The Bluffer - Red Bluff, CA
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/123900
Sports April 19, 2013 Page 7 Varsity Baseball upsets Foothill the .400s like catcher; Garrett Sandow, senior, and shortstop; Evan Sinclair, senior, to drive the teams RBI's there is still room for improvement. On Tuesday the Spartans had a double header against foothill (SRL 7-1, 22-4). According to maxpreps, Foothill is the number one ranked team in the NSCIF this year. The Spartans lost the 1st game of the double header and stole the next game. The Spartans picked up a win against Foothill snapping Foothill's 33 game NSCIF winning streak. The Spartans started off fast in the 2nd game picking up 6 runs in the top half of the 1st inning. Walker Dodero, sophomore picked up the win. Senior shortstop Evan Sinclair had a huge game picking up 4 hits and 2 RBI's. The Spartans play Foothill today at 4 P.M. "I feel really confident against foothill, we're starting to really come together as a team at the right time," said Sinclair. Owen Ritter Staff Writer The Red Bluff High School varsity baseball team has been chugging along the railroad of success. "We've had a few rough patches, but we've been pretty successful," said first baseman, and pitcher CJ Somavia, junior. The team is starting to pick up the slack as they move along deeper into the season. The players appreciate their head coach, Ryland Sanders, for his encouraging words. "He tells us to do your jobs, and motivates with words," said Wyatt Houghtby, center fielder, senior. Coach Sanders helps the team by going over the players performances during the last game and perfecting their flaws in practice. "[Coach Ryland] makes us take practice seriously; there is a lot of running and extra reps," said right fielder, Jaime Gonza- BLUFFER/Ryan Fisher Catcher Chase Root, junior, takes pitches from Coach Sanders to improve himself at a practice last Wednesday. lez, senior. Practice is important in any sport or competition, and without it, performers will get nowhere fast. "Practice allows us to focus on our at bats and muscle memory," said second baseman, Carson Ellis, junior. Each player contributes differently to the team. "I get a few good hits when needed," said Somavia, who has 8 runs batted in and 8 doubles on the year. Although the team has a batting average of .328, which they need to improve. There is confidence in their batting, and with batting averages in with a score of 6-4. The coaches are well liked by the team. J. Howell teaches at EOA. Aubrie Stroman is not a teacher. They have a lot of experience with the sport and help the team a lot with their playing. They also explain the sport to the players. The game works like this: a player pitches a ball to the batter. If the player doesn't hit the ball, that's a strike. If they get three strikes then they're out. If they hit the ball, they run to first base, then second, then third. But, if someone on the other team either catches the ball before it hits the ground or catches the ball and tags the base, then the batter is out. If the batting team gets three outs, then it's the other team's turn to bat. When someone reaches home plate, they've scored a "I have a lot of confidence I our defense, we all make our plays," Zazueta said with a tone that was full of confidence in her team. When asked what players stuck out in her mind, Zazueta thought for a moment and said Haley Harris, senior, and Bryce Etzler, senior. Harris plays infield and is one of the captains.. Etzler also plays infield and is one of the pitchers. Etzler is currently unable to play, as she has suffered from a knee injury. In their games, they try to get the little things done. Other than that, they have no particular strategies and methods that they use regularly. Zazueta plays short- S partan ound off If you could attend any championship sporting event what would it be? Raul Luvian (9) "Super Bowl because I would like to go watch a Super Bowl game." Varsity Softball looks to win with defense Sarah Bartlett Staff Writer The Red Bluff High School Varsity Softball team is participating in a tournament at Shasta today, April 19, and tomorrow, April 20. It started in the morning. The teams that are there alongside RBHS are, Shasta, Foothill, Anderson, and West Valley, among others. RBHS had beaten West Valley at last year's game. "Shasta and Foothill have good pitching," Tayler Zazueta, junior, said. Zazueta also said that all the teams generally have decent pitching. The team had played West Valley on April 9 and beat them " We have a good defense, we all make our plays." -Tayler Zazueta run for their team. Zazueta is confident in her entire team. They have a good defense. stop. She's been playing softball for about 10 years. The team practices Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. They do not practice on Saturday or Sunday. The practice starts at 3:30 pm and ends at 5:30 p.m., sometimes at 6:00 p.m. During practice, they do a lot of hitting. They also practice different situations that could happen in their games. Their hard work and dedication has earned them five wins and zero losses so far in the league, making them currently undefeated in the league. The team's next game will be today in the Shasta High School Tournament. Brose, team look to stay focused, pick Tennis team squeezes up steam with league around the corner a win over 10-0 Shasta Hunter Latham Staff Writer Track is in the home stretch of their schedule. The members of track practice really hard every day (Monday- Friday) unless there is a track meet. Their practicing for track last roughly an hour and a half and is a mixture of