Page 7 - Dinuba Sentinal 3-29-18 E-edition

Sports
“Against good teams you can’t take pitches off, you cant take plays off, you can’t take opportunities off. That’s what we’re working on here.”
- Bryan Patterson, DHS Softball Coach
The Dinuba Sentinel
B1
Thursday, March 29, 2018 High School Baseball
Emperors go 2-1 in Fowler Easter Classic
Dinuba will host Immanuel on Wednesday
next at bats. Guido provided the first base runner for the Emperors after being walked. A line drive by Huckaby then put runners on first and second base. Dinuba then scored their first run of the inning on a sacrifice grounder by senior Mikey Curiel.
Huckaby later came in on a ball driven deep to right field by Dinuba senior Giovanni Olmos. A second base hit by Cortez gave Dinuba two base runners and brought up Escobedo.
After Escobedo reached a full count at the plate Caruthers made a pitching change. The change was to Escobedo’s advantage as he took a first pitch deep into the gap and scored both Olmos and Cortez to give Dinuba a 6-5 lead.
In the fifth inning it was Caruthers’ turn to rally. They brought in the tying run off the bat of Staley, bringing in a base runner on a ball hit to right- center field. Staley later came home on a grounder down the middle by Aaron Cantu that hopped away from Dinuba’s Isaiah Ochoa at shortstop for the go-ahead run.
Now down 7-6 after going three-and-out in the bottom of the fifth, Dinuba needed a stop on defense and, with time expiring in tournament play, more importantly they needed another rally.
Caruthers started the sixth inning with a base hit double to right field. To close, Dinuba put in Curiel at the mound. He was able to get the next batter out at first on a bunt attempt, but the play caused Blue Raiders base runner Damian Delarosa to round third and Dinuba was able to tag him out in a pickle play for the second out.
Curiel then got Caruthers’ next batter to pop up for the final out.
In the bottom of the inning, with time expiring, Olmos was walked to give Dinuba their first needed base runner. He would later advance to third base on another base hit by Cortez.
See Baseball, Page B8
Dinuba track team wins another meet
Emperors will compete in the West Coast Relays at Buchanan on Saturday
Dinuba High sophomore Justin Gonzalez made his pitching debut for the Emperors in Friday’s 10-7 victory over Caruthers during the Fowler Easter Classic. Gonzalez pitched a tough three- and-a-half innings before giving up the mound to senior Rigde Huckaby.
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
It took two rallies by the Dinuba Emperors baseball team to come away with a 10-7 win over Caruthers in their first round game of the Fowler Easter Classic last Friday.
Dinuba opened up swinging the bats and capitalizing on the Blue Raiders’ mistakes to be the first to get on the board.
Emperor lead-off hitter Elijah Mayberry was able to get on base in the first inning with a base hit and then was able to advance to third base on a steal and base hit by teammate Noah Cortez.
From third base, Mayberry was able to come home after a wild pitch left home plate open. Cortez later came home on a sac-fly to deep center field by Dinuba senior Jose Guido to give the Emperors an early 2-0 lead.
Caruthers responded in the second inning by bringing in two runs of their own when a ball driven deep into left field by Blue Raiders junior Jon Sanchez got past Dinuba’s Josh Escobedo to bring in two runners.
After a scoreless third inning, Sanchez would come up with another RBI in the fourth inning, bringing in teammate Imanol Arrendondo on a base hit to left-center field to take a 3-2 lead. A double by teammate Bobby Staley later brought in Sanchez to give the Blue Raiders a two-run lead. Staley would also score in the inning, giving Caruthers their biggest lead of the game at 5-2.
On the mound for the Emperors was sophomore Justin Gonzalez, making his first start of the season. He allowed only two runs after the first three innings. However, after the fourth-inning rally by Caruthers, Dinuba’s Ridge Huckaby came in as the relief pitcher.
The Emperors responded immediately with their first rally of the game, putting up four runs in their
By Rick Curiel
Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
Track & Field
Sentinel staff report
The Dinuba Emperors boys track team captured another meet victory after taking first place in the Sequoia/ Sierra Division of the Exeter Monarch Invitational last Friday. The Emperors finished with 109.16 points, beating out second place Wasco by nearly 20 points. Host school Exeter finished in third place with 86 points.
The boys’ team took home five first- place finishes and three second-place finishes in individual competitions during the meet. Dinuba senior Daniel Martinez captured three of the first- place finishes with victories in the 110- meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles and the long jump.
Martinez finished the 110-meter
hurdles in 15.39 seconds, beating out Zach Hicks of Coalinga and Kalobe Jimenez of Kingsburg. He then completed the 300-meter hurdles in a personal record time of 39.65 seconds, beating second-place finisher Alexis Aguilar of Shafter by nearly two seconds and Jimenez of Kingsburg by more than two seconds.
