Mon.-Fri., May 2-6, 202
It turned out to be a relatively quiet week for us but, as usual, there were some points of interest.
Just a reminder of one of life's
most important truths
I forgot to mention that Jacob
and I were riveted last week to
all of the news about the
Los Angeles Rams NFL Draft picks
A "D" grade for the Rams
was not what we wanted
Since the Rams didn't have a first pick until late in the Third Round, it was understandable.
Rams are tied for 8th place
on this list and, hopefully,
moving up in 2022!
The BIG GAME in the U.K. is coming
up next weekend in the college ranks,
Oxford at Cambridge
Spanish Serie A Semi-Finals
will be played on Saturday, May 7th
Here is the line-up of the two games:
Barcelona Dracs (6-2)
at
Osos Rivas (8-0)
Las Rozas Black Demons (5-3)
at
Barberà Rookies (7-1)
I'm not sure that I agree but we
still had tacos for lunch on Thursday
On Friday, I opted to head over to California Lutheran University to watch their last home game of the regular season.
The home-standing Kingsmen were 24-13 on the year and 13-8 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play which places them in fourth place in the conference standings going into this last weekend before the potential start of post-season play.
After this weekend three games against Occidental, only the top four teams in the SCIAC will play in the Conference Tournament. The Kingsmen's path to the tournament was mathematically simple, win at least two of the three games against the Tigers and the season would continue.
As for the Occidental Tigers (12-22-1 overall, 9-11 SCIAC), win, lose or draw, this weekend's contests would see their season conclude.
CURRENT SCIAC STANDINGS
La Verne 17-4 (28-7-1)
Chapman 16-5 (28-9)
Pomona-Pitzer 14-7 (26-8)
Cal Lutheran 13-8 (24-13)
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 12-9 (22-14)
Redlands 10-10 (20-15)
Occidental 9-11 (12-22-1)
Whittier 2-19 3-34
Caltech 2-22 (6-31)
The first pitch of the game
The Tigers came out swinging their bats with the intention of ruining the Cal Lutheran weekend.
Occidental scored three runs in the top of the first but the Kingsmen matched that in the bottom of the same frame.
At bat for the Kingsmen,
First Baseman, Zach Bullard
Hmm, there was a large man sitting two rows in front of me who got up when this 6'5", 215 lbs. athlete got up to bat to position himself behind home plate to take a video of Zach's swings.
He looked familiar.
I listened to him talking to a couple of young men sitting near him and his voice definitely gave him away.
It was one of our former Rio Mesa H.S.
Vice-Principals, Phil Bullard
Phil was one of the good guys that I met in my time at RMHS.
We shared a good afternoon catching up with the warranted interruptions each time Zach came to the plate.
Zach had a solid game played in front of an official crowd of 145 rabid fans who all entered Ullman stadium/Sparky Anderson Field for free as is the custom for all of CLU's athletic events. He went two for four with a double, scored two runs, had an RBI and was hit by a pitch. In the field, the slick fielding Senior had a flawless afternoon.
As for the game itself, it was an interesting, high scoring affair with the Kingsmen getting one step closer to the SCIAC playoffs after defeating Occidental 13-5.
I was really proud of the young Tigers who have 21 freshman and Sophomores on their roster including a Freshman pitcher who hails from the GEMS World Academy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Occidental's Senior pitcher Diego Ramirez pitched a complete game which is strange enough in these days of analytics and metrics. Then there was the rest of Diego's pitching stats for the day that brought his season record to 1-7.
He faced a WHOPPING 47 CLU batters! If he averaged just four pitches per each of the batters he faced, that would be a current day incredible 188 pitches
He gave up 13 runs on 17 hits, had nine strike outs vs. only two walks and hit four Kingsmen hitters.
But he never gave up or showed any level of frustration.
In the bottom of the eighth inning with the score 13-4, the Kinsmen needed to score just one more run to invoke the ten run Mercy Rule and end the game right then and there.
With one out and Cal Lutheran runners on second and third, the Mercy Rule loomed heavily but, to their credit, Oxy would have none of it!
The Tigers drew their infield up and also brought their right fielder in to stand in front of second base in a desperate effort to keep another runner from crossing home plate. The left and center fielders played in their usual areas but without much depth to have a better chance at stopping any potential sacrifice fly from scoring a run. Right field was wide open in this set-up which I found strange since the CLU batter was left handed.
What did I know as the Kingsmen batter grounded out weakly allowing the Tiger defense to assume a traditional alignment in getting the next batter to fly out with no additional CLU runs being notched.
Thus, the Tigers earned one more inning at bat. Their leadoff batter, Antonio Andrade, hit a high acting home run about 20 feet over the left field fence to narrow the CLU lead to only eight runs but that would be as close as they would get on this beautiful afternoon. It was Andrade's second HR of the day.
It was an entertains game with a combined 18 runs on 24 hits including seven doubles, one triple and two home runs. Definitely a good day of NCAA DIII baseball!
On Saturday, these two teams will play a double header at Occidental to end the SCIAC regular season. The Kingmen now just need a split to make the Conference Tournament.
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