tiring and fun. They have only had a few meets so far but their year of track is far from over. Predictably there is going to be a lot more meets, which will also mean a lot more practicing. According to not just one, but many members of the team the girls on the team do a great job. Many of the girls on the track team are strong competitors. For example, not only Lily Brose, but also Adrienne GolfTeam: The golf sprinter Shane Clinton. It was a hot and long day for the team, it started at 8:00 AM, and most people got home around 7:008:00 PM. Lily Brose took home Gold in the 100M and 200M. The varsity girls took home gold in the 4x400M. The varsity girls took home 3rd in the 4x100M as well. The varsity boys took home 2nd in both the 4x400M and 4x100M relays. "It felt really good to run a PR at CV, we need to stay focused on our ultimate goal of going to the state meet," said Greg DuFour, junior. Kayla Thayer, junior, took home 1st place in the discus competition. The team heads to Oroville today for the West Valley/ Chico Invitational. Trials and throwing begins at 9 A.M followed by finals. Mitchell Fox Staff Writer Although the boys tennis team started out the season 1-6 they are just coming off a big win against number one Shasta last Tuesday 5-4. According to the team they don't have a strong lower ladder and they miss Igor, a foreign exchange student who lead the team to state last year. CJ Varner is leading the team with wins so far in the number two spot. "Feels good, most of the kids I have I have played against have been great, so it feels good to have the chance to compete and beat them," said Varner. According to Varner his keys to success are to hit the ball to there weaker hand and to charge the net as soon as possible. . His goal at the beginning of this year was to beat Shasta, now that he has done that he wants to do all he can to help his team go far in playoffs. In the match against Shasta Red Bluff's Thunder Shaffer, junior, Varner and Cory Twitchell, sophomore, started it off with wins in the 1, 2 and 5. Then the Spartans number 1 and 3 doubles team won to shut the door against the Wolves. Shasta was undefeated this year with a record of 10-0. "It felt great to beat Shasta, now we just need to stay hot and keep the momentum rolling," said Varner. The teams next match is Tuesday the 23rd at Enterprise at 3:30 P.M. Spring Sports Update team has jumped off to a little bit of a slow start as a team but is still in the hunt to capture a SRL title. The team is currently in 4th place and only behind 1st by 10 points and behind 2nd place by 3.5 points Top Performer: Peter Hinkston and Kayla Thayer lead in meets. One of the teams strong points are when they do relays. Relay races are when the athletes of the team run down the track and give their fellow member in front of the a baton, which is the queue to start running themselves. They run with speed and determination, if they are doing a relay or not. Their season so far has been good, and their intentions and goals for the rest of the season are high. "My goal for the rest of the season is to give 110% all season and to beat my personal record (PR), said sprinter Emily Ryan. Saturday, April 11, they had a big track meet at Central Valley. At this meet they did really good. "The team did awesome, and the girls did fantastic", said "Down the Middle" Mitzel and Daniel Frantz. Frantz has 2 individual 1st places on the year and one 9th place finish in a field of 120 players in the Jeswit Tournament. Mitzel has been right behind Frantz and has been within five strokes of Frantz five different times. Tennis Team: The Baseball Team: Softball Team: Track Team: Top Performer: Top Performer: Evan Top Performer: Hailee Olga Valladares (10) "NBA finals because the game would be really intense and fun to watch." Tristen Moore (11) "March Madness because it is intense." Mickenzie Perdue (12) "Super Bowl because I like watching football." Mr. Bosetti (teacher) "World Series because baseball is my favorite sport, and I'd like to watch the Giants play in the World Series again." Top Performer:Lily team is in 3rd place in the SRL but is heating up. The team pulled off a Big upset over Shasta Tuesday the 16th. Shasta was 10-0 before facing Red Bluff Cj Varner has had a scorching start to this season winning 8 out 10 singles matches. Varner is also 9-1 in doubles this year playing along side Thunder Shaffer. The basbeall team has had a bumpy start to the season dropping two games to Enterprise but bounced back with two wins over WV. The team also snapped Foothill's 33 game winning streak against NSCIF opponets with a 10-2 win. Sinclair. Sinclair is a catalyst for the Spartans. Sinclair has the 2nd highest Batting average on the team but has a team high 32 hits while leading the team in RBI's and doubles. The lady spartans are back at it again and our on top of the SRL. The team has blasted off to an 8-0 start and 17-3 overall. Nichols. With Etzler out for year someone, Nichols has filled the #1 pitcher roll. Nichols has rattled off eight straight wins and a 9-1 record overall. At the plate Nichols hasn'y slacked off, she has posted a .407 Batting Average and has 11 RBI's. The team has competed at every meet they have been at. The team has had 6 meets so far and has had finalists in every single meet. Brose. The Naval Academy bound senior has picked up where she left off last year at the NSCIF finals winning the 100M, 200M, and helped win the 4x400M relay at the John Frank Invitational. Sports Update/ Garrett Sandow Mrs. Mackey (teacher) "NCAA Championship because basketball is the only sport that matters." Sound Off/CLaire Samay