Martinez won his third first-place finish in the long jump, where he jumped for a distance of 20’6.75”. Dinuba teammate Brian Ortuno Campbell finished in fourth place in the long jump competition with a distance of 18’8.5”. Ortuno Campbell also took second place in the triple jump event. He set a personal record with a distance of 40’3.75”.
On the short track, two seniors made
the top three for the first time this year in meet competition. Colton Martinez took first place in the 200-meters race with a time of 23.51 seconds, a personal record for him. His time was also the third best in the entire meet.
Senior Arnel Bergonia, who has been a part of Dinuba’s 4x100 relay team this year, broke through in the 100-meters race, as he was edged out for first place by one one-hundredths of a second by Christian Genetti of Exeter. Bergonia’s time of 11.70 was also a personal record.
In the 400-meters race, Dinuba had two finishers in the top ten. Junior Diego Estrada and Danny Araujo finished in sixth and seventh place respectively. Estrada finished the race in 55.04 seconds, a personal record for him, while Araujo set a season record
High School Softball
with a time of 55.18 seconds.
Estrada and Araujo also fared well in
the 800-meters race. Estrada finished the race in sixth place with a time of 2:07.40, while Aruajo finished in fourth place with a time of 2:05.46. Finishing right in between them was teammate Leo Jimenez. The Dinuba High senior took fifth place with a time of 2:06.86.
The Emperors also did well on the long track, as three Dinuba runners finished in the top three in the 3200-meters race. Senior Oscar Perez was Dinuba’s top runner in the event, finishing in second place with a personal record time of 10:00.64. Dinuba senior Jaime Cueva finished in fourth place with a time of 10:05.23, also a personal record for him, while junior teammate Jonathan Padilla finished the event in
ninth place with a time of 10:31.55.
In field events, Dinuba High senior Alex Sandoval continued to show he has one of the strongest arms in the Valley by once again taking first place in the shot put event. Sandoval set a personal record by throwing for 50’9”, the furthest throw in the entire meet. Teammate A.J. Rodriguez finished in
ninth place with a throw of 40’2.5”.
In girl’s competition, Dinuba sophomore Yazmine Villarreal Harris again took first place in the shot put event. Her throw of 34’10.5” was over a foot further than second place finisher Marlena Gutierrez of Lindsay. Lady Emperor teammate Felicia Vela finished in sixth place in the event with
See Track, Page B8
Lady Emps start 2-0 in Tulare Western tourney
came through on offense with a bomb of a homer that hit the top of Tulare Western’s maintenance building, which sits a good ten feet back from the left field fence of the school’s No. 2 field.
Also homering in the game against El Diamante was junior Alexa Garcia. Dinuba sophomore Jordynn Acevedo came close to being the third Lady Emperor to hit one over in their opening game, but her ball struck the yellow bumper across the top of the outfield fence and bounced back into play.
In Dinuba’s second game the Lady Emperors played up a division again by taking on Sanger. The matchup with the Apaches came at 3 p.m., and the long break tested the team’s ability to keep their strong rhythm going.
Sanger jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after their first at bats and Dinuba looked to quickly get back in the game in the bottom of the first inning. Acevedo, who was second in Dinuba’s batting order, managed to get on base by floating one over second base for a
See Lady Emps, Page B8
By Rick Curiel
Sports@thedinubasentinel.com
The Lady Emperors’ softball team got off to a hot start to open the Tulare Western Softball Tournament this week, coming away with a 7-0 shutout over El Diamante and a 4-3 come-from-behind victory over Sanger.
Their tournament play began Monday with a 9 a.m. matchup against the Division II Miners. El Diamante entered the game with a winning record of 7-4 but quickly found themselves overpowered by the Lady Emperors’ offense.
After two scoreless innings by both teams, Dinuba put up three runs in the third inning to go up 3-0 and then put away the Minors by scoring four runs in the seventh inning to win 7-0.
“El D is a good team,” said Dinuba High softball coach Bryan Patterson. “They have good pitching and to win that game 7-0 says a lot.”
Lady Emperors’ pitcher Kirsten Martinez allowed only three hits in the shutout performance. She also
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
Dinuba High sophomore Jordynn Acevedo, right, is welcomed home by her teammates after hitting her first career homerun. Her bomber to left field scored two runs to tie the game against Sanger 3-3. The Lady Emperors ended up winning the game against the Apaches 4-3 in what was the team’s second victory of the day. In a morning match, Dinuba also defeated El Diamante 7-0, putting the Lady Emperors in prime position to play for a possible tournament championsip.