Buena of Ventura girls basketball coach David Guenther would really like to have a celebration next season when the Bulldogs win their 12th game.
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Cal-Hi Sports Insider Blog
Quick-hitting, behind-the-scenes news and notes from the CalHiSports.com staff, including previews of upcoming content and events.
Girls BB: The chase for 1,000th win
Top 10 Baseball, Softball Ranks
Here’s a quick look at the top 10 teams that will be highlighted in this week’s new Cal-Hi Sports State Top 20 rankings for baseball and softball.
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Softball: Carew Wrap
It took until last Saturday for the annual Michelle Carew Classic softball tournament to be completed, and although both finalists – No. 1 in the state Lutheran of Orange and No. 6 Huntington Beach – did not start their aces, it was still a significant 6-4 win for Orange Lutheran.
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Top 10 Baseball, Softball Ranks
Here’s a quick look at the top 10 teams that will be highlighted in this week’s new Cal-Hi Sports State Top 20 rankings for baseball and softball.
Read more…
Top 10 Baseball, Softball Ranks
Here’s a quick look at the top 10 teams that will be highlighted in this week’s new Cal-Hi Sports State Top 20 rankings for baseball and softball.
Read more…
In our book, no 5th straight no-hitter
Local newspaper and school are counting baseball team with a fifth straight no-hitter, but the Cal-Hi Sports state record book will count the streak as over after 27 2/3 innings.
Sonoma Academy of Santa Rosa is the team in question. Entering its game on Tuesday at home against Rincon Valley Christian of Santa Rosa, it had four straight no-hitters, including three in mercy-rule shortened five-inning games.
It was reported on our site on Monday that there is no category kept for consecutive no-hitters by a team, but that four in a row may be the state record.
In Tuesday’s game, Cal-Hi Sports was represented by longtime correspondent Harold Abend. He initially thought the streak had ended with a fifth-inning infield hit, but in talking with a reporter there from the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat they agreed that it could be called an error. According to Abend, later in the inning there was a roller toward the third baseman in which a bare-handed grab was not made. Both he and the reporter agreed at the time that it was a hit and a tweet was sent out that the streak was over.
After the game, however, Sonoma Academy head coach Dave Cox and the school’s official scorekeeper said it was another no-hitter. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat also since then has decided to go with the school’s official scorekeeper and reported on Wednesday morning that the streak continued with a fifth straight no-hitter in Sonoma Academy’s 3-0 win. In this reported no-hitter, Dylan De La Montana was the one again doing the pitching and at least this one went seven innings.
Abend called the Cal-Hi Sports office after the game and reported that he talked to the plate umpire as well, who said he thought the play in question was a hit and not an error. Abend also stands by his initial ruling of it being a hit.
In the 30-plus years of doing California state records, schools have to be trusted to report accurate records. But there have been instances in which someone like Abend, or Cal-Hi Sports editor Mark Tennis or late founder Nelson Tennis personally witnessed a possible record-breaking achievement. In those instances, it’s always been the policy of going with our own eyes and not the school. It would be the same if there was a reporter on hand from a newspaper or web site who witnessed something that did not match what the school reports. If there is a conflicting total or report, it’s the lower total that is always used.
The bottom line on Wednesday morning is that in the Cal-Hi Sports state record book the Sonoma Academy streak will be considered over at 27 2/3 innings. It doesn’t matter what the school says in this instance or that the newspaper is now reporting it. The school also has reported it as another no-hitter on its MaxPreps page. The no-hit “streak” will continue to be monitored and it will be interesting to see how much publicity it generates from outside the area.
It’s still a great achievement for Sonoma Academy to have four straight no-hitters and 27 2/3 no-hit innings. Can’t question that, but we have a feeling that not crediting a fifth in a row is going to be met with some spirited reaction.
Top 10 Baseball, Softball Ranks
Here’s a quick look at the top 10 teams that will be highlighted in this week’s new Cal-Hi Sports State Top 20 rankings for baseball and softball.
Read more…
Baseball: Team gets 4th straight no-no
It may be at the small school level and most of the games haven’t lasted a full seven innings, but Sonoma Academy of Santa Rosa seems to have set a baseball state record with four straight no-hitters as a team.
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FB: Kern District goes for Shadowman
Bakersfield– (April 13, 2016) – The Kern High School District’s Director of School Support Services, Stan Greene, has purchased Shadowman Pro training systems for the upcoming 2016 football season.
