Page 6 May 7, 2015 TORRANCE TRIBUNE “The most talked about, hyped and anticipated fight in the history of the sport possibly was a huge letdown.” Douglass M O R T U A R Y “Our Family Serving Yours Since 1954” B U R I A L - C R E M A T I O N - W O R L D W I D E T R A N S F E R P E T M E M O R I A L P R O D U C T S 500 EAST IMPERIAL AVENUE EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA 90245 Telephone (310) 640-9325 • Fax (310) 640-0778 • FD658 Tartars Continue Trending Upward By Adam Serrao Just when it looked like all was lost for head coach Ollie Turner and the Torrance Tartars, the championship coach has rallied his team back to form for a late season playoff run. Naturally, with just four games remaining and a horrible 3-14 start to the regular season, there is much work to be done. The 2014 CIF Southern Section and Pioneer League champs are up to the task. With a 2-1 victory over their rivals, the North High Saxons, last Friday afternoon at Kendall Field in Torrance, The Tartars did their part to not only keep pace with North High in the Pioneer League standings, but to also keep their own playoff hopes alive. In what turned out to be a low-scoring game, it was junior Tyler Masueli who was the hero of the day for the Tartars. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second “Just when it looked like all was lost for head coach Ollie Turner and the Torrance Tartars, the championship coach has rallied his team back to form for a late season playoff run.” inning, Masueli came up with a key hit. A double to right field knocked in Ryan Siebert and Alex Gallegos to give Torrance a lead that they would not relinquish. “It puts us back in the hunt and gives us a chance to make the playoffs,” coach Turner explained of Masueli’s key at-bat and the Tartars victory. “We’ll just have to see what happens the rest of the way.” Masueli finished the day going 1 for 3 with two RBIs. The other hero, however, was pitcher Jacob Vanderlinden. The senior held the Saxons scoreless until the fourth inning and allowed just one run over 5 1/3 innings pitched while striking out three. While the victory was big for the Tartars, the Saxons were able to come away with a win of their own in the first game of the two-game series between the two rivals. The Tartars scored first in the game last Wednesday at North High to take an early 1-0 lead, but Owen Canady relished in his opportunity to be a hero for the Saxons. With the Tartars leading 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, Canady stepped to the plate and came away with his only hit of the game. A two-RBI, walk-off single put an exclamation point on what was an epic final-inning comeback that foiled Torrance’s chances at what they thought was a sure win. Canady was indeed the hero and wound up keeping his team from getting swept by one of their bitter inner-city rivals. The series-split wound up being good for both teams. North’s walk-off win allowed them to keep pace with the Tartars for third place in the Pioneer League standings. Torrance and their close 2-1 victory in the second of the two games wound up having the same effect for their team. With only four games remaining in the season, both teams will have to keep winning in order to keep PROFESSIONAL HEAD LICE HOUSE CALLS Local, Mobile and Discreet All-natural, non-toxic ingredients SAFE for Skin & Hair LETHAL for Lice 323.325.8317 Serving the Beach Cities of the South Bay www.HairForceONE.us Your ALLIES in the Battle Against Head Lice their playoff dreams alive. Torrance (6-19, 3-3) will face off against last place Centennial before they have a tough task ahead in closing out their season against the first place West High Warriors. North (9-10, 3-3) will close their season out versus Leuzinger and a South High team that just won’t leave West alone for the top place in this year’s Pioneer League standings. West High The West High Warriors have been nothing short of dominant all season long. That streak of dominance continued last Wednesday afternoon as head coach Juan Cueva and his club took on the Centennial Apaches. As this year’s last place team, Centennial was completely overmatched by No. 1 ranked West High and the final scores of the two-game sweep showed exactly that. A 13-3 victory in game one where the Warriors scored nine runs in the bottom of the sixth inning gave the first place team momentum heading into game two. In the second of the two games, West came out on fire. With four runs in the first and four in the second, it wasn’t long before the Warriors were headed back home with a 9-0 victory and two-game series sweep. Trevor Mallett blasted a two-run home run in the game and Cody Wissler went 2 for 3 with a two-run home run of his own while knocking in three runs and stealing a base to lead West on offense. Up next for the Warriors (18-6, 6-0) is an epic matchup with the South High Spartans in a two-game series where first place will be on the line. South High While West High made quick work of the last place team in the standings, the South High Spartans made quick work of the second-tolast place team. The Spartans finished off a two-game sweep of the Leuzinger Olympians with an 11-5 victory and a barrage of offense that saw five different players get two hits or more. Ace of the staff Drake Pingel was on the mound for South, so the team never really had anything to worry about. Pingel pitched six innings of scoreless ball while striking out eight batters in the six run victory. The matchup of the year comes next for the Spartans (14-7, 6-0) who have been waiting patiently for their chance to show the world that they are better than the No. 1 ranked Warriors. Not only will first place be on the line, but so will bragging rights as this inner-city rivalry series should feature some of the best, most