Thursday, April 6, 2006
Page 8
Softball beats
SJCC; falls to
W. Valley and
Diablo Valley
By Naomi Balagot
Staff writer
As the Ohlone Women’s softball team is in the midst of its season, the Lady Renegades look to defend their three-peat Conference
title. Last week, the Ohlone women’s softball team took on highly
anticipated rival West Valley College. The Lady Renegades fell to
the Vikings 5-1.
Overall, freshman stand-out pitcher Isabel Ramos committed to four
strikeouts.
In the bottom of the second inning, Ramos had a momentous outing
despite the loss. Ramos had a one, two, three inning, striking out on
the side. In the bottom of the second, Ramos worked the count full to
one of West Valley’s power hitters, Allyson Carothers.
With two outs in the inning, Ramos got Carothers to strike out looking, to end the inning.
In the bottom of the fourth, Roquel Torres helped her team stay
close, by making spectacular plays on the field in an attempt to help
her team hang on. West Valley stayed scoreless until the bottom of the
fifth inning.
Leading off the sixth, slap hitter Valerie Briones was hit by a pitch from
West Valley pitcher Katie Cotta. Briones proved to be a base-stealing threat,
stealing second and third bases. Briones then later scored on a sacrifice
fly from Missy Cross to score Ohlone’s only run of the game.
“West Valley’s pitching is the best we’ve seen. We’ve already
started to make adjustments, because we’ve grown as a team, and we
know what needs to be done to put the ball into play. We welcome
a challenge, and look forward to a challenge, in hopes of facing
them again,” said Ohlone Head Coach Donna Runyon.
Despite the unpleasant weather last weekend, the Lady Renegades
played two games in a one-day tournament hosted by Solano College.
In an exciting game, Ohlone defeated San Jose City College with a score
of 1-0.
In six innings pitched, Tiffany Chan dominated the mound with
four strikeouts. Valerie Briones was 1-2 at bat, while Tiffany
Chan went 1-3, Briones and Chan collected two singles each.
In the second game, the Lady Renegades fell to Diablo Valley College
7-2. In six innings pitched, Ramos committed to three strikeouts.
Briones and Jessica Soderholm established unquestionable hitting
capabilities. Briones went 1-2 at the plate with an RBI, and one run
scored, while Soderholm was 2-2 at bat with two singles.
The Lady Renegades overall record is 19-8-1 and in Conference
they are 12-1. Weather permitting, Ohlone will take on San Jose City
College again, today at 3 p.m.
The SJCC game will mark the beginning of the Lady Renegades’
final homestand. After SJCC, the Ladies will host Mission, DeAnza
and City College of San Francisco. And then Ohlone will finish the
season on the road against Chabot and College of San Mateo.
Freshman Katie O’Dea and the Ohlone swim team are preparing for the Coast Conference Championship at the end of the month. Head Coach Gene Kendall has high expectations for his swimmers. Photo by Ross Tsvetanov
Upcoming home games
BASEBALL:
Saturday, April 8 at 12 p.m
versus San Jose City College
Tuesday, April 11 at 2 p.m.
versus Mission College
Wednesday, April 12 at 2 p.m.
versus City College of San
Francisco
Thursday, April 13 at 2 p.m.
versus Porterville College
Saturday, April 22 at noon
versus Chabot College
Thursday, April 29 at 2 p.m.
versus Hartnell College
Thursday, May 4 at 2 p.m.
versus West Valley College
SOFTBALL:
Thursday, April 6 at 3 p.m.
Versus San Jose City College
Tuesday, April 11 at 3 p.m.
Versus Mission College
Thursday, April 13 at 3 p.m.
Versus DeAnza College
Tuesday. April 18 at 3 p.m.
Versus City College of San
Francisco
SWIMMING:
Has no more home meets.
Thursday-Saturday, April 27-29
at 10 a.m.
The Coast Conference Championship in Hayward
Thursday-Saturday, May 4-6 at
10 a.m.
The State Championship in
Pasadena
Making your picks; a baseball odyssey
Even though the rain is out there,
it still is April and that means one
thing. It’s time to play ball! Despite
the all the steroid allegations going
on throughout the MLB, baseball
is still America’s favorite pastime
and I’m going to break the divisions down and tell you who will
be standing come October.
Let’s start off close to home
with the American League West.
The AL West will perhaps be the
most competitive division and we
most likely will not see the clearcut winner until late September.
However, it will probably come
down to Anaheim or Oakland. Texas
has the power lineup with Blalock,
Teixeira and Young, but won’t go
very far because of their weak pitching, something both Anaheim and
Oakland do not have.
The A’s made key acquisitions
in picking up Esteban Loaiza and
Swing
away
By Nick
Zambrano
Sports editor
Frank Thomas this off season.
Down in Southern California, the
Angels didn’t make any big moves
and that could end up costing them.
Don’t read too much into that opening day whooping the Yankees gave
them, either. The A’s will win the
West by the closest of margins.
On to the NL West. The NL
West was the weakest division in
all of baseball last year, but this
year will be a different story. The
Giants gave them a run for their
money at the end of last season
but fell short because of their
lack of pitching. The Giants fixed
that and added journeyman Jamey
Wright and veteran Matt Morris to
the rotation. If Morris and Wright
perform well and Bonds stays
healthy and scandal-free, the Giants will win the NL West.
In the AL Central, it will be nothing out of the ordinary. The Central
has always been up for grabs. It will
come down to either the defending World Series Champions, the
Chicago White Sox or the young
Cleveland Indians. The Indians were
the A’s of the Central last season
and lit up the second half and in the
process, almost took first place right
away from the White Sox. Toe-totoe both teams match up well, no
weakness puts one on top of the
other. This is too difficult to call,
but I’m going with Chicago’s boys
of the South Side.
In the National League side of the
Central, it’s St. Louis’division to lose.
Everyone expects them to take the
division, but the way they performed
in the playoffs last year, I have my
doubts. Houston got stronger with the
addition of Preston Wilson, a potent
RBI threat who can give you at least
20-25 home runs. Whoever doesn’t
win the division will most likely win
the Wild Card.
Oh yes, the AL East. Sorry
Boston, but Johnny Damon took
your chances of winning the
division and returning to the
big show with him to the Bronx.
Enough said.
Finally, in the National League
East I like the Braves, with their 14
(I lost track) straight divisional titles.
The Mets may have bulked up their
roster with the likes of Paul Lo Duca
and Billy Wagner, but they won’t go
too far. Like their New York counterparts, the Yankees they buy their
talent. However, they can’t win like
the Yankees.
As far as the playoffs go, the
A’s will beat the White Sox and
the Yankees will do the same
to the Indians in the divisional
rounds of the AL postseason. And
in the NL divisionals, it’ll be the
Cardinals beating the Giants and
the Astros beating the Braves.
That leads to the A’s beating
the Yankees and the Cardinals
beating the Astros in the league
championship rounds, giving
us an A’s and Cardinals World
Series. The World Series...Now
I can spoil that surprise for you,
but it would be cool to have you
hang for the next six months.
So there you have it, my predictions for the 2006 season. No one
is ever completely right, so don’t
come knocking down my door at
the end of October.