Page 9 - Sanger Herald 6-28-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2018
Sanger players make splash in City County All Star Softball Game
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
The game didn’t start well for county.
The city team — made up of Clovis, Fresno, Madera and Yosemite players — served up a six-run blitzkrieg in the bottom of the first inning. Clovis’ Emily Puente sent the ball over the fence in a play that forecast the 37th Annual City County All- Star Softball Game would be a blowout.
That didn’t happen. And three seniors from Sanger — Stephanie Herring, Vanessa Hernandez and Ashley Mata — proved to be a big part of the reason why June 20 at Margie Wright Diamond at Fresno State. Two of them ended up with honors after the game, Herring with most valuable player and Hernandez with the Jenny Eller Most Inspirational Player, along with Tori Mueller from Clovis. The awards were voted on by teammates.
“We got down a little bit,” said Scott Gorton, who coached county and heads Central’s softball program. “But we fought and fought. That ninth inning rally looked pretty good. We played awfully well after that first inning.”
The game had all the drama of a playoff bout between arch rivals. The crowd yelled. A woman
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Sanger's Stephanie Herring bats a single in the fifth inning. The Apaches contributed mightily to the all-star game.
fifth when Clovis West’s Trinity Scruggs ran home, bringing the score to 7-3.
Hernandez continued to show why she was chosen for the team by recovering the ball at shortstop repeatedly and throwing to first to get a half dozen city runners out.
City wouldn’t score again until Bowen’s double in the ninth, and city players piled on top of her to mark the game’s conclusion.
Both teams focused on defense for the next several innings, their players seemingly getting more comfortable playing with entirely new lineups.
In the ninth, county had one more chance, an opportunity to make up for that brutal first inning. When Parlier’s Amanda Beltran blasted a triple and sent a runner home, the crowd, which had been getting a little quiet on the county side, started to revive.
Mata got thrown out, but Dos Palos’ Teya Vincent took second base on a city error. So when Hernandez returned for her turn at bat, both teams began paying strict attention. Hernandez hit the ball so hard on a foul that it careened into the stands back over the net. She fouled three times, each hit appearing to be harder than the previous one. One struck the large metal building just outside left field.
“Come on Vanessa,” Gorton said from just above the dugout. “You can do it.”
She did, hitting a double and sending Vincent home. Hernandez then stole third and Herring batted her in. The crowd, at least the county side, went wild.
Herring’s RBI tied the game.
While it wasn’t to last, both teams appeared happy with the outcome. City got a bit more rambunctious on the field afterward. But such antics were expected.
Edison’s Mackenzie Soper won the MVP honors for the city team, and she and Herring posed for pictures after the event.
Central’s Emily Lynch, who dominated her position in right field catching everything that came her way, said Gorton knew her abilities and where to place her for most effect. “Four years in that position,” she said. Lynch said she enjoyed the all- star experience. “I knew a couple of girls coming in, but it was good (overall). And getting more toward the end.”
Sanger softball coach Erica Pennington took in all the action from the stands. She heaped on the praise.
“They’re amazing,” she said. “It was so much fun — all four years rolled into one. I can’t be more proud of those three. That extra game is just a bonus.
They’re really special girls.”
Mata wanted the win. She said she could’ve had a better throw, a better bat. “But overall, we did good,” she said.
Apache Alina Vazquez attended the game to support her classmates. “It was really intense,” she said. “They came back at the end. They didn’t quit.”
Kristin Herring, Stephanie’s mom, experienced some sadness at the thought that this would be the final game she and husband, Matt, would see their daughter play. “She’s amazing,” Kristin said of Stephanie. “At everything. She’s a great kid and she had a great senior year.”
Herring also won Sanger High athlete of the year, having played volleyball and basketball in addition to her softball duties. She nabbed other awards as well as serious scholastic achievements.
“I’m good,” Stephanie said as people began to leave the stadium. She said she was thinking about food. “I ended (on a) high. I’m perfectly content right now.”
And she planned to eat a burger.
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
in a green shirt behind first base enthusiastically chanted “Sanger Bangers!” after the performance she had just witnessed.
Announcer John Rich spelled out the situation: “We’re all tied up going into the bottom of the ninth inning. It’s an all stars softball game!”
But city wasn’t done, and Edison’s Kayla Bowen, who’s headed to New Mexico State, slammed the ball deep into left field — almost over the back fence, sending home the winning run. City’s players mobbed her.
City won 8-7.
Bowen said she didn’t feel anything special about the hit and thought the wind contributed to its trajectory. She looked a little shell shocked. “You guys fell on top of me,”
she said to her teammates who still clustered around, excited and talking all about the win. Then she thought about the moment a bit more and said, “Twelve years in the making.”
County wasn’t any less amped up. The thrill of the comeback still resonated, and the mood amongst the players felt more like they had just won bragging rights in an epic battle.
“We were the underdogs coming into this game,” Hernandez said in a way that meant her team proved otherwise. Then she added, “I’ve got to push them, you know.”
