to a seven-run third inning for Torrance. “We’re hitting with confidence and power right now,” Torrance head coach Don Glavich explained of his softball team. Katelyn Christian exhibited both confidence and power herself, when in the first inning she hit a home run for the first points of the game, giving her team an early 2-0 lead. “It’s great to be peaking at the right time of year,” Glavich continued. So far this postseason, his team has scored 35 runs while only allowing seven. The Tartars haven’t scored less than 10 runs in any one game in the playoffs. The North High Saxons put up an amazing game of their own last Thursday afternoon. The Lady Saxons have been led all season by ace pitcher, Alissa Loza, who transferred to North from Torrance for the chance to shine as the team’s No.1 starter. Shine she has. Loza proved her worth yet again in the team’s win over San Marcos by hurling a no-hitter in North’s 4-0 victory. If you thought 13 strikeouts was a lot for Moreno and the Tartars, try 17 for Loza, while only walking one in the contest. Shonnie Baker and Abbi Alexander were the usual suspects on offense for North, protecting Loza’s near perfect game with an RBI single each in the third inning to get the Saxons out to an early 2-0 lead. That lead would be padded in the fourth inning when Lauren Sabihon drove in a run. Alexander capped the game off with an RBI single in the sixth for the eventual 4-0 final score. Now that the semifinal table has been set, the Tartars (24-9, 9-1) will advance to meet up with the La Quinta Blackhawks (23-7, 11-1) in La Quinta. The Blackhawks advanced to the semifinals by beating Dos Pueblos by a final score of 4-3. So far in the playoffs, La Quinta has outscored their opponents by a total score of 25-4. North (27-6-1, 9-1), on the other hand, will face off against the Santa Monica Vikings in Santa Monica. The Vikings (15-8, 6-3) made their way into the semifinals by defeating Knight, of Palmdale, 8-2. So far Santa Monica has outscored their opponents by a total of 11-3. The Saxons should be in store for an excellent pitching duel. Be sure to get out there and support your teams to root for an all-Torrance CIF final this year. West High In an attempt to follow in the footsteps of their inner-city rivalry schools from Torrance and North, the West High Warriors unfortunately came up short. With a 10-1 loss at the hands of La Quinta at West High last Tuesday night, the Warriors softball team was eliminated from the playoffs. The Warriors came into their game against La Quinta resting its hopes on the pitching arm of starter, Mailee Newman. Newman, who just one week prior, threw over 100 pitches, again threw over 100 in this game. A reason the stand- out sophomore could have given up so many runs could be because of the workload that has been placed upon her shoulders this year. Either way, La Quinta got the scoring started off quickly, coming up with one run in the first inning, two in the second, two in the third and another one in the fourth. By that time, the game was 6-1 and for all intents and purposes, out of reach. For good measure, La Quinta tacked on another four runs in the seventh inning. For the Warriors, Natalie Davila was responsible for the teams only run of the day. Davila knocked in Brianna Magee to get her team on the board. Mia Wyatt had two hits and Maica Ingles had another two, but the Warriors turned out to leave a total of 12 batters on base throughout the day. Newman pitched all seven innings, giving up 13 hits and 10 runs (six earned), while striking out four and walking two. Only a sophomore, there is no doubting that Newman and the Warriors will be back next season to challenge for the Pioneer League crown and make a deeper run into the CIF playoffs. • School Board from front page Federation was approved by members of the Torrance School Board. The four principals will serve as CIF league representatives during the 2016-2017 school “At the moment Fern Elementary School and Wood Elementary School have requested the program for their students.” year. The CIF describes itself as a “bottom up organization” and its responsible for ensuring that any new rules are fully examined and voted on by CIF representatives before being put into effect. Every CIF-member school is placed in a local league in which the person designated by the school’s governing board represents their campus. “At the league level, the designees enact a league constitution and bylaws, elect league officers and select from among themselves a league representative to the section governing board,” states the CIF website. High school governing boards are granted authority for high school athletics through the state’s education code [Education Code 33353(a)(1)]. This is how boards are required to designate their CIF league representatives. “Each local school district Board of Education or private school governing board will ratify to the appropriate CIF Section office by August 15 of each year, the appointment of individuals and alternates by name or by title who will be school representatives to the athletic leagues for the upcoming year,” states the agenda item. “In the absence of the appropriate filing, all voting privileges for the affected school(s) shall be suspended.” •
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