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Softball: 1,000 Wins For Liggett
Carlmont of Belmont softball coach Jim Liggett stands with players sporting t-shirts and with a sign commemorating historic 1,000th victory. Photo: Harold Abend.
Carlmont of Belmont softball coach Jim Liggett reaches milestone win on Tuesday and joins select group of just two others in state history who’ve won 1,000 games in one sport. Many former players were on hand for the 3-0 triumph by the Scots over Capuchino of San Bruno.
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The current moniker for young people that reach adulthood around the year 2000 is “millennials.”
Well, 75-year-old Carlmont of Belmont softball head coach Jim Liggett, a former Triple A player in the Baltimore Orioles’ organization, might not be a millennial himself, but after his Scots posted a 3-0 victory over Capuchino of San Bruno on Tuesday, the elder statesman of California girls softball has reached a millennium after recording career coaching win No. 1000 in a career that began 41 seasons ago in 1976.
The historic win concluded when Carlmont sophomore pitcher Abygail Lan recorded strikeout No. 11 to retire the side and finish off a complete game one-hit shutout.
As the final out was recorded, the fans at jam packed Jim Liggett Field, including the Capuchino fans, stood in unison to give Liggett a standing ovation.
Liggett sits in a lawn chair just before start of game Tuesday afternoon vs. Capuchino. Photo: Harold Abend.
When he walked through the gate onto the field and acknowledged the crowd, Liggett’s girls doused him with sparkling apple cider they shook up like champagne bottles.
“I was the athletic director and I was coaching other sports at Carlmont and the softball coach didn’t want to come back,” Liggett said. “It was similar to baseball, they only had around eight games on the schedule, and it was a great group of girls so I took it figuring it would only be for one year, and now to get 1,000 wins is really something, but it’s always been about the girls.”
Liggett became just the third reported coach in state history, according to the Cal-Hi Sports record lists, to reach 1,000 wins coaching in one sport. The only others are the late John Stevenson of El Segundo in baseball and Gary McKnight from Mater Dei of Santa Ana in boys basketball.
On the all-time list for softball coaching wins, Liggett already became the first in state history to reach 800 wins and 900 wins. No other coaches on that all-time state list have even gotten to 800.
There are other coaches in state history with 1,000 wins or more combining more than one sport, including those who’ve coached boys water polo and boys swimming, such as San Jose Bellarmine’s Larry Rogers, and boys water polo and girls water polo, such as Brent Bohlender of Modesto Johansen. Liggett’s total for other sports added in is not known, but it is known that he has them in football and baseball.
Among the steady stream of well-wishers that came by to say hello before and during the game was one of those girls, Lori (Grech) Martinelli, a shortstop and leadoff hitter on Liggett’s very first team in 1976, and one of the first inductees into the Carlmont softball Hall of Fame.
“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” said Martinelli, who after embracing Liggett before the game and posing for pictures with her old coach sat in the stands with several of Liggett’s early “girls” who are now women in their mid-50s.
Another former player that was not going to miss the festivities was 2007 graduate Ashley Chinn. She was one of Liggett’s best pitchers and hitters ever who went on to pitch at Stanford.
“I made it a point to leave work early to get here because there was no way I would miss this,” said Chinn, who now works for Facebook as a university recruiter. “It’s so exciting for me to be here. I remember being in the circle for wins number 700 and 800.
Chinn also remembers a Coach Liggett that was a little different 10 years ago.
“He’s calmed down a little. I can tell,” she sad. “Back then I cried a couple of times as a freshman. I think the reason (Coach) Liggett has had so much success is because he has a way of bringing out the best in his players, and then attributing that success to them. He’s challanging, a jokester, and he can be intimidating, but at the end of the day he’s our number one fan.”
The importance of the milestone and the fanfare surrounding it was not lost on the current players.
“Before the game, I was a little nervous and we all felt a little pressure. It was on the (TV) news,” said senior shortstop Kelsey Ching, who walked and doubled. “I’m very proud of all his accomplishments and thankful for everything Coach Liggett has done for all the girls that have come through the Carlmont program. He’s very supportive of all his players and cares about us not just as players but as students in our studies.”
Harold Abend is the associate editor of CalHiSports.com and the vice president of the California Prep Sportswriters Association. He can be reached at marketingharoldabend@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @HaroldAbend