The comeback started in the third inning when Hernandez and then Herring scored and continued when Mata scored in the fourth. But city scored again in the
Sanger's Cortes returns to Save Mart
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Manuel “Manny” Manzo Cortes said the walk from the locker room to the ring that day in the Save Mart Center eliminated any doubts he may have had before the fight.
The crowd, what was left of it anyway, erupted for the Sanger boxer.
“It felt like they had my back,” Cortes said. “I felt like for the first time I wasn’t alone, that I’m where I belong.”
Cortes went on to beat Leonardo Reyes, nicknamed the Killer, on May 26.
Promoter Rick Mirigian said Cortes’ next fight will be even bigger. Cortes faces Sergio Lopez, 27 of Las Vegas, July 7 at the Save Mart Center. The fight is another undercard bout but is part of what may be the Central Valley’s biggest fight of the year. Avenal native Jose Ramirez, 22-0 with 16 knockouts, defends his World Boxing Council super lightweight title against Danny O’Connor, 30-3 with 11 knockouts.
“This is as big as you get,” Mirigian said.
Mirigian said 71 billboards — including one on Academy Avenue — and more than 4,000 TV spots advertise the bout, which he’s dubbed the largest and farthest reaching sporting event in the region’s history. He said it’s on ESPN in prime time with a potential estimated audience of about 100 million.
And Mirigian said he admires Cortes, a scrapper who trains at the Sanger Youth Center. “The reason I added him was because of who he is as a person,”
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Manuel Cortes fought at the Save Mart on May 26 and he returns July 7, part of the Jose Ramirez title defense.
drumsticks. Shoot, even gas money to our next gig would’ve really helped. And that’s exactly what Manual desires. Some running shoes, some boxing gloves, some gas money to his next spar or training event. That’s what got me.”
Mirigian said he plans to talk more about Cortes in the days before the fight as the fighters train for media and get their official weigh- in. Mirigian said Cortes trained out of garages and even got a tattoo in honor of the guy who gave him a place to train. And he said Cortes helps farmworkers get access to and then navigate the health care system by translating for them.
“You can’t help but admire a guy like that,” Mirigian said. “He brings a lot to the sport.”
Cortes’ sister Lucy Manzo said her brother has been a great role model. She’s the sixth of the siblings and Cortes is No. 4. “He’s always been able to keep pushing for what he wants,” she said. “To go for your dreams despite the odds. He literally fights for what he wants.”
Manzo and their older sister Maria attended Cortes’ workout that afternoon. “He puts his heart into everything he does,” Maria Manzo said as Cortes worked up a sweat in the ring. “He’s really humble. He’s built his career on his own.”
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Mirigian said. “This kid’s just a great story.”
The fight outside the ring hasn’t been simple for Cortes, 28. He comes from humble beginnings. He worked in the fields and said he is determined to make a name for himself in boxing, which has grown increasingly popular in the central San Joaquin Valley.
Mirigian underlined boxing’s new-found acclaim by explaining that he’s sold out the Save Mart three times at about 14,000 seats each and the Selland Arena four times. “It dominates the Valley,” he said of boxing.
Cortes’ last Save Mart bout was an undercard fight to the main event,
pitting Jerwin “Pretty Boy” Ancajas against Jonas Sultan. Cortes fought after Ancajas beat Sultan, when many had already left the arena.
This time Cortes expects greater visibility.
And those in his corner say he’s on his way up.
Nearly everybody who walked into the Sanger Youth Center just before he began working out the evening of June 21 shook his hand. They knew he’d gone from a guy who would take any fight to the guy on the undercard at Save Mart — twice.
The little gym alongside the tracks in Sanger filled with fighters, fans and support crew. David
Valenzuela, Cortes’ coach, talked about the upcoming fight with Lopez and how he felt when the crowd cheered Cortes at the Save Mart Center.
“It gave me goose bumps,” Valenzuela said. Omar Sanchez, whose son Evan is an up-and-comer, translated his words from Spanish. “Even though he is small, he has a big heart. He goes out and fights like he’s a heavyweight. Gigante!”
Valenzuela said Cortes and Lopez bring similar fighting styles and records. BoxRec.com lists Cortes at 5-foot-3, and he fights at 118 pounds. “They’ve taken the hard road, both of them,” Valenzuela said. “It’s going
to be a dogfight.”
Cortes wore a shirt
bearing the names of his sponsors. One of them was Mi Linda Tierra Market on J and Ninth streets in Sanger. Owner Javier Elizondo said he could relate to Cortes. Elizondo, his brother and friends started the band Los Vaquetones Del Hyphy back in 1995, toured the country and developed a significant fan base in Mexico.
“He took me back to my beginnings, back to the time when I wished I had sponsors,” Elizondo wrote in a text. “I wasn’t asking for much. I didn’t expect millions. All I wanted was someone to sponsor me, some guitar strings, some