intense baseball that we’ve seen all season long with various implications on the line. You do not want to miss out on this series. • Visit us online: www.heraldpublications.com The Best Day in Sports That Was By Adam Serrao Almost one week ago to the day, May 2nd represented what was supposed to be the best day out of the year for sports goers. Naturally, everyone will have their own opinion about which sports mean the most, but a day that had hockey, horse racing, basketball and one of the biggest boxing matches of all time (to name a few) has to at least be somewhere high up on your list. Certain sports caught us all off guard and certain sports went exactly how we all would have expected. What mattered the most, though, is that for one entire day the sporting world captured our entire and complete attention. What would discussing last Saturday even be if the biggest boxing match in the history of the sport wasn’t the focus of attention. Naturally, everyone has their own opinion of the fight that took place last Saturday night between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, but to me personally, it felt like a scam. Boxing purists are going to tell you that it was Mayweather at his vintage best. Dancing around the ring, using defense to his advantage, Pacquiao threw 429 punches and landed only 81. On the other hand, Mayweather threw 435 and landed 148. The percentage there lies in favor of Mayweather. That being so, he won the fight, remained undefeated, and cashed in on quite a nice payday. If you look at the fight from a non-numerical standpoint, however, it seems very much like Mayweather and Pacquiao had a discussion about how they were going to dance around the right for 12 rounds, be sure not to hurt one another, and walk away from the MGM grand in Las Vegas with all of our money, laughing all the way to the bank. After watching a fight where pretty much nothing of any substance happened, one would be hard pressed not to think such things. The most talked about, hyped and anticipated fight in the history of the sport possibly was a huge letdown. The only thing that I personally took away from it was that should there be a rematch, I’d rather spend my time doing something else rather than give those two fighters who looked as if the fight happened five years too late another cent of my money. “It’s a good fight,” Mayweather said. “I thought I won the fight. He didn’t do anything. He moved outside. I got him many more times with a lot of punches and I thought I won the fight; I was never hurt.” Yes, Floyd. We know. You were not hurt and you did, indeed, win the fight. Congratulations. The fight itself generated a live gate of $74 million and the pay-per-view take-in shattered the previous buy record of 2.48 million and revenue record of $150 million. The event even brought together two rival networks, HBO and Showtime, who were both live at the fight. Mayweather is expected to earn somewhere near $180 million from the fight that allowed him to do calisthenics for about thirty minutes. Pacquiao will make near $120 million. Quite a nice payday for two fighters who clearly knew what they were getting themselves into. Well, how ‘bout them Dodgers? They played last Saturday night, too, and won, mind you. Joc Pederson hit another home run to continue on with what will most likely be his stellar Rookie of the Year season and newcomer Howie Kendrick’s tie-breaking RBI single lifted the “Boys in Blue” to a 6-4 victory of their division rivals, the Arizona Diamondbacks. The real Los Angeles story of the day, however, was the Los Angeles Clippers. Chris Paul’s best impersonation of Willis Reed was good enough to lift the Clippers to a Game 7 victory over the San Antonio Spurs and see the team advance to the Western Conference Semifinals for just the fourth time in franchise history. “I thought about the team and all the things we’d been through,” Paul said. “I know that if it was any other guy on our team in a situation like this, they wouldn’t lay down. So I just tried to find a way.” Paul injured his hamstring in the first quarter of the game, left the game briefly in the first quarter, but willed himself back into the competition and hit the game winning shot for his team with one second remaining on the clock. The Clippers will take on the Houston Rockets next. Who could forget about the horse races? American pride was ringing far and wide as Bob Baffert’s horse, American Pharoah edged out Firing Line for the Kentucky Derby win. Dortmund finished third. The most exciting two minutes in sports lived up to the billing and now American Pharoah has entered his name into the running for a Triple Crown. Next, before the Belmont Stakes, the 140th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore will take place on Saturday, May 16. Follow American Pharoah on his journey to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. To round out the day in sports, the New York Rangers edged out the Washington Capitals in Game 2 of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs at Madison Square Garden, the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-2, and if you’re a soccer enthusiast, Chelsea won the Premier League title. Another day like this one may not ever be seen again in the history of sports watching. A day where a fight with so much anticipation and build-up takes place on the same day as an NBA Game 7 playoff, the NHL hockey playoffs, the Kentucky Derby and even the NFL Draft is a sports lover’s dream vacation. Sports will, of course, go on and there will be many more interesting events to take place, many of which will be in the wake of this one great day. Last Saturday, May the 2nd, however, was one of the best to be seen in a very, very long time